Sextortion Scam: What To Do If You're Being Blackmailed (2026)

[Irmoron]

I'm sorry this happened to you. Make sure you file a report at IC3 and give them as much information as you can:

https://www.ic3.gov/complaint/

I appreciate it, but you have no need to apologize. I did it to myself. I recognized it from the get go but I missed identified as a bot and wanted to see how it would react. For the most part, it did kinda what I expected. I was expecting to get a link any moment to "see more" or "for her safety" but no, that's when I got a message from the "father." That is pretty much when I was like, huh, I guess this is actually a scam. I'm a father myself, I wouldn't text some guy if he was messaging my underage daughter, I would be calling.

Then the call from the "detective" so I got a little more worried, but couldn't figure out if the person I was talking to is supposedly near me in ND why would a guy from SC call? What really had me freaking out is that there were two cops at my kid's school back home that talked to some people in a couple of different cars the same day I hung up on Mr "detective." But it could have been a coincidence since someone made some unsubstantiated threats to the school district a few days prior, just bad timing I think. No police have showed up to my house, which if this was real I figured would happen pretty quick.

It wasn't until I found this site and others like it, that began to calm down and know for sure it had to be a scam. My experience is pretty much exactly what others experienced except I never gave the scammers a chance to ask for money because I figured it was a scam as soon as the "father" stepped in. I kind of wished I did though, would feel a bit more comfortable I think.

Oh well, learned my lesson for sure. Luckily I used my Google Voice number, so it's easier to mark as spam/block without ever hearing from them again.

[Micbucfan52]

Yes I feel like this people on pof is scamming me a girl who’s profile said they was 27 messaged me and then we started to text. She told me multiple times her profile is correct. I stopped contacting this person and a few days later a man named David called me and said his daughter is 16 and he is going to police. He then said if I pay half of a 450$ deactivation fee I won’t hear from them again.. please help I feel like I am getting to used

[Micbucfan52]

He also told me he will be contacting me from another number Saturday and I better be at a Walmart at nokn to put it on a gdot loadable card or his wife is calling police

[AlanJones]

It's a scam. Follow the instructions in the first post of this topic and ignore all future calls from them.

[Irmoron]

Yes I feel like this people on pof is scamming me a girl who’s profile said they was 27 messaged me and then we started to text. She told me multiple times her profile is correct. I stopped contacting this person and a few days later a man named David called me and said his daughter is 16 and he is going to police. He then said if I pay half of a 450$ deactivation fee I won’t hear from them again.. please help I feel like I am getting to used

It's definitely a scam. Block the numbers and ignore. I just went through the same thing. I know it's very scary, but that's how it works. It preys on your fear this is true to get you to pay and not get in troubl.

A real father wouldn't ask for money. They may cuss you out then head straight to the police.

The next step in the scam maybe a person claiming to be a detective or an investigator to call. Just hangup and block their call too. It's been a week since they tried this on me and I haven't heard anything since I hung up on the so called "detective." The police wouldn't do this over the phone, and you won't know the police are involved until they show up at your door.

Make sure to post phone numbers so others can see and know. I wouldn't be surprised if they are South Carolina numbers.

[Micbucfan52]

It's a scam. Follow the instructions in the first post of this topic and ignore all future calls from them.

Thank you for the quick response I was shocked when it happened so I was stunned and couldn’t grasp the Mans call. I was dumbfounded cause the guy was obliviously black and the fake person I talked to was white

[Micbucfan52]

Yes I feel like this people on pof is scamming me a girl who’s profile said they was 27 messaged me and then we started to text. She told me multiple times her profile is correct. I stopped contacting this person and a few days later a man named David called me and said his daughter is 16 and he is going to police. He then said if I pay half of a 450$ deactivation fee I won’t hear from them again.. please help I feel like I am getting to used

It's definitely a scam. Block the numbers and ignore. I just went through the same thing. I know it's very scary, but that's how it works. It preys on your fear this is true to get you to pay and not get in troubl.

A real father wouldn't ask for money. They may cuss you out then head straight to the police.

The next step in the scam maybe a person claiming to be a detective or an investigator to call. Just hangup and block their call too. It's been a week since they tried this on me and I haven't heard anything since I hung up on the so called "detective." The police wouldn't do this over the phone, and you won't know the police are involved until they show up at your door.

Make sure to post phone numbers so others can see and know. I wouldn't be surprised if they are South Carolina numbers.

The number was (423) 226-2823

[Micbucfan52]

It's a scam. Follow the instructions in the first post of this topic and ignore all future calls from them.

Am I supposed to send what I said here to the Internet crimes place complaint?

[Terminator5]

Blackmail / Extortion / Sextortion . Anonymous Victim Assistance .
http://www.connectsafely.org/faq-on-sex ... extortion/

Reporting Blackmail / Sextortion Scams and Fake Drug Purchase Blackmail Scams
https://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

[Exposethescammers]

Sorry for the long post.

I messaged a girl on okcupid 2 days ago. Her profile said she was 19 years old. I sent her a message saying "Hey, how's your night going?" to which she replied with small talk and then her phone number asking me to text her.

I text her and after a couple of minutes of small talk she said said she had some newer pictures if I wanted to see them. There was no indicator that these would be inappropriate, so I said sure, why not? She sends me two pictures of her in her underwear and asks for a picture of me. After these I asked again how old she was and she said she was 19. Foolishly I sent a full body clothed shot and she asked for something more interesting. I regret it, but I sent a d*ck pic to which she replied with full nudes. I then said "you're sexy, I'm tempted to ask you to meet up".

After this she stopped sending any messages and I sent a few more messages asking if she was still there, and gave up and told her to lose my number then I deleted her messages. The next evening I start receiving calls while I was at work from a number I didn't recognize, and also from her number. I ignored them due to being at work, but never got any texts or voicemails. A couple of hours later I get another call and answer it and the person said he was Investigator Dylan Harper from the VA State Police and immediately asked for my name and phone number. I replied with "if you're calling me you should already have my information". He said that he had been contacted by a gentleman saying that I had sent his 16 year old daughter nude photographs and I was in possession of child pornography of his daughter. He said I could be facing charges of possession of child pornography, exposing myself to a minor, and soliciting a minor for sex.

He then explained to me that the father, Mr. Knight, hadn't yet filed charges against me and had asked if I'd be willing to speak with him on the phone. I was pretty freaked out at this point so I agreed. He ended the call with me and said I'd be hearing from the girl's father shortly. Around a half hour to an hour later I get a call from the girl's phone number from presumably the father. He spoke in a fairly southern accent, but that's not uncommon where I live and he referred to me as "sir" and "son" quite a bit. He told me that he knew I had been texting inappropriately with his 16 year old daughter and that his wife is ready to have me locked up, but him being a God fearing man he wanted to hear my side.

I apologized and told my side of the story telling him that I had no idea his daughter was underage and practically begged him to not press charges. He eventually offered the idea of me paying the cost of damages that occurred to his home and belongings when his daughter flipped out. Among those were a cell phone, a laptop, and various damages to doors, etc... He said he would discuss with his wife and call back.

10-15 minutes went by and he calls back and said his wife agreed to not press charges if I would pay $1200 for her laptop and agree to never contact his family again. I agreed to that and he said he'd call me this morning to arrange payment after he had spoken to a family friend to see if they'd receive payment since he didn't want me to have his personal info.

This morning I received a call and text message from the daughter's number saying that I should call him ASAP to "discuss the matter at hand". I had come across this thread last night and decided to ignore him. About an hour later I get another text saying that he and his wife would be filing charges and that I wasn't the honest man he thought I was. A little while later I got a few calls from another number I didn't recognize and didn't answer.

The numbers I've been contacted from are:
540-242-1529 (Investigator Dylan Harper)
540-407-8192 (the daughter's number/Mr. Knight)
540-251-2864 (4 missed calls back to back that I didn't answer and may or may not be related to this)

I attempted to reverse search the phone numbers, but didn't get very far with that. Later today I asked a friend to call the numbers and the Investigator number went straight to a generic voicemail, the daughter's phone number went to a recording saying "thank you" and beeping, and the unknown number went straight to just beeping. I'm pretty sure this whole mess is a scam, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit on-edge and anxious about it.

Since this morning, I haven't received any other calls or texts and I've updated my social media privacy settings and deleted my online dating accounts. I plan to further ignore any calls and texts that I don't recognize.

I just had literally the exact same thing happen to me. Same situation on OKC, think southern accents, same quotes and phrases and same names even. I want to thank yourself and Byron, because without stumbling on to this page after searching Dylan Harper i would be freakin out right now cause this shit scared the heck outa me at first. I only received her picture never sent inappropriate pictures myself, but I assumed I was talking to an adult so I did use some graphic language and direction for her.

301-357-8684 is the "daughter"/ James Knights phone numer
539-777-6083 is Dylan Harpers number

I thought this seemed fishy from the start so i downloaded a call recorder and have all communications recorded as well, and after listening to them back again Im pretty positive the scammer playing Mr Knight and Dylan Harper was the same person.
And Im not sure if this helps or is anything but when listening ti the calls again I noticed pauses where you could hear what sounded like a recorder in the background very faint with voices being fast forwarded or rewinded.

I blocked both of their numbers, but this just happened this morning so I cant say the ultimate outcome yet, whether they give up or keep trying to extort money from me.

[Terminator5]

Scam . Don't pay these cockroaches anything . Report this scam on the IC3 Website .

[TyTy2828]

I wanted to share my similar experience that just happened yesterday into today. I met a girl on plentyoffish.com (POF) and started messaging. Now I'm fairly aware of online dating scams so when she asked to exchange numbers right away I could tell this was strange. Within no time after texting she asks for a "contact photo" to add to her phone. Í provided the same photo that I use on my POF account. I requested one back and right away it was somewhat graphic. At this point I essentially knew this was a B.S. individual. She proceeded to send 3 or 4 additional nude photos, then asked me to send her nude photos back. I only sent a shirtless photo, no face and left my tattoo out because of my suspicions. She basically demanded more graphic photos and at that point I stopped messaging her.

The next day I received a call from a male which I ignored (they didn't leave a voicemail) and then immediately received a text stating he was her father, had found the photos, said she is underage and was going to show the police and press charges. I called back during my lunch break (what a waste of time) and the deep south-sounding male continued the same flawed B.S. story. I laughed, told him to essentially f*** off. He made repetitive threats to go to the police and hung up. He then called me 15 minutes later asking me if i wanted the police involved or if I was willing to "swallow my pride", admit I did wrong and find "another way" to reconcile the situation. This clearly was leading to the whole "I'm extorting you for money" scam.

Now, my father was a police officer and I learned a thing or two about the judicial process. This guy was an idiot and couldn't corroborate any of his statements when I asked him what exactly he knew about me, where I lived, what the laws state regarding minors, online dating services, etc. By the way, this "girl" used AWFUL punctuation, spelling and kept calling me "hun" right from the first message. That's... not normal.

Point of the story is they're full of it and it's a scam. Don't send money, block any communications they use to contact you and learn from it. I probably shouldn't have mocked the scammer so much but I couldn't help but laugh and feel sad for him.

[Terminator5]

Well we're glad you warned . Definitely the same scam

By the way, this "girl" used AWFUL punctuation, spelling and kept calling me "hun" right from the first message. That's... not normal.

The awful punctuation , spelling and grammar are due to the fact that these scammers are probably west african and probably men , not a girl or woman . Some ugly hairy dude sitting in a cybercafe in Lagos probably .
Can you private message a link to the FAKE PROFILE they're using ?

Thx

[TyTy2828]

The profile was taken down by the time I could check it again but the phone number they used was 4242002383 which is out of California.

[Terminator5]

Thank you for posting your experiences to Scamwarners . Your post will help warn other potential victims of this Blackmail / Extortion Scam .

Be sure to file a report on the IC3 Website .