If you are being blackmailed, stop communicating with the person threatening you, do not pay, save every message they’ve sent, and report the threats to your local police and — if the contact came by phone, email, text, or social media — to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Blackmail is a serious crime under both federal and state law, and you have criminal and civil options. What you do in the next few hours matters more than almost anything else.
Stop Now: Don’t Pay, Don’t Reply
The instinct to make it go away by paying, arguing, or explaining yourself is powerful. It also usually makes things worse. The FBI’s guidance on financially motivated sextortion is direct: cooperating with the person rarely ends the blackmail, and demands typically continue even after a payment.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. Financially Motivated Sextortion Paying can also complicate a later prosecution, because it muddies the question of whether money changed hands under duress.
So: no reply. No negotiation. No “just this once.” Don’t block the account yet either, because you still need to capture what’s there. Silence, plus preservation, is what gives investigators room to work.
Preserve Everything Before You Do Anything Else
A blackmail case rides on evidence, and the blackmailer is generating that evidence for you every time they make contact. Your only job right now is to save it, not to investigate.
- Screenshot every text, DM, email, voicemail transcript, and social media message. Capture the sender’s profile or handle, the full message, and the timestamp.
- For emails, save the full message including headers. Headers carry technical information like IP addresses and server names that can help trace where a message actually came from.
- Back everything up in at least two places. A cloud drive plus a USB stick kept somewhere safe is enough.
- Do not edit, crop, or annotate the originals. Keep separate copies if you want to mark them up.
- If anything arrived on paper, handle it as little as possible and store it in a plastic bag. Prints and DNA can be recovered from paper, and you don’t want to contaminate it.
Start a plain written log alongside the files. Date, time, channel, and a one-line description of each contact, including phone calls and any in-person encounters that felt threatening even without an explicit demand. Patterns matter. A single vague comment looks like nothing on its own; a log showing escalating contact over weeks tells a clear story to police, prosecutors, and a judge weighing a restraining order.
Where to Report Blackmail
You do not have to pick one agency. Filing in more than one place is normal and often useful.
Local Police
Start here. A police report creates an official record, opens an investigation, and becomes a document you can point to later if you seek a restraining order or file a civil suit. Bring copies of the communications, a timeline, and anything you know about the person threatening you — a name, a username, a phone number, a country.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center
If the threats came through any electronic channel, or if the blackmailer appears to be in another state or another country, file with the FBI at ic3.gov. The IC3 complaint form asks for your contact information, whatever you know about the subject, financial details if money changed hands, a description of what happened, and any email headers you can provide.2Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). FAQ Fill it out carefully; completeness matters.
U.S. Postal Inspectors
If threats arrived in the mail, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has investigative authority. The Department of Justice notes that the Postal Service investigates threats deposited in the mail, while the FBI handles most other federal extortion investigations.3United States Department of Justice Archives. Criminal Resource Manual 1070 Investigative Jurisdiction for Extortion Cases
Talk to a lawyer too, especially if the material the blackmailer is holding is genuinely sensitive. An attorney can communicate with investigators on your behalf, help protect information you’d rather keep out of a public record, and walk you through the civil options below.
If the Threat Involves Intimate Images
Sextortion — where someone threatens to share nude or sexual images unless you pay or comply — is now one of the most common forms of blackmail. The FBI received nearly 55,000 reports related to sextortion and extortion in 2024. Everything above applies. A few extra tools apply on top.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed into federal law in 2025, requires online platforms to remove non-consensual intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes, within 48 hours of a victim’s request. That means you can push for takedowns even while a criminal investigation is still getting started.
Two free services help get images off the internet:
- StopNCII.org creates a digital hash of your intimate images on your own device — the images themselves are not uploaded — and participating platforms use that hash to detect and remove copies. The service reports a removal rate above 90 percent. You have to be 18 or older to use it.
- If the person being targeted is a minor, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children helps get explicit images removed and connects families to crisis support. Reports can be filed at cybertipline.org, and NCMEC’s 24-hour hotline is 1-800-843-5678.4National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Sextortion
When a minor is involved, penalties against the blackmailer escalate sharply. Producing, distributing, or possessing sexual images of a minor is a separate federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A, carrying a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 20 years for a first offense.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 2252A Certain Activities Relating to Material Constituting or Containing Child Pornography If you are a minor being sextorted, or a parent whose child is being targeted, contact law enforcement immediately. Do not negotiate, and do not send additional images.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. Financially Motivated Sextortion
What the Law Can Do to the Person Threatening You
You don’t need to know which statute fits your situation to report — investigators and prosecutors decide that. But it helps to know the law is serious and that the tools are broad.
The statute that covers most modern blackmail is 18 U.S.C. § 875, which targets threats sent through interstate or foreign communications: phone, email, text, social media, any electronic channel. Threats to harm your reputation or accuse you of a crime in order to extort money carry up to two years in federal prison. Threats involving physical harm or kidnapping carry up to 20 years.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 875 Interstate Communications When threats come by mail, 18 U.S.C. § 876 mirrors that structure, with up to 20 years when physical violence is threatened and up to 10 years when the target is a federal judge or law enforcement officer.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 876 Mailing Threatening Communications
The federal statute actually labeled “Blackmail,” 18 U.S.C. § 873, is narrower than the name suggests. It covers only the specific scenario of demanding money in exchange for not reporting your violation of a federal law, and the maximum penalty is one year.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 873 Blackmail Most cases run through § 875 or § 876 instead. The Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951, gives prosecutors another 20-year option when the extortion touches interstate commerce, which it often does when a business or a public official is involved.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1951 Interference With Commerce by Threats or Violence
Every state also criminalizes blackmail or extortion, most treating it as a felony. Penalties commonly range from two to 15 years, with harsher sentences when violence is threatened or the amount demanded is high, and attempted extortion is a felony in many states even if nothing was ever paid. When threats cross state lines, federal jurisdiction usually kicks in.
The federal statute of limitations for extortion is generally five years, but an ongoing pattern of demands can restart the clock each time.
Civil Options: Restraining Orders, Injunctions, and Suing for Damages
Criminal charges punish the blackmailer. Civil remedies protect you. The two tracks can run at the same time.
Restraining or Protective Orders
A restraining order legally prohibits the blackmailer from contacting or approaching you. You file a petition with your local court, attach your evidence, and many courts can issue a temporary order the same day, with a full hearing within a few weeks. Once the order is in place, any violation is a separate criminal offense that can lead to immediate arrest. Filing fees vary, and courts often waive them when threats of harm are involved.
Injunctions
An injunction is a court order that forces the blackmailer to do something specific: stop contacting you, delete images, take down a website. To get one you generally have to show that you face irreparable harm without it — that money damages alone won’t fix the problem. Injunctions are especially valuable in blackmail cases because a damages award after disclosure doesn’t undo the disclosure. Violating an injunction is contempt of court, punishable by fines or jail.
Suing for Damages
You can sue the blackmailer directly. Common claims include intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and public disclosure of private facts, which requires showing that someone publicized a private fact that a reasonable person would find offensive and that had no legitimate public interest. Courts can award compensatory damages for real losses — lost income, therapy costs, reputational harm — and punitive damages meant to punish the blackmailer’s conduct. The evidence you preserved earlier does double duty here, alongside financial records, medical bills, and testimony from people who saw the impact on your life.
If the Blackmail Is Coming From Someone at Work
When a coworker, supervisor, or business associate is the one making threats, extra protections may layer on top of the criminal and civil options above. If the threats connect to a protected characteristic like race, sex, or religion, the conduct can qualify as unlawful harassment under federal anti-discrimination laws enforced by the EEOC. Harassment becomes illegal when enduring it becomes a condition of continued employment or when it creates an environment a reasonable person would find hostile or intimidating.10U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Harassment
If you’re being threatened because you reported safety violations, financial fraud, or other misconduct, federal whistleblower protections may apply. OSHA enforces more than 20 whistleblower laws that prohibit retaliation, including threats and intimidation, and employees can file a complaint directly with OSHA.11Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Whistleblower Protection Program
Money You Paid, or Money You Recover
Two tax questions come up often enough to flag.
Money paid to a blackmailer: the IRS lists blackmail as a form of theft in Publication 547, but for personal theft losses after 2017, a deduction is generally available only when the loss is connected to a federally declared disaster, which blackmail isn’t. One narrow exception: if the loss was connected to a profit-making activity such as a business transaction, the personal-use limitation doesn’t apply and a theft loss deduction may be available. You can only claim the loss in the year you discover it, and only if there’s no reasonable prospect of recovering the money.12Internal Revenue Service. Publication 547 Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts
Money recovered through a lawsuit or settlement: damages for physical injuries or physical sickness are excluded from income under IRC Section 104(a)(2). Damages for emotional distress, reputational harm, or financial losses are generally taxable, though not subject to employment taxes. Punitive damages are always taxable.13Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments Most blackmail recoveries fall on the taxable side, so it’s worth having a tax professional look at how any settlement is structured.
The single most common mistake at this stage is waiting. Screenshots get lost, accounts get deleted, statutes of limitations start running, and the blackmailer keeps escalating. Save what you have, file the reports today, and get a lawyer on the phone.