Sextortion: A Growing Crime Against Men

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“And then all of a sudden I got messages late at night with all sorts of threats” said Alex. “Um, things about sharing [intimate] photos about the things we had. And threatening me.” Alex continued “Depression set in. I was so angry at myself. I was so angry at myself and I felt so stupid. That I fell into like such a, um, you know, a trap.”

This participant in our research was a victim of sextortion. A combination of “sexual” and “extortion,” sextortion is when a perpetrator threatens to distribute sexually-explicit images unless a victim complies with their demands. These demands may include money, additional images, sexual favors, and more. In some cases, victims have paid out thousands of dollars in response to perpetrators' threats. In another case, a perpetrator used sextortion to help secure legal rights to a shared home.

Perpetrators of sextortion get access to these images through a variety of means. They can steal or hack into victim’s electronic devices, or record victims without consent. Perpetrators can also digitally manipulate images of victims using AI to make them appear sexual. In other cases, consensually-shared sexual images may be used for sextortion by current or former intimate partners (aka “revenge porn”). Finally, perpetrators can target victims in romance scams through online dating apps.

While many victims of sextortion are women, it might surprise you to hear that this one was a man.

Men and sextortion

In 2023, sextortion of minors was labeled a global crisis by international law enforcement agencies. However, sextortion has also been increasing among adult victims. Though women are at greater risk for most forms of image-based sexual abuse, our research found that men were about twice as likely as women to have experienced sextortion during the pandemic.

Some reasons for men’s greater victimization may include that they are more likely to accept partners in online dating. Men may also fall prey to sextortion in an effort to escape social isolation, which increased dramatically for men in recent years in the U.S. Finally, men are more likely than women to send unsolicited images, which may then be distributed and/or used to extort them.

Sextortion can have dramatic negative effects on victims. Our research found that men and women sextortion victims experienced greater anxiety, depression, economic distress, and physical symptoms than non-victims. Additional work found that more than half of a sample of 215 male victims of financial sextortion reported suicidal ideation. This is especially concerning given that men are at an already elevated risk of dying by suicide.

Given these potentially grave consequences, it’s important to know how to protect yourself from sextortion, and how to support practices that reduce its occurrence.

How to spot and deal with sextortion

1. Do not send images when they are not actively desired. Sending unwanted pictures may be a risk factor for having them shared or threatened to be shared without consent.
2. Pressure or coercion to send images is a signal that you should not send anything. Coercion is a form of violence, and one way perpetrators exert power and control over victims.
3. Chat with people whose app profiles are established, verified, and populated. Young accounts, with little information or engagement, are red flags for financial sextortion.
4. If you don’t know the other person well, reduce the identifying information in your images, such as eliminating your face or head. Research suggests that one of the red flags for financial sextortion is demands for full-body images or images of your face.
5. If you save images on your phone, save them in a password-protected or hidden folder, so they are less accessible by theft or hacking.
6. Support the development of better sextortion laws, including a comprehensive national law criminalizing image-based sexual abuse, and know your state law. See Cyber Civil Rights Initiative’s list of state-by-state sextortion laws.
7. If you are being sextorted, remember that you are not at fault and you are not alone. Stop engaging with the perpetrator and do not comply with their demands. Save all conversations between yourself and the perpetrator and report the sextortion to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or report the crime online.

For additional tips and information, see Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Sextortion Scam Bulletin.