Sextortion Blackmail: What to Do Right Now, and How We Help

If someone is blackmailing you with an intimate video, photo or recorded video call, do not pay, and do not delete anything. Stop replying, save every chat, number, profile and payment demand, and report it: sextortion is extortion under Section 308 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and an offence under the Information Technology Act, 2000. Paying almost never ends it. Our phone line at the INA Colony office is answered 24 hours a day for urgent matters like this, and we help both people being blackmailed and people wrongly named in sextortion complaints.

How sextortion usually happens

The pattern in Delhi is consistent. A stranger sends a friend request or a message on a social or dating app, moves the conversation to a video call, and records the screen while showing explicit content or encouraging the person to undress. Within minutes, the recording is sent back with a demand for money and a threat to send it to the person’s family, colleagues or contacts list. Some follow up with a call from someone pretending to be a police officer or a “cyber cell” official, claiming a case has been registered and demanding money to “settle” it.

Real police officers do not settle cases for money over the phone. A call of that kind is part of the extortion.

What to do in the first hour

1. Do not pay. Paying confirms you are a target. Demands almost always increase.
2. Stop replying. Do not argue, plead or negotiate.
3. Preserve the evidence. Screenshots showing the profile, number, user name, dates and times; the chat export; the payment demand and any UPI ID or bank account given; call logs.
4. Then lock down your accounts. Make social media friend lists private, change passwords, and enable two-factor authentication.
5. Report. File a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) or with the cyber police, and report the profile to the platform.
6. If you have already paid, report the payment immediately on the 1930 helpline so that the receiving account can be traced.

The law that applies

• Section 308 BNS (extortion), formerly Section 384 IPC: intentionally putting a person in fear of injury, including injury to reputation, to dishonestly induce them to deliver money. The basic offence carries up to seven years.
• Section 351 BNS (criminal intimidation): threats to harm reputation.
• Section 66E of the IT Act: capturing or publishing an image of a person’s private area without consent.
• Sections 67 and 67A of the IT Act: publishing or transmitting obscene or sexually explicit material electronically.
• Section 66D of the IT Act: cheating by personation using a computer resource, which covers fake profiles and fake “police officer” calls.
• Section 77 BNS (voyeurism), where the victim is a woman and the recording was of a private act.

The current sections and their old equivalents are mapped in our guide to the new codes.

Getting the content taken down

Under Rule 3(2)(b) of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, a platform must take down, within 24 hours of a complaint, content that shows a person’s private area, nudity or sexual acts, or that impersonates them. Use the platform’s reporting tool first, quoting this rule. Where a platform does not act, a police complaint and a legal notice add pressure. For the reporting of intimate images on major platforms, the StopNCII.org tool lets a person create a digital fingerprint of the image without uploading it, so participating platforms can block it.

When the blackmailer is someone you know

Not every case involves a stranger. A former partner who threatens to share private photos taken during the relationship, unless the other person returns, pays or withdraws a case, commits the same offences. Here the identity of the blackmailer is known, so the complaint can go straight to the local police station rather than only the online portal, and the court can be asked for conditions restraining contact if bail is granted to him. Messages showing the threat are the key evidence; keep them with their dates intact.

How we help a person being blackmailed

We draft the police complaint so that it is factual and complete, follow it up with the cyber police station concerned, send notices to platforms where content has been posted, and, where money was paid, push for the receiving accounts to be frozen. We keep your matter confidential. Where the blackmailer is identified and in Delhi, we assist the prosecution as the complainant’s counsel.

If you are wrongly named

The other side of these cases is people whose photos, phone numbers or bank accounts were used by the real blackmailers. The police trace a UPI ID or a SIM card to someone who never knew it was used, or a person’s photograph was taken for a fake profile. If you receive a call or a notice under Section 35 BNSS, read our explainer on police notices and get advice before you appear. Bring proof of the misuse: earlier reports of a fake profile, SIM records, bank statements. Where arrest is a real risk, anticipatory bail may be needed. Accounts used to receive extortion money are treated like fraud accounts; our cheating and fraud page explains how those cases run.

Where to find us

Our office is at Kashmiri Market, INA Colony, close to INA metro; details are on the office page. You do not need to come in to start: send the screenshots on WhatsApp and we will tell you what to do next. No lawyer can promise that a blackmailer will be caught or that content will never reappear, but early, correct steps make both far more likely.