FTC sues a paid "sextortion help" company: where to get free help instead

On October 13, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission announced a lawsuit against Digital Forensics Corporation LLC and affiliated companies over paid "sextortion assistance services". The FTC alleges the company charged people in crisis thousands of dollars for help it often didn't provide; in all, it says, victims paid at least $60 million. At the FTC's request, a federal court has temporarily halted the activities of the company and its CEO. If you're being threatened, free help exists.

If someone is threatening you right now

Sextortion is when someone threatens to share your intimate images unless you pay. The FTC calls it a serious crime and recommends three steps:

1. Don't pay, and stop responding. Ignore and block the person, and don't give them access to your devices or financial accounts.
2. Tell someone you trust, such as a friend, family member or counselor.
3. Report it to local police and to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324). If a minor is involved, report it to NCMEC's CyberTipline.

Blocking matters: the FTC alleges the company told victims not to block the blackmailer, contrary to the advice of the FBI and other law enforcement experts.

You're not alone. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received more than 75,000 submissions about sextortion in 2025 and referred more than 5,700 involving minors to NCMEC. If it feels like too much, the FTC's Take It Down site lists the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988, 24/7. For adults, the FTC also suggests the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) for free counseling and support.

If the person targeted is under 18

For minors, the FTC points to two services from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC):

• CyberTipline: report the threat or an image at report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678. NCMEC says its analysts can notify the companies hosting the content and keep sending notices while monitoring for its removal, and can help you or your family find support.
• Take It Down: a free service for nude, partially nude or sexually explicit images of you taken before age 18. It creates a digital fingerprint, called a hash, without the image leaving your device, and you can stay anonymous. Participating platforms use the hashes to find copies on their public or unencrypted services.

NCMEC reminds young people that the blackmailer is to blame, not them, and that paying or cooperating rarely ends the blackmail. It suggests reporting the account through the platform's safety feature and blocking the person without deleting your profile or messages. NCMEC can also be reached at gethelp@ncmec.org.

If an intimate image was posted

Under the Take It Down Act, covered platforms such as social media and messaging apps must offer a way to request removal of an intimate image shared without consent, and must remove it, with duplicates, within 48 hours of a valid request. The FTC says removal is free, and the law also covers images made or altered with software, an app or AI.

• Report it to the platform first, often via the three dots at the top right of the post, or through its help center.
• If it isn't removed within 48 hours, or there's no working removal process, report the platform at TakeItDown.ftc.gov. You don't have to include the image, and you can report anonymously.
• If the image reappears after removal, send the platform a new request.
• For adults, the FTC also points to StopNCII.org, a free tool run by the Revenge Porn Helpline that shares an image's digital fingerprint, not the image, with participating platforms.

The FTC can't take images down itself; it uses reports to investigate platforms. Sharing or threatening to share explicit images of a minor, or of an adult without consent, is a federal crime, the FTC says.

What the FTC alleges the company did

According to the FTC, the company targeted people seeking help with ads on Google, YouTube and X, and was behind websites such as BlackmailHelpline.com, DigitalForensics.com, CyberBlackmail911.com and SecurityBreach911.com. The complaint alleges that:

• victims were pushed to buy a "Phase 1" package meant to locate and communicate with the person making threats, produce an investigative report and report the crime to law enforcement, then pressured to pay for "Phase 2" monitoring;
• in numerous instances the work wasn't done: the company often just blocked the person on the victim's social media accounts, something victims can do themselves, produced fake chat transcripts and invented investigative details, and didn't contact law enforcement;
• telemarketers used scare tactics aimed at each person's fears, such as warning a service member of a possible dishonorable discharge;
• the company suppressed negative reviews and generated thousands of fake positive ones.

The FTC alleges violations of the FTC Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Reviews and Testimonials Rule. The case is in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Filing a complaint means the Commission has "reason to believe" the law is being or is about to be violated; the court will decide the case.

Signs of a paid "recovery" pitch

In an April 7, 2023 alert, the FBI warned that for-profit "assistance" companies charge sextortion victims steep fees, while law enforcement and nonprofit agencies help at no charge. Some paid services, such as cease-and-desist orders, make victims feel better but aren't legally enforceable, it says. Warning signs include:

• a company contacts you offering paid help, or advertises sextortion help for a fee;
• you're asked to pay before any help is given, or to sign a contract;
• you're discouraged from contacting law enforcement;
• high-pressure or scare tactics, or claims of ties to government or law enforcement officials.

If a company offers to remove images for a fee, the FTC suggests checking it out first: search its name along with words such as "scam", "review" or "complaint", and skip past paid search results.

Nobody should have to pay their way out of sextortion. Block the person, tell someone you trust, and go to the police, the FBI or NCMEC. Their help costs nothing.