What to do if you receive a sextortion email

If you've received one of these emails, you're not alone. Sextortion emails are sent in enormous quantities — hundreds of thousands of people receive them every year. They are designed to cause maximum anxiety and panic in order to extract payment quickly, before the recipient has time to think clearly.

Reading this guide is already the right move. Take a breath. This page will explain what's happening and what to do next.

What a sextortion email typically claims

Most sextortion emails follow a similar script. The sender claims to have installed spyware or malware on your device. They say they've been recording you through your webcam while you visited adult websites. They claim to have a "split screen" video — your face alongside what you were viewing — and they threaten to send it to your contacts, family, or employer unless you pay a fee within a tight deadline, usually 24–72 hours.

The payment demand is almost always in Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, precisely because it's harder to trace and reverse.

Some versions of the email include a password you've used before, or a partial phone number. This is designed to convince you the threat is real. The password came from a data breach — publicly available lists of leaked credentials that criminals buy and use in bulk. It does not mean anyone has access to your device.

Why the threat is almost certainly a bluff

Genuine webcam access and screen recording requires sophisticated malware to be installed on your specific device. This is technically possible, but it's not how these emails work. The sextortion email model is a numbers game — send the same threatening email to a million people, a small percentage panic and pay, everyone else deletes it.

If scammers genuinely had footage of everyone they emailed, they would have no need to send bulk messages. They'd send targeted, specific threats — naming your contacts, describing what they have, showing a still from the footage. The generic, templated nature of these emails is itself evidence that the threat isn't real.

The presence of one of your passwords is alarming but explainable. Billions of email address and password combinations from past data breaches are freely available. Criminals use these lists to make generic sextortion emails feel personalised. Check haveibeenpwned.com to see which breaches included your email address — and change any passwords you still use.

What to do right now

If the email includes one of your passwords

This is the detail that makes sextortion emails feel genuinely frightening, and it's worth addressing directly. That password almost certainly came from a data breach at a website you used — not from anyone accessing your device.

Go to haveibeenpwned.com and enter your email address. It will show you which known data breaches included your information. The password in the sextortion email will match one of those breaches.

Change the password on any accounts where you still use it. Use a different password for every account — a password manager makes this much easier.

What not to do

Do not pay. This is the most important thing. Even if you pay, there is no guarantee the sender will delete anything — and your payment signals that you are willing to pay, which typically results in further demands. In the vast majority of cases, paying simply sends money to criminals with no benefit to you.

Do not engage or try to reason with the sender. Do not threaten to report them in your reply. Do not tell them you're going to the police — just go.

Do not cover your webcam as a reaction (though it's a sensible general habit). The threat isn't typically coming from your camera — it's a bluff designed to make you act without thinking.

If there is a specific, credible threat

Occasionally sextortion threats are genuine — real imagery exists and the threat is credible and targeted. If that is your situation, this is different from a generic bulk email.

Contact your local police station. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) at iwf.org.uk can help if content has already been shared online and you need it taken down. The Revenge Porn Helpline at revengepornhelpline.org.uk offers free, confidential support specifically for people affected by non-consensual sharing of intimate images.

Frequently asked questions