Police Issue Warning Over Significant Rise In Sextortion Cases

Detectives have issued a stark warning about the dangers of online blackmail after receiving more than a thousand reports of sextortion so far this year.

Detectives from Humberside Police are raising awareness about the growing threat of sextortion, following a sharp increase in reports made to their Criminal Investigation Department and Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding Investigation Team so far this year.

Sextortion is a form of online blackmail where criminals threaten to share sexual pictures, videos, or sensitive information about a person unless they pay money or comply with other demands.

Since January 2026, officers have received more than one thousand reports of crimes of this nature. According to the force, these incidents include devices or accounts being hacked, individuals being coerced into sending money or gifts, and perpetrators demanding money in exchange for explicit photos. The cases also involve the use of deepfake or artificial intelligence-generated images of victims.

Despite the high number of reports, detectives fear the actual number of cases is far higher. They believe some victims may feel too embarrassed to report the crime or may end up paying the demanded sum in silence.

Officers describe sextortion as a cyber-enabled crime where victims are manipulated into performing sexual or intimate acts, which are then recorded by the offenders. The perpetrators then threaten to make the footage public or share it with the victims’ families unless a payment is made. In other instances, offenders threaten to create mock-up intimate pictures of victims using innocent photographs taken from the internet.

Police note that individuals often do not recognise themselves as victims, highlighting that anyone can be targeted. However, data suggests that young people aged between fifteen and seventeen, as well as married adults or those in relationships aged between thirty and forty, are often most at risk.

Detective Inspector Steve Antrobus from the Criminal Investigation Department said:

"Incidents of this kind are extremely distressing for victims. It is a cruel crime that can destroy lives, have devastating impact on victims, and make them feel deep shame and embarrassment."

"Crimes of this nature are often hidden, and the majority of suspects can be offending from behind their keyboard anywhere in the world. Making it extremely difficult to trace and make arrests."

"That doesn’t mean to say we can’t be proactive in our efforts to prevent crimes of this nature from happening in the first place though, and the most effective way of doing this is raising as much awareness as we can."

"While we will continue to investigate reports and work hard to bring offenders to justice, we want to do everything we can to find ways of preventing and reducing these types of crimes and providing even better support to victims."

Criminals frequently target people through dating applications, social media platforms, webcams, or pornography websites. They may use a fake identity to befriend a victim online. Police warn that if a person recently met online begins chatting in a sexual way or asks for sexual images, it could be an attempt to use those images for extortion.

Detective Inspector Steve Antrobus added:

"There is often a common misconception that crimes of this nature only happen between young people, and that young people are targeted by those the same age, or significantly older, however, that is not the case."

"Sextortion has no age or gender, it can happen to anyone, but a large proportion of the cases we have seen across our area involve 86% of the victims being male, and 41% of all sextortion offences involve a victim aged between 8- and 17-years-old."

The authorities stress that sextortion does not solely occur between strangers who meet online. Officers are increasingly seeing individuals being targeted by people they already know in real life.

Detective Inspector Calley Murray from the Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding Investigation Team said:

"We also see individuals are targeted by their partners or ex partners, where sexual images, videos or intimate material are used to manipulate, coerce, control, or exploit their partner into complying with their demands."

"If this is happening to you, or you have concerns about someone else who may be experiencing domestic abuse, please report it to us."

Humberside Police are reassuring the public that if they are a victim of sextortion, it is never their fault. They emphasise that victims are not to blame, have done nothing wrong, and should not feel ashamed. The force acknowledges that it can be difficult to report this type of crime, but insists that help is available. Their most important advice for anyone targeted is not to worry, not to pay the demands, and to report the incident to the police as soon as they are ready.