Call or Text: (904) 222-6988
Hours: Mon. – Fri. 9am – 8pm | Sat.–Sun. 10am – 6:30pm
Being threatened online can feel overwhelming. Whether someone is demanding money, action on your behalf, or trying to control you by threatening to share private images, what you’re experiencing is real & unfortunately common. Help is available.
This isn’t your fault, and you’re not the only person this has happened to. Our support specialists are here to listen without judgment, help you cope with the feelings experienced by it, and walk alongside you as you decide on your next steps.
You deserve support, safety, and someone in your corner. We’re here whenever you’re ready.
Maybe someone you met online has photos or videos of you — real, edited, or AI-generated — and now they’re demanding money, gift cards, or more images. Maybe they’re counting down minutes or sending you screenshots of your followers list to pressure you.
This is a crime called sextortion, and you are the victim of it, not the cause of it. It doesn’t matter what you sent or why. The person who is breaking the law is them, not you.
Most of these scams start on apps you use every day. It could be a new follower who seems friendly, flirty, and interested in you. They get things moving quickly, and then flip the script.
If that’s what happened to you, you were targeted by someone who has very likely done this to many others, often as part of an organized scam operation. You weren’t careless. You were targeted.
Every reply — every dollar, every photo, every “please stop” — signals to them that their pressure is working. Paying doesn’t end it. It almost always leads to more demands. Going silent is the single most effective thing you can do.
Take screenshots of the messages, the usernames, and payment requests before you block them. We know it feels better to erase it all, but all that evidence protects you and helps stop them from doing this to someone else.
Use the report function on Instagram, Snapchat, Telegram, or wherever they contacted you. Then set your accounts to private, and consider changing your username and profile photo. This makes it much harder for them to track or harass you. If they come back from a new account or an unfamiliar number, block that one too.
These are no-cost tools that create a digital fingerprint of an image (without anyone ever seeing it or the image leaving your device) so major platforms can block it from being posted. Take It Down is for images taken when you were under 18, even if you’re older now. StopNCII is for adults. Both work even for images that haven’t been posted yet.
You don’t have to figure out the rest by yourself. Text or call us, and a peer who understands will walk through this with you.
You are not in trouble. Not with us, not with the law, and not with the people who love you. What happened to you is a crime committed against you, and no one here will ever ask you why you sent something.
We know the scariest part of this might not even be the scammer. It might be the thought of your parents finding out. Here’s the truth: your parents would rather know and be able to help you than lose you. And you don’t have to figure out how to tell them alone. Our peer supporters can talk through it with you, and even practice the conversation with you before you have it with your parents.
You can also report what happened to you on NCMEC’s CyberTipline, which exists to help people under 18. We can help you with this when you’re ready.
Adults are targeted every day through dating apps, social media, and even professional networks, often by someone who built trust over days or weeks before flipping the script. Many adult victims tell no one because they feel they “should have known better.” But you couldn’t have. These operations are industrialized, and the person who did this to you does this for a living.
Being an adult doesn’t make this legal. It’s still a crime, and you can report it to the FBI at ic3.gov. Use StopNCII.org to block intimate images from being shared on major social media platforms. And if the weight of carrying this alone is getting heavy, reach out to us. Peer support isn’t just for teens.
Service members and veterans are specifically targeted, because scammers know you have more to threaten: your career, your clearance, your reputation. But you should never pay to protect your career. Paying doesn’t protect anything, it just marks you as a target and creates exactly the kind of ongoing situation you’re afraid of. Military criminal investigative organizations handle these cases regularly and will treat you as exactly what you are: a victim of a crime.
If things feel dark, our military and veteran peers are here to support you. You can also reach Military OneSource at 800-342-9647 for 24/7 confidential support. The Veterans Crisis Line is also available at any hour. Just dial 988 and press 1.
You’ll talk to a real person, not a bot. Our Suicide Prevention Specialists are trained in peer support and bring their own lived experience of getting through difficult things. They will believe you.
No judgment, no lectures, no “why did you send that?” What happened to you is a crime committed against you. Our only goal is getting you to the other side of it.
No cost, no wait. No insurance, referral, or appointment needed. You can text, call, or meet virtually from anywhere in the country, or walk into our youth space if you’re in the Jacksonville, FL area.
Your conversation stays between you and your specialist. We won’t call your school, your job, or post anything anywhere. The only exception is if there’s an immediate risk to your safety, because keeping you safe always comes first.
You set the pace. We can help you take the practical steps above, talk through how to tell a parent, a partner, or someone you trust (and even practice that conversation with you), connect you with reporting options when you’re ready, or just listen. Nothing happens without your consent.
Here’s exactly what to expect, so there are no surprises:
Thousands of people are dealing with this exact experience right now, and they are getting through it.
Reports of sextortion have grown from a few hundred cases a few years ago to thousands each year. Behind every one of those numbers is someone who felt exactly how you might feel right now. Trapped, ashamed, sure their life was over.
It wasn’t. And yours isn’t either.
The shame you’re feeling right now was manufactured by someone whose job is making people feel exactly how you’re feeling. It’s a script, and they run it on hundreds of people at once. The victims who get through this fastest are the ones who tell someone, because the moment you say it out loud, the secrets stop being weaponized.
In a week, this will not feel like it feels right now. In a month, it will hurt even less. You will be here tomorrow, and it will be better than today.
Please know that no photo is worth your life. If the panic feels bigger than you can carry, reach out to someone right now. Call or text 988 at any hour. Or call or text us at 904-371-2900 during open hours.
This feeling is temporary. The people who love you would rather know what you’re going through than lose you, every single time.
You don’t need to know what to say. “Someone is threatening me” is enough. So is “I don’t know where to start.”
Our space: 920 3rd Street, Neptune Beach, FL 32266
Hours: Monday-Friday, 11:30 am – 8 pm (closed on holidays)
