Someone is blackmailing me with intimate images: sextortion in France

Someone is threatening to share your intimate photos or videos unless you pay. You are scared, ashamed and unsure who to tell. Sextortion is a criminal offence in France, and you are the victim. Nothing you sent or showed makes you guilty. A lawyer can listen to you in 20 minutes on Avocat20min.fr.

This article starts with what to do right now. It then explains French law, how to file a complaint and how to get images taken down.

First steps, in order

Sextortion plays on panic. Take a few minutes, then follow these steps:

1. Do not pay. Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr, the French government's cyber-victim service, is clear: paying almost never ends the blackmail. The blackmailer comes back for more.
2. Do not send any more images. They will ask for more, and each one gives them extra leverage.
3. Stop replying, then block them. Replying shows you are worried and raises the pressure.
4. Keep the evidence before blocking: screenshots of the messages, the username, the profile link, the wallet or payment details demanded, dates and times.
5. Lock down your accounts. Make your social media private and hide your list of followers.
6. Warn people close to you if the blackmailer knows them: tell them not to open or share anything.
7. Talk to someone. The 3018 and 116 006 helplines answer free of charge, without judgement.

If you feel in immediate danger, call 17 or 112. Deaf or hard-of-hearing people can text 114.

What is sextortion?

Sextortion means blackmail based on sexual images or videos. The pattern is often the same: a contact on social media or a dating site, a conversation that turns intimate, a video call recorded without your knowledge, then the threat.

There are three main variants:

• Real blackmail. The person really holds images, sent by you or recorded by them.
• A hacked account. They took over your email or cloud storage and found private photos.
• Fake blackmail. An email claims your computer or webcam was hacked, with no proof at all. Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr notes that no victim has seen these threats carried out. It is a mass scam: do not reply, do not pay, and change your password if it appears in the message.

In all three cases of sextortion, the starting response is the same: no payment, keep evidence, report it.

What French law says

Blackmail ("chantage") is defined in Article 312-10 of the French Criminal Code. It means obtaining money, property or a commitment by threatening to reveal facts that damage someone's honour. The SREN law of 21 May 2024 added a harsher penalty aimed at sextortion.

Offence	Criminal Code article	Maximum penalty
Blackmail	312-10	5 years and €75,000
Online blackmail using sexual images, or to obtain them	312-10, para. 3	7 years and €100,000
Threat carried out	312-11	7 years and €100,000
Sharing sexual images without consent	226-2-1	2 years and €60,000
Sexual deepfake shared online	226-8-1	3 years and €75,000
Unauthorised access to an account or system	323-1	3 years and €100,000

Consolidated text as of 20 October 2026. Attempted blackmail carries the same penalty (Article 312-12), so the threat alone is already an offence.

Sharing an intimate image without your consent remains illegal even if you sent it yourself. Our guide to intimate images shared without consent covers that situation.

If the victim is under 18

Sexual images of a minor fall under much stricter rules. Holding or sharing them is a separate offence (Article 227-23), punishable by up to seven years when they circulate online. A young person does nothing wrong by reporting, even if they sent a photo themselves.

If your child tells you, thank them for trusting you and do not scold them. Service-public offers a reporting service for minors, and the 3018 helps young people and parents alike. If your child shared another pupil's image, read our article on parental liability for a minor.

Hacked account: take back control

Sextortion sometimes starts with a stolen account. Act on two fronts:

• Recover access through the service's official process (forgotten password, hacked account form).
• Change your passwords, starting with your main email, and switch on two-factor authentication.
• Log out unknown devices in the security settings.
• Write down what you see: when you lost control, messages sent in your name, login alerts.

Hacking is a separate offence (Article 323-1), so mention it in your complaint. 17Cyber, the public service launched in late 2024 by the police, the gendarmerie and Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr, offers an online diagnosis and advice at any hour.

Keeping evidence safely

In a sextortion case, evidence helps find and convict the blackmailer. It should be complete and dated.

• Take screenshots that show the blackmailer's username, the date and the time.
• Copy links to profiles and posts, not just the username.
• Keep the messages in the app, even after blocking.
• Note the amounts and payment details demanded. If you already paid, keep the receipt and call your bank at once.
• Never forward the images to friends. Keep them for the investigation.

For a post on a website, a report drawn up by a commissaire de justice (court officer) is stronger evidence than a screenshot.

Filing a sextortion complaint

You have several options and can choose the one that suits you:

• Online, on THESEE. Decree No. 2024-867 of 13 August 2024 opened online complaints to blackmail committed over the internet. Access it from service-public.fr. It remains optional: the law forbids forcing it on you.
• At any police station or gendarmerie. Officers must record your complaint.
• By letter to the public prosecutor (procureur de la République) at the judicial court, ideally by recorded delivery.

You can bring a trusted person or your lawyer. For an offence of this kind, you have six years from the facts to file a complaint (Article 8 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), but an early complaint helps investigators.

Also report content on PHAROS, the Interior Ministry platform (internet-signalement.gouv.fr). A report does not replace a complaint.

Getting images removed

If the blackmailer has posted something, ask for removal without waiting for the investigation:

• Report it to the platform, giving the exact link and stating that intimate images were shared without your consent.
• Ask search engines to delist it through their forms.
• Complain to the CNIL, the data protection authority, if the site does not respond within one month.
• Call the 3018, which can contact social networks to speed up removal.

A lawyer can also ask a judge, urgently, to order removal of content that stays online.

Free helplines and services

Service	Purpose	Contact
17 or 112	Immediate danger	Phone
114	Emergency text line for deaf or hard-of-hearing people	Text
3018	Online violence, help removing content	7 days a week, 9 am to 11 pm, also 3018.fr
116 006	Victim support, France Victimes network	Every day, free
0 805 805 817	Info Escroqueries, Interior Ministry	Monday to Friday
PHAROS	Reporting illegal content	internet-signalement.gouv.fr
17Cyber	Online diagnosis and advice	17cyber.gouv.fr

Hours checked on service-public and Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr in October 2026. Most services work in French.

When a lawyer helps

You can file a sextortion complaint on your own. A lawyer becomes valuable when things get harder:

• the blackmailer knows you or lives nearby;
• the images are already circulating;
• you paid and want the money back;
• the victim is a minor;
• the complaint stalls and you want to file one with an investigating judge as a civil party.

The lawyer drafts a precise complaint, seeks removal of content and represents you as a civil party before the criminal court, claiming damages. They cannot promise the blackmailer will be identified, as many operate from abroad, but they assert all your rights.

Legal aid (aide juridictionnelle) can cover the fees. In 2026 it is full for a single person whose reference tax income does not exceed €12,957. A criminal law lawyer can answer you in 20 minutes.

Official advice is on the Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr sextortion page (in French).

Other situations in this series

Sextortion belongs to a series on online harm and dealing with the police in France:

• Insulted or harassed online: our guide to online harassment and filing a complaint.
• Harassed by your boss or a colleague: our article on sexual harassment at work.
• Summoned by the police: should you attend a voluntary interview?