What to Do If You Are Being Blackmailed
So you sent naked bodies. We live in a digital age, and now more than ever, nude photography has become something of a dating currency in itself.
But what do you do when your ex – or, in Jeff Bezo’s case, the magazine publisher – threatens to publish your photos on the Internet?
It’s a tricky situation (to say the least) and it’s easy to feel vulnerable when you have a little control, but there are ways to act in your best interest to stop him from happening.
Nonconsensual pornography, or revenge pornography, is a crime in most states, although the punishment varies by location (if you were a minor when the photos were taken, it is a crime everywhere).
I spoke with Jeffrey Lichtman , a criminal defense attorney (and yes, a real El Chapo attorney), about the steps you should take if you are being blackmailed because of these not-PG-rated photos – and what to do if everything else suffers fail.
Record any interactions
When someone is after you for money, it’s tempting to cut ties, but Lichtman says that isn’t necessarily the best solution.
“The first thing you need to do is save everything about the blackmail attempt,” he said. “If it’s a call, you’ll want to record it on audio. If it’s an email or text message, whatever it is, you need to perpetuate it in some way. You will need it at some point along the way. “
And don’t pay a cent. “You can never pay them anything, but you have to get them to talk enough so that you have enough evidence that you have leverage over them.”
But you will need to check your state’s recording consent laws in order to record their audio. California , for example, is a bilaterally agreed state, meaning you cannot record a call unless both parties agree to do so. However, in most states there is unilateral consent — you can record the call without notifying the other party.
Hire a lawyer
“Don’t go to the police yet,” Lichtman said. “The whole idea is to try not to make it a public matter, and if someone is arrested for blackmailing, it will become a public matter, and the whole point of trying to blackmail will unfortunately be realized even if you specify the person in prison.” Lichtman recommends finding a criminal lawyer whenever possible to help you with your case.
“Often a lawyer will write a letter in which he will show what we have, explain what a person is doing illegally, and that you have evidence of his crime,” he said. “Your lawyer will make it clear that they are not afraid to use this evidence. Now […] someone is so crazy that they are willing to risk their own freedom for this attempt at blackmail? This is usually unlikely, but it is certainly possible. “
Contact the webmaster
If all else fails and your photos are spreading around the Internet in horrible quantities, you can contact the website where they are published.
“You can often force websites to remove it if it’s something inappropriate or something stolen,” Lichtman said. “If someone’s phone or computer is jailbroken, you can usually get the websites that publish it to remove it, because it is essentially a product of a crime.”
To contact the webmaster, look somewhere on the main page of the website for the “Contact Us” line with an email address or phone number. Google support also offers another solution:
You can do a Whois search for the site owner using Google. Go to google.com and search for
whoiswww.example.com. The webmaster email address can often be found under Registrant Email or Administrative Contact.
Alternatively, you can contact the web host using the Whois lookup above. Once you contact you, explain your problem and they can help you. Otherwise, if you have a lawyer, ask him to send a notification about the violation of US law “ On copyright right in the digital age” . These notices mean that you are the copyright owner of these photos, and your request will cause them to remove them.
If you’re willing to pay a little more, you can use services like DMCA Protection & Takedown Services, which will send a photo deletion notification directly to the website owner on your behalf.
Pay nothing
Again, since this takes repetition, don’t pay your blackmailer. And don’t fall for the idea of giving money in exchange for an agreement that the photos won’t be uploaded or removed.
“I think these are the people who are trying to find a way out of this, they are trying to find a way out of this, these are the ones who are most abused,” Likhtman said. “You need to persecute them diligently, and they need to understand that if this continues, you will do everything you can to imprison them.”
And if you want to avoid leaking photos, sometimes it’s best not to take them at all, especially in an era where our privacy regarding our personal data is a concern.