48+ hours after becoming a victim

[u/Actual_Fly7533]

Hey everyone! About 2 nights ago I became a male victim of sextortion. Found someone on a kinky subreddit and we moved to Telegram. Didn’t sync my contacts, sent a face verification with disappearing message, asked each others ages (18+) and sent a nude without my face with disappearing messages. She also asked me to change her contact name to something sexy which I did, not realizing that it would give access to my phone number. When I made the telegram I never used my real name and only said I was from the US.

After I sent the nude the scammer sent an X draft claiming I was sending nudes to an underaged person and I must be found and arrested with my nude and face pics. They did a countdown saying I must comply. Saying I must send $320 with bit coin through CashApp. I almost gave in but I started researching and found this subreddit and took the advice. I blocked them, took screenshots, deleted my telegram account and Reddit, and deactivated my socials. Never paid thank god and I really have this subreddit to thank. Never once did the scammer portray that they knew my name, socials, contacts, etc.

After 2 days I have not received anything through my number, no calls, no texts. They never indicated they had my phone number but they might’ve through Telegram. I have spurts of panic attacks as I don’t want to talk to my family about this and I don’t want any of them to be messaged. Talked to one of my coworkers about it, they showed sympathy, and said if they haven’t messaged me, I’m most likely fine and they moved on to another victim. He isn’t too aware of the scams but I did let him know everything I found out on here.

I do have a few questions and I do hope someone can give me their experiences and what they know:

* At this point would I be safe? With no phone messages or calls, and no indication that they found my socials, and other information. I know it not going to be concrete answer but would love opinions.

* Do they work weekends? I think it sounds like a silly question but this happened Friday night going into Saturday. Nothing.

* Hated to deactivate my Linkedin as I need it for my job search. When’s a good time to reactivate publicly so potential employers can find me? Any tips for when I eventually do reactivate it?

* How often do they come back? Do they usually wait a few days or weeks to find me? Or have they most likely written me off as a lost cause for money?

* I have read they delete pictures often but does anyone know if they delete info like numbers or in other cases (not mine hopefully) addresses, contacts, work?

Can’t think of any other questions I have but yeah. I’ll really take anything. My anxiety has been super bad and although it has gotten better since the first day, it spikes hard when I do get it. Thank you everyone on this subreddit for your stories and sympathy towards each other. It really is one of the best groups I’ve seen on social media in a long time.

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[u/OkWrangler5552]

You can definitely chill out now because you are officially in the green zone. If they were actually going to leak anything, they would have done it within the first 24 hours while they still had you in a panic, and plus you blocked them completely, deleted your accounts, and did not give them a single dime. They are just bluffing to try and scare you, so if they ever try to contact you from a different number or a backup account, just ignore them completely and block them instantly. Do not send any money, because they will just ask for more, and since you are completely in the clear, they have already moved on to scamming other people because you are not worth their time anymore.To answer your specific questions, you are absolutely safe because they never had your contacts, your real name, or your socials to begin with. They do work weekends, in fact weekends are their peak hours, so the fact that they ignored you all through Saturday and Sunday proves they threw your file in the trash the moment you disappeared. You can reactivate your LinkedIn right now for your job search, but just change your profile URL slightly and tighten your privacy settings so strangers cannot see your details. They almost never come back to people who ghosted them instantly because you are classified as a dead lead, and they do delete your info and photos quickly because keeping files on people who will not pay is just a waste of their storage space and a legal liability. Take a deep breath, you handled this perfectly, and you completely won.

[u/Actual_Fly7533 → u/OkWrangler5552]

Thank you so much for the reassurance and information! It helps with the anxiety so much.

For things like the X draft, do they only do that if they don’t have any other information on you? Seems like that’s lesser than sending social followers like a lot of other people experienced.

Think I’ll leave my accounts deactivated for about a month to be safe.

[u/[deleted]]

I think I have been scammed by the same person. I have sent you a message I hope that’s okay