recovery and reassurance

[TheEpic112]

Can't edit post so i have to make new post.

If they can't fear you anymore they will leave you alone. The sad thing is that this is actually first time i heard blackmail scam/sextortion. I was also bit drunk when it did happen , prolly if i didn't drink, then this little silly mistake wouldn't happend.

[TheEpic112]

Today i have shit feeling even thought video isn't uploaded anywhere checking almost every hour

[TheEpic112]

Oh hei,

Been doing myself pretty good latetly, asked my friends have they got something weird on facebook, answer was no.
Soon i will go back to social accounts in week or two, depends how i'm feeling. But yeah i actually understand why the steps working quite nicely. Also i plan to donate for you. Now i don't look that often for my video even thought i have google alerts on. Gonna give another updated in week.

[TheScammedUnited]

After reading and taking comfort from every single post on this thread I thought it only right I share my story and contribute rather than just taking from it.

I was scammed in the early hours of Tuesday morning (16th August 2016).

I was added by a ‘girl’ on Facebook and then things moved to Skype where I was deceived into exposing and pleasuring myself.

I have never done anything like this before but my wife has had some serious health issues recently which meant our love life suffered.

Usual thing... video appeared of me in my Skype feed. Then a threat to send to my family on Facebook – all 7-10 people they listed had the same surname as me which they correctly presumed to be family members. Parents, Aunties, Uncles and young cousins and nieces.

I WAS MORTIFIED. I received the usual threats of blocking and removal would result in the video being posted. In my mind I considered paying them the £300 they wanted but while I mulled it over I told them I didn’t have the money.

Then I was sent a private YouTube link of my video via Facebook message, email and Skype with the title ‘My Name masturbates in front of 8 year old girl’. I WAS SICK TO MY STOMACH.

Due to my current mental health state I hate to say it but I considered taking my own life. I really did. I informed my scammer of my intentions that I was about to take my own life and then they blocked me before I had chance to block them via Facebook. They then tried to call me through Skype but of course I didn’t answer then blocked them on there too.

I reported the Private YouTube video which was removed in a matter of minutes along with the username of the person who uploaded it.

Once I calmed down I gathered my thoughts and then proceeded to privatise all my information online. Luckily my wife and I have a trusting relationship so I logged in to her FB account to monitor any strange activity. I also informed my brother to look out for any strange messages, posts or requests on his profile too.

I am not sure if the scammers got scared that their actions might directly cause the death of somebody (they probably weren’t bothered) and that’s why they ditched me before I ditched them. It’s probably not a tactic you should use. It wasn’t a ploy – I genuinely had every intention of doing it. But I’m so glad I didn’t do anything rash as it all seems to be calming down. Can you imagine if I’d have done something so severe over somebody/something like this?!
I found loads of help on the Skype forums and somebody there recommended ScamSurvivors.com but I WAS RELUCTANT TO USE THE SITE FOR FEAR OF GETTING SCAMMED AGAIN! I feared it was a site set up by the scammers to obtain more personal info – that was the paranoia setting in! (how wrong was I).

For the next 24 hours I couldn’t eat, sleep or think about anything else. Worst 24 hours of my life – however, my wife could see I was clearly not well and I decided to confide in her. She was amazing and told me I was not at fault – blokes will be blokes and I had been well and truly had. She wanted me to go to the police but I was reluctant. The next day I struggled through work and looked forward to my lunch break when I could get out into the real world.

On Wednesday evening I was really struggling with the worry that the video would get posted and also my embarrassment at even doing something like this. My confidence was shot. I like to think of myself as a pretty smart guy – but I‘d been well and duly duped at a time in my life when I was most vulnerable.

I decided to give Scam Survivors a go and found comfort in the all the posts from fellow scammed people. I decided to submit my scammer’s details then did the only step they recommended that I had not done myself and that was deactivate my Facebook account.

I went on the live chat and spoke to Wayne – I felt like since this scam had been around since 2012 I was even more stupid for falling for it in 2016! But he informed me that they had received 15 blackmail/sextortion reports from their users that day alone and usually receive around 30 a day! That’s just the people who find the website and are brave enough to submit the details. What about the hundreds more who don’t?!

It’s now a full 3.5 days since my incident and I’ve heard nothing – I hope to god it stays that way.

I have the usual worries of what if it resurfaces again in weeks, months or years’ time but as this website says they play a numbers game not a waiting game. They have moved on to the next person – their target market it is endless – it is basically anyone on Facebook to go at!

I’m still really struggling with it all but even writing this has helped – I looked forward to some replies. I will also probably visit the chat rooms tonight.

I have listened to podcasts 11 and 16 and taken comfort – I can only hope you make some more of these blackmail podcasts soon.

If you have been recently ‘done’ just don’t do anything hasty – you have more time than you think.

The scammer did not get any money from me and I will gladly give money to this website in the coming weeks (as soon as it’s payday) instead.

Thank you for creating this place.

I will update again soon.

[TheEpic112]

Oh hei, little updated about me. Seems like i'm a survivor of this blackamil now, i'm feeling a lot better than before. Today also opened my new facebook account after , but also deactived because i think facebook takes too much time. Searched if there was something about me on facebook seems like not. Just did some double checking ha, for my own good sake. I was able to delete my old email finally, i wasn't able to do it before, because there were too much personal info about me. It took about 2 and half weeks. Actually i don't want to go back social media anymore, even thought it will be needed in few weeks. I was following every step, there hasn''t been any contact with that dirty scammer.. Google alerts has also been silent. Also using other alert talkwalker alerts. I have a lot different combination for my ease my pain. Nothing has ever shown up with my name.
I slowly crawling back to my normal life, i think i need about 1-2 weeks to be totally normal. Don't let scammer take over you life guys, just talk to somebody who you can trust 100%, they will understand it easily.
As for next updated i don't know when but someday

[WhatAHeadache]

Just a thought RE: FB..if they manage to capture you contact list (idiot me set my FB to public a few weeks ago), there is one think you can keep in mind...at least my deduction, if you deactivate your profile, they cannot access this list anymore.

What I speculated this morning is this despite them threatening me saying "it share now" (over and over and over...god lord, never play poker)...it would be extremely tedious and time consuming if all they had was names, here is why:
1) If your profile is deleted, they cannot SEE (visually the thumbnails or view contact profiles) because your profile is inaccessible
2) Since they cannot SEE the images of contacts, but only have text, it will be EXTREMELY tedious to go do searches, especially very common names like mine or one such as John Smith...even more difficult names.
3) Essentially, they're bluffing, they're creating a narrative and throwing names at you to scare the shit out of you
4) I stopped ignoring them when they were spoofing numbers (I think 4 spoofs) with my area code and texting me with such bad English "why you post videos like that" "please remove video" "can you take down"? They were posing as people with my area code, but these were not contacts that did not exist in my phone so I knew it was the scammer.

I have a bit more piece of mind after deactivating my Facebook...and honestly, it's kinda nice to not be connected. Even with your URL, they cannot do anything if it is deactivated unless they want to spend tedious amounts of time for nothing.

I was devastated last night, but I'm much better now after reading many of the forums here this morning. I just wanted to share my two cents and piece of mind that gave me assurance

Thanks Wayne and firefly, your forum is...a breath of fresh air.

[nottoohappy]

Whataheadache - it happened to me last night. I told them I need to take care of my kids - I left and started googling and found this place only about 10 minutes after they announced the scam and started asking for money. I thought I had deactivated my FB profile very quickly but did not press the right button so it was up for about an hour after. I thought I would be okay but I must admit - I have not thought about much else this morning. I am taking the day off of work and I am going to just chill out. This sucks. I think I will be distracted for a few days but I think I will get over it.

[WhatAHeadache]

Nottoohappy - I totally understand. I was in a mood, kinda lonely, and human las. "Never thought it'd happen to me" but hey, even smart people get duped. I'm a smart guy with a decent job and I did a little research, but the first hour I was literally paralyzed (you know how your fingers scrunch up) with fear for a while. It was so surreal. Then I gained some focus and started researching the web, it calmed me down more. The more I thought about the tiny things regarding information and the threads, the less I felt stressed out.

After what Wanye had said about how many per day there were (up to 30 reports a day!) I felt a bit more relieved because it did indicate that these people have hundreds of thousands of people per day they scam, so they'll hop off the soft targets if they get too complicated. At least, this is my hunch.

[ScamBamWam]

Got scammed today. I personally haven't heard from the scammer, but I don't know how they'd reach out to me at this point with everything on lock. I know this is a very sensitive issue. We all have things that we never want to be made public. Ignoring the issue is probably the best way to go about it. As other have said, find someone or multiple people that you absolutely trust and just tell them you need someone to talk to. Don't let this ruin your life. If the video gets out, and you're at least somewhat okay with playing it off, just make it into something funny. Nobody that you're friends with is out there to watch you touch yourself. Just keep going about your daily business. If someone sees the video, they'll tell you. If you set up the google alerts at google.com/alerts, then you will know if someone puts the content online. If nothing has happened so far, then there's really nothing you can do, so you might as well just act as if nothing has happened and keep doing you. Your friends will notice if you're down or something is upsetting you, so don't worry about this ruining your life. Live in the moment and do things that make you happy. Listen to music, go out with friends, go on a walk, cook a nice meal, etc. and forget about your social media. We're all here for each other, so we have that going for us at least!

[muso33]

posted by Wayne

Probably the most uncomfortable night of my life and certainly the most terrifying. Like many others on this site i was set us in the same way, by a attractive lady adding herself as a friend to my facebook and me not being my usual savvy self and not accepting, but instead my hours of being stupid created this problem. Like any middle aged guy, we do love a bit of flirting especially with (in my case) a 30 year old blonde. It all happened very quickly through a 2 minute fumble on skype before my sensible mind came back and stopped the transmission. Minutes later the blackmail started and probably like most of you, your life suddenly seems in slow motion. Though i spend a very uncomfortable night and didnt sleep much, i am so happy i didnt pay and managed to stall the blackmailer for 24 hours. I contacted the police and took photos of all the conversation, which i have supplied in evidence to the police.
I would like to thank all the guys on here because finding this site made my ordeal last just a day or so rather than a lifetime so follow the advice and all will be well and to be honest its nice to have some peace off social media, and i may never go back on.
A tip though, these guys i think use translators from google so the English conversation is very poor, this seems to be a common practice so "question it every time"
Once again thanks guys for your hard work and great advice and lets hope this scum that feels this is a good way to make a living will eventually curl up and die. They are the lowest of the low.
I will be making a donation to this site and thankfully happy to pay this time. MUSO33