Paid BlackmailHelpline? What the FTC case means for you

If you paid BlackmailHelpline.com for help during a sextortion attack, you are not alone, and there is news you should know about. In October 2026, the Federal Trade Commission sued Digital Forensics Corporation LLC, its owner Dmitry Belkin and a group of related companies in federal court in Ohio. One of the names the companies traded under was Cyber Blackmail 911, the business behind BlackmailHelpline.com.

At the FTC's request, the court halted the business with a temporary restraining order on October 7, appointed a receiver and froze its assets. On October 21, the court converted that order into a preliminary injunction (FTC v. Digital Forensics Corp. LLC et al., Case No. 1:26-cv-02615, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio).

What to do if you paid BlackmailHelpline or Digital Forensics Corp

• Report your experience at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The FTC is asking the court to order refunds for affected consumers, and your account of what happened helps the case.
• Follow the case on ftc.gov for updates on any refund process.
• Keep your contract, receipts, emails and any "Phase 1" or "Phase 2" reports they sent you.
• If you paid by card, ask your bank or card issuer whether you can still dispute the charge.

What the FTC alleges

According to the FTC's complaint, people being threatened with the release of intimate images were sold "Phase 1" assistance packages costing between $1,499 and $20,000, with a $4,999 package recommended by default. The FTC alleges that:

• Sales calls followed a script designed to frighten victims, including warnings that victims could lose custody of their children or their jobs or, for service members, face a dishonorable discharge.
• Victims were told that blocking the extortionist was "the last thing you want to do", the opposite of long-standing FBI advice to block and ignore.
• The promised services were often not delivered. According to former employees, accounts were simply blocked, chat transcripts were fabricated, "tracking" results were built from pre-saved locations in Nigeria and the Philippines, and reports to foreign police were rarely sent.
• Customers were then pressed to buy "Phase 2" monitoring for thousands of dollars more.
• Refunds were made conditional on non-disclosure agreements and on deleting negative reviews, while positive reviews were manufactured, including by paying Uber drivers to post them.
• Consumers paid the companies at least $60 million between February 2023 and July 2026.

These are allegations and the case is ongoing. In granting the preliminary injunction, the court found that the FTC had shown a strong likelihood of success, noting among other things that the company's own figures fell well short of the "90% success rate" it advertised.

The same playbook appears across the recovery industry

BlackmailHelpline is not an isolated case. Fear-driven sales calls, vague "investigations", fabricated proof of work, advertised success rates and manufactured reviews are the same tactics we see from fake fund-recovery services that target people who have already lost money to scams. They often advertise on the same search pages that genuine victims turn to for help.

Our team monitors the recovery market for these operators. We document what they publish, report them to the platforms that host and advertise them, and work with the relevant authorities and third parties to have them taken down, as we did with FinancialOptionsRecovery last year. Every fraudulent service that disappears is one less trap waiting for the next victim.

Before you hire anyone to help with a scam, watch for these warning signs:

• A guaranteed result or an advertised success rate. The outcome depends on where the money went, so no one can promise it in advance.
• Pressure to pay immediately, before any written assessment or contract.
• Requests to pay in cryptocurrency, gift cards or by wire to a foreign bank account.
• "Proof" of progress that you cannot verify yourself, such as screenshots of conversations you were never part of.

If you lost money to a scam

Many of the people who reached BlackmailHelpline were dealing with a scammer who had already taken their money, whether through an extortion demand or an earlier investment, romance or crypto scam. If you sent money to a scammer, you may still have options to get it back.

Van Orton Recovery is an American fraud recovery intelligence firm. We trace stolen funds across borders and work with banks, exchanges and law enforcement to pursue their return. Every case is different, which is why every case starts with a free, confidential assessment of where your money went and what can be done. Contact us at hello@vanortonrecovery.com or use the link below to get started.