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The FTC says Digital Forensics Corporation billed sextortion victims up to $20,000 for tracking and reports that were never carried out.
Reported by
Federal Trade CommissionA federal court has stopped a company that charged sextortion victims thousands of dollars for help it never delivered. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the court granted the agency's request to temporarily halt the activities of Digital Forensics Corporation LLC and its CEO.
The FTC's complaint names Digital Forensics, owner Dmitry Belkin, and several affiliated companies. It alleges they misled sextortion victims into paying at least $60 million for services that were falsely promised and rarely provided.
Sextortion victims are people being threatened by a criminal who holds a nude or sexual image and demands payment to keep it private. Digital Forensics advertised itself as the answer to that threat, using ads on Google, YouTube and X to reach people searching for help while already in crisis.
The company sold a “Phase 1” package costing between $1,499 and $20,000. It was supposed to track the sextortionist's location, communicate with them, produce an investigative report and report the crime to law enforcement. The FTC alleges that in numerous instances, none of this happened. Victims who paid for Phase 1 were then pushed to buy “Phase 2,” billed as ongoing monitoring and law enforcement reporting, which the FTC says also went undelivered.
Instead of the tracking and investigation it advertised, the complaint alleges Digital Forensics often just blocked the sextortionist on the victim's own social media accounts, something victims could have done themselves at no cost. The company is also alleged to have created fake chat transcripts and used made-up investigative material to make it look like work was being done.
The business model depended on selling action to people who had no way to verify whether action was taken. A victim paying $20,000 for location tracking has no means of checking whether tracking happened, no idea what a real investigative report looks like, and no contact with the sextortionist to confirm anything changed. That gap between the promise and the victim's ability to check it is what let the company charge repeatedly, through Phase 1 and then Phase 2, without ever being caught by the people paying.
The company also managed its reputation rather than its service. According to the complaint, Digital Forensics suppressed negative reviews from real customers and generated thousands of fake positive reviews, which meant new victims searching for help found a company that looked trusted.
Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said Digital Forensics “preys on consumers already in crisis, exploiting victims of sextortion by using fear to pressure them into paying thousands of dollars for services that are never provided.” He said the FTC is committed to protecting consumers from sextortion and from companies that take advantage of people in that kind of crisis.
The halt means a court has already agreed, on the evidence presented, that the FTC's claims are serious enough to stop the company's activities while the case proceeds. For anyone currently facing a sextortion threat, it is a reason to be wary of any company promising to track down or identify the person behind it, and to go to law enforcement directly rather than paying a third party first.
