If someone is blackmailing, extorting, or threatening you because you develop a Steam game, do not pay or send more material. Preserve the messages and account data without altering them, then report in parallel: call 911 (or your local emergency number) for immediate physical danger, report the account to Steam, make a local police report, and file at ic3.gov. Add reports to Discord, email, or any other service used by the offender. Steam can enforce its rules, while police and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) handle potential crimes; none of those channels replaces the others.
This guide covers threats to leak source code or intimate images, doxxing and swatting threats, review-bomb demands, claims that mass reports will get your account banned, and demands for cryptocurrency or other payment. It is general information, not legal advice.
What should I do in the first few minutes?
Use the sequence refuse, preserve, report. If a threat suggests someone is in immediate danger, stop handling the online dispute and call 911 in the United States (or your local emergency number). IC3 is not an emergency service.
- Refuse payment and further leverage. Do not send money, additional screenshots, source code, credentials, intimate images, or a “proof of good faith.” Payment can prompt new demands, and cryptocurrency and wire transfers are difficult to reverse.
- Preserve before blocking. Leave electronic messages available on the device. Capture screenshots showing usernames and timestamps, export complete chat logs, download emails with full headers, and record profile URLs, Steam IDs, Discord user/message/server IDs, wallet addresses, transaction hashes, bank details, amounts, and dates.
- Create a dated timeline. Record every contact, platform, demand, deadline, payment request, and threat in time order. Keep two copies of the evidence set, such as encrypted cloud storage and an external drive.
- Report in parallel. File the Steam report, a local police report, an IC3 complaint, and reports on Discord, email, or social networks used to deliver the threats. Waiting for one organization before contacting the next can delay help.
Do not crop, edit, or annotate original files. Keep a separate evidence log if you need to explain what each file shows. After copies are secured and reports are submitted, blocking the offender can reduce further contact.
How do I preserve electronic evidence correctly?
The FBI’s threat guidance says not to delete threatening messages. Keep the original message open when possible, and preserve the subject line, sender, date, and time. Save both the visible conversation and the underlying data that identifies the account or message.
- For Steam, record the offender’s profile URL and Steam ID, the game or community involved, review URLs, forum links, and screenshots of the entire exchange.
- For Discord, capture the User ID, Message ID, Server ID, channel, and timestamps as well as screenshots.
- For email, retain the raw message with full headers rather than forwarding only the visible text.
- For payment demands, retain wallet addresses, transaction hashes, gift-card numbers, bank details, receipts, and the exact amount and currency.
- For doxxing or swatting threats, preserve the address or personal information shown, the stated deadline, and any reference to emergency services.
IC3 does not accept evidence attachments. Its FAQ says to paste relevant text, such as email headers, into the complaint and keep original documents securely for a later agency request. Useful retained material includes chat transcripts, printed or electronic emails and web pages, cryptocurrency and wire receipts, hard-drive images, logs, and malware copies. Do not destroy the originals after submitting screenshots.
How do I report the offender on Steam?
For an account-based threat, Steam says a report from the offender’s profile is better than putting the report in a Steam Support ticket. Use the profile workflow even when the offender also posted a review or discussion comment.
- Open the offending user’s Steam profile.
- Select the … menu at the top right.
- Choose Report Player.
- Select the category that best describes the conduct.
- Select the specific violation.
- Write a concise factual statement describing the interaction, demand, dates, and links, then submit. You can also block the user.
Official instructions: Steam Support: How to Report a Scammer, Hijacker or Phisher. For harassment in reviews, discussions, comments, or other user-generated content, also use Steam’s community reporting tools and the rules at Rules and Guidelines for Steam: Discussions, Reviews, and User Generated Content. Steam says moderators can remove content, issue warnings or bans, or apply feature cooldowns when reported material violates the rules.
What if the offender says mass reports will get me banned?
Steam identifies “mass or automated reporting” and messages saying you will be banned unless you take an action as a scam pattern. Steam says it disregards automated or malicious reports and can lock accounts used to weaponize reports. Do not transfer money, click a recovery link, or hand over credentials to “save” your developer account; report the threatening profile instead.
Steam’s public help pages document the player and community tools above. Do not rely on an invented phone number or an unverified “Valve legal” address. If you have a separate Steamworks partner channel, use only the contact details visible in your authenticated partner account.
Which reports should I file besides Steam?
Use the channels below at the same time. Their purposes differ: a platform can moderate an account, police can create a local case, IC3 can distribute cybercrime intelligence, and regulators collect fraud reports.
| Channel | Use it when | What it does | What to expect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam or another platform | The offender uses a Steam, Discord, email, or social account | Reviews terms-of-service violations, removes content, and may suspend accounts | Action may be silent; a personal response is not guaranteed |
| Local police or sheriff | Any crime, especially doxxing, swatting threats, physical danger, or a financial loss | Creates a local report and can refer the matter to cybercrime or economic-crime investigators | Ask for the report or incident number |
| FBI IC3 or FBI tips | Online extortion, interstate threats, cryptocurrency demands, or internet harassment | Feeds federal, state, and international pattern analysis and may be referred for investigation | IC3 normally does not contact complainants or provide status |
| FTC and identity-theft services | Consumer-fraud or identity-theft facts accompany the harassment | Feeds law-enforcement intelligence and provides recovery guidance | The FTC generally does not resolve an individual complaint |
How do I file an IC3 complaint?
File at https://www.ic3.gov, even if you are unsure whether the incident qualifies. IC3 accepts complaints from people outside the United States and from people reporting on someone else’s behalf.
- Type the address yourself. Do not use a link in a direct message, advertisement, or a look-alike domain such as
complaint-ic3.com. - Read the terms. IC3 uses encrypted submission, and knowingly false statements can implicate 18 U.S.C. § 1001.
- Select File a Complaint. No account is required.
- Enter your contact information, the subject’s identifiers (name, email, website, and IP address if known), financial loss and transaction information, and a chronological factual narrative.
- Paste key message text and email headers into the form. Do not expect an upload field for your evidence.
- When the confirmation appears, save or print it before closing the page. IC3 says this is the only time you can retain a copy; it will not email an electronic copy.
The official FAQ is at https://www.ic3.gov/Home/FAQ. It states: “You will not hear from the IC3. The IC3 does not conduct investigations and, therefore, is not able to provide the investigative status of a previously filed complaint.” If you discover additional facts, submit a new complaint and say that it adds to your earlier filing; an IC3 complaint cannot be canceled.
IC3 is not a substitute for a time-sensitive police report. The FBI says to contact local law enforcement directly for urgent matters because investigation and prosecution are at the receiving agency’s discretion.
When should I call local police or the FBI directly?
Call 911 or your local emergency number for immediate physical danger, a credible threat to a person, an imminent swatting, or someone at your address. For a non-emergency, request a formal report and ask whether the department has a cybercrime or economic-crime unit. Bring the organized evidence copies and timeline, clearly state what was demanded, and leave with the report number; it may be needed for protective-order, banking, insurance, or legal follow-up.
For a suspected federal threat, the FBI Threat Intimidation Guide points to your local FBI field office, 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or tips.fbi.gov, where anonymous tips are allowed. Examples include threats from a foreign-government agent, organized crime, or a government official. The FBI may decide an incident does not meet its investigative threshold; local police remain an appropriate reporting path.
What if money has already been sent?
Contact the bank, card issuer, exchange, or payment provider first and ask what recovery or recall action is available. Then file IC3 with every transaction identifier, wallet address, receipt, and date. Rapid reporting can support recovery efforts, but no agency guarantees a refund.
IC3’s 2025 figures, as cited from its annual report, describe about $679 million frozen from $1.16 billion in attempted theft across 3,900 Recovery Asset Team incidents—58 percent of incidents in which that process was initiated. That is a reported program figure, not a promise that an individual transfer can be recovered.
How should I handle doxxing, swatting, and protective orders?
Tell police exactly what information was exposed, whether the offender named your home or workplace, and whether they threatened to send emergency responders. Do not publish the exposed address again while documenting it. Ask a local victim advocate or court clerk about a temporary protective order that can cover electronic messages, comments, tags, or other contact; the process and available order vary by state. Violating an issued order can be a separate offense.
What should I do if intimate images are part of the threat?
Preserve the demand and report before blocking. Do not forward the image or send a higher-resolution copy. The correct takedown route depends on the age of the person depicted:
- Under 18: Use NCMEC’s Take It Down, which creates a hash on the device, and file with the NCMEC CyberTipline. In the United States, crimes against children should be routed to NCMEC rather than relying only on IC3.
- 18 or older: Use StopNCII.org for hash-based removal on participating platforms, in addition to police, IC3, Steam, and any service hosting the threat.
If a minor is involved anywhere in the content or conversation, do not negotiate with the offender. Preserve the evidence and make the required child-safety report.
What if the harassment is on Discord, Xbox, PlayStation, or another service?
Capture the platform identifiers before blocking, then use its in-app reporting and trust-and-safety process. For Discord, include the User ID, Message ID, Server ID, timestamped screenshots, and payment-demand details in a Trust & Safety submission. Financial demands, interstate or international extortion, and doxxing still require police and IC3 reports; an in-platform ticket only addresses that service’s rules.
Can developers outside the United States use IC3?
Yes. IC3 accepts complaints from people in other countries and about subjects located abroad. Also report to your home-country cybercrime unit and use local emergency services.
- England, Wales, and Northern Ireland: Report Fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040; call 999 for an emergency.
- Scotland: Contact Police Scotland on 101 for non-emergencies.
- Canada: Contact local police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at reportcyberandfraud.canada.ca or 1-888-495-8501.
- Australia: Report to Scamwatch and contact your bank immediately if money moved.
Be alert for spoofed telephone numbers or callers claiming to be police. Verify contact details through the agency’s official website rather than returning a call to a number supplied by the threatening account.
How can I avoid a recovery scam after reporting?
Unexpected messages from an “FBI recovery agent,” IC3 representative, investigator, or fund-recovery company on Facebook, Telegram, or a look-alike website are a second scam. The FBI’s July 20, 2026 public-service announcement says IC3 has no social-media presence, does not investigate or recover funds through those platforms, and never asks for payment to recover money.
Report the impersonation at ic3.gov with the profile, domain, phone number, payment request, and messages. Type the address yourself and never provide your evidence archive, passwords, or banking credentials to a person who contacts you unexpectedly.
What laws might apply in the United States?
The exact charge depends on the threat, location, victim, and evidence. A lawyer or investigator must apply the law to the facts, but these federal provisions commonly arise in discussions of online blackmail:
- 18 U.S.C. § 873: a narrow blackmail offense involving a demand not to report a federal offense; the maximum stated penalty is one year.
- 18 U.S.C. § 875: interstate communications containing extortionate threats. Threats to reputation or accusations of a crime can carry up to two years; threats of physical harm can carry up to 20 years.
- 18 U.S.C. § 1951: Hobbs Act extortion affecting interstate commerce, with a maximum of 20 years.
- 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(7): extortion involving threats to damage a computer or related data; the cited maximum is five years for a first offense and up to ten years for a repeat offense under that provision.
- State extortion laws: definitions and classifications differ by state.
- Restitution: 18 U.S.C. § 3663A provides mandatory restitution for certain qualifying crimes.
A threat can be criminal even when the sender claims it is only a joke or a demand to “fix” a review. Investigators still need reliable evidence, identification, jurisdiction, and facts supporting a prosecutable offense.
How common are online extortion and related losses?
The Internet Crime Complaint Center’s 2024 annual report recorded more than 86,000 extortion complaints and over $143 million in reported losses, according to the report figures cited by LegalHelp. It also recorded nearly 55,000 sextortion complaints, a 59 percent increase from the prior year. The 2024 report is available at https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2024_IC3Report.pdf.
For 2025, IC3 reported 1,008,597 complaints with $20.9 billion in reported losses, up 26 percent from 2024, in the annual report cited by the Guardio Research Team. The report is at https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2025_IC3Report.pdf. A separate 2025 table isolating extortion complaints was not stated in the available figures, so no 2025 extortion count should be inferred.
The Federal Trade Commission says consumers reported $15.9 billion in fraud losses in 2025, including $7.9 billion in investment scams. Those figures concern consumer fraud broadly, not a Steam-developer sample.
Why are some Steam developers targeted by harassment campaigns?
Public reporting in October 2026 described opponents of artificial intelligence using Steam’s mandatory store-page AI-use disclosure to find and target developers, including through browser extensions that flag games. That context may explain a review brigade or pile-on, but it does not change the response: insults and harassment belong in Steam’s reporting system, while threats, doxxing, extortion, and demands for money also belong with police and IC3. A public argument about disclosure is not evidence that a threat is lawful or that you should pay to end it.
What should I include in every report?
- Your real contact information and a safe way for investigators to reach you.
- The offender’s usernames, profile URLs, account IDs, email addresses, phone numbers, and payment identifiers.
- A neutral timeline with dates, times, platforms, exact demands, deadlines, and any money sent.
- Verbatim threat text and the surrounding conversation, including messages that explain how the offender found you.
- Links to Steam reviews, discussions, profiles, Discord servers, or other posts.
- Any physical-safety concern, exposed address, named family member, swatting threat, or minor involved.
- The Steam, police, IC3, and other platform report numbers once issued.
Write facts rather than conclusions: identify what was said, when it was sent, what was demanded, and why you believe the accounts are connected. Keep your evidence archive unchanged so a receiving agency can request the originals.
What is the safest overall plan?
Call emergency services for immediate danger; otherwise refuse payment, preserve unaltered evidence, and report simultaneously to Steam, local police, IC3, and every other platform involved. Save the IC3 confirmation page and police report number, monitor for impersonation scams, and use NCMEC or StopNCII when intimate images are involved. This parallel approach gives Steam the information needed for moderation while giving law enforcement the records needed to assess a crime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I file an IC3 complaint if I live outside the United States?
Yes. IC3 accepts complaints from people in other countries and about subjects located abroad. File with your own country’s cybercrime service as well, because IC3 does not replace local jurisdiction.
What happens after I submit an IC3 complaint?
The confirmation page is the only copy IC3 provides, so save it immediately. IC3 generally will not call or email you with status; if you have new information, submit another complaint explaining that it supplements the first.
Should I keep replying so investigators can identify the blackmailer?
No. Do not prolong the conversation, send more material, or agree to a meeting. Preserve what already exists, report it, and let police advise you if controlled communication is ever appropriate.
What if the threat is only a demand to remove a bad review?
A demand backed by threats, doxxing, account sabotage, or a payment request can still be extortion or harassment even when the dispute began with a review. Report the account and preserve the exact demand; do not treat a review dispute as a reason to surrender credentials or money.