A dangerous new form of sextortion, dubbed “criminal sextortion”, is emerging in the Netherlands. Like traditional sextortion, victims are threatened with the release of nude images of themselves. But instead of demanding money, perpetrators force them to commit serious crimes.
Helpline Helpwanted has already received seven reports of this crime in 2025, though experts believe the actual number is far higher. Victims often feel intense shame, fear of social ruin, and an additional barrier to speaking out: they have been coerced into committing crimes themselves.
“The willingness to report is, of course, much lower,” said Rivka Otten of Helpwanted. “That’s what makes sextortion so incredibly effective.”
From Blackmail to Criminal Coercion
While classic sextortion typically aims for financial or sexual gain, criminal sextortion goes further - using sexual blackmail to recruit victims into criminal networks. Offenders have forced victims to work as money mules, retrieve drugs or weapons from containers, or even plant explosives.
Helpwanted first learned of the trend through foreign helplines and began tracking reports in the Netherlands this year. According to Otten, tireless psychological pressure and the double bind of being both victim and coerced offender make this tactic devastatingly effective.
The danger is not only theoretical. In an episode of Het Misdaadbureau, Kiki Scheepens shared how her partner took his own life after falling victim to sextortion. Victim advocate Jytte Faber warned that the mental toll can be fatal.
Advice to Victims
Helpwanted urges anyone targeted by financial or criminal sextortion to immediately break off contact with the blackmailer.
“Yes, there’s a chance those photos will be leaked, but it’s quite small — because once they publish the images, they lose their leverage,” Otten explained.
Victims, however, need courage and trust in the justice system, as well as protection, even if they were forced to commit crimes. Experts warn that without urgent political action, such as special investigation teams, harsher penalties for digital extortion, and safeguards for coerced offenders, this form of exploitation risks becoming entrenched in Dutch criminal networks.
