An FTC complaint says a sextortion ‘relief’ firm took at least $60 million and told victims not to block their blackmailers

The Federal Trade Commission says Digital Forensics Corporation LLC and its owner and chief executive, Dmitry Belkin, collected at least $60 million from people who were being blackmailed with intimate images. Customers were charged between $1,499 and $20,000 for help that the agency alleges the company often never delivered. A federal court in Ohio has temporarily halted the defendants while the case moves forward.

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Sextortion is the crime at the center of the case. The FTC describes it as a fast-growing threat, typically run by foreign scammers who threaten to publish intimate images unless the target pays. The agency’s argument is that a second set of operators, selling “relief,” profited from the panic that follows. Victims in that moment are frightened, often ashamed and eager to believe that someone with technical skill can make the threat disappear, which is exactly the opening the complaint says the company’s advertising was built to exploit.

The phase one package and its advertised promises

According to the FTC’s announcement, the company sold a “phase one” package that supposedly included tracking the blackmailer’s location, communicating with the sextortionist, producing a detailed investigative report and reporting the case to police. Prices ran from $1,499 to $20,000. Ads on Google, YouTube and X allegedly promised to “track down” cybercriminals and to “beat” them, and to hand police the evidence needed for arrests. The agency says the firm often did not perform those services at all.

Once a victim had paid, the complaint describes a second sale. Customers were pressed to buy “phase two” monitoring and law enforcement reporting, which the FTC says was also not delivered. Telemarketers allegedly worked on each caller’s pain points: servicemembers were warned about a dishonorable discharge, and married victims were told that spouses and in-laws would be targeted next. The defendants also allegedly obtained financial information from consumers through false statements.

Advice at odds with FBI guidance

The most striking allegation concerns blocking. The FTC says the company told victims not to block their extortionists and to leave the contact with the sextortionist in the firm’s hands, advice the agency says conflicts with FBI guidance. Yet when the company did act, the complaint says it often did little more than block the sextortionist on the victim’s own accounts, a step any victim could take alone for free. It allegedly also fabricated chat transcripts, invented investigative details and did not contact law enforcement.

The FBI’s own sextortion page points in a different direction. It tells victims to report the crime through tips.fbi.gov or by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI, and it states that victims of sextortion should never have to pay fees to receive assistance. It also notes that in financial sextortion, offenders often release the material whether or not they are paid, so payment does not guarantee the threat ends.

Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in the announcement that “Digital Forensics preys on consumers already in crisis.” He added that the agency is committed to protecting consumers from sextortion and will act against companies that exploit that vulnerability. The framing matters because the case is not about the blackmailers themselves, who are usually overseas and out of reach, but about a domestic seller of services that allegedly traded on a victim’s fear of exposure and a promise of a quick technical fix.

Fake reviews, refunds and the court order

Credibility was allegedly manufactured as well. The FTC says the company had India-based employees write fake reviews, bought positive reviews from Uber drivers who had never used the service, and pressured customers to post reviews before any work was done, while suppressing negative ones. Customers who asked for money back allegedly found that the firm did not honor its own refund policy. For people who had already paid thousands of dollars, that was a second loss on top of the first, and it arrived after the company had allegedly promised services it did not perform.

The complaint alleges violations of the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the Reviews and Testimonials Rule and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The Commission voted 2-0 to authorize staff to file, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio granted the agency’s request for a temporary restraining order, which was sought without notice to the defendants. A temporary order is not a ruling on the merits, and every claim above remains an allegation the court will decide.

The defendants are Belkin and twelve companies, among them the lead firm and 1st All Data Recovery LLC, 1st All File Recovery USA Inc., Remote Backup Corp LLC and Digital Cyber Forensics Investigations LLC. The agency thanked the Better Business Bureau Serving Greater Cleveland and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for assisting the investigation. Readers can follow the case page for filings, and the FTC’s consumer alert explains how to avoid deceptive sextortion assistance services and find legitimate help.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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