u/Cute-Ad-3906 — reddlx

I went through a sextortion situation about 5 days ago and thought it was over, but something happened today that’s confusing me. I met a girl on ometv from the phillipines, we then moved to WhatsApp, and it escalated into a video call where I was nude and my face was briefly visible. After the call, they revealed they recorded it and sent me a short clip, a longer preview, and screenshots of my accounts.

They had a screenshot of my main Instagram (private, just the profile) and my burner account (public, ~70 followers), including a screenshot showing a couple people from that account’s network. They threatened to send the video to people I know and demanded money. I almost paid, but the payment failed and I stopped. I didn’t send anything, blocked them everywhere, deleted the burner account, changed passwords, and locked everything down. After that, there was complete silence for 4–5 days — no threats, no follow-up, and no leaks.

Today, one friend who followed that burner account received a random iMessage from an unknown number (looked like a Canadian number). The message used my identity and said something like “let me know if you’re free right now,” then sent my full name separately. There was no threat, no mention of anything explicit, no request for money, and no follow-up.

I never shared contacts, and Instagram doesn’t show phone numbers, so I don’t understand how they would have gotten my friend’s number. I told about 10 close friends just to ignore anything weird, and so far no one else has been contacted.

I’m trying to figure out if this is actually connected to the original sextortion attempt or just random spam/identity reuse with bad timing. Based on the lack of threats or follow-up, I can’t tell if this is escalation or something unrelated. Would appreciate honest input from people familiar with how these scams work.

I want to move on but then this happened, I wasn’t bothered initially thinking I would be left alone but now they have my friends number? How???? I’m scared. Is this connected to the sextortion? Will it get better?

So basically this scammer somehow got my friends number which isn’t connected to my original extortion scandal which the scammer only threatened me saying they will expose me to my friends and had a screenshot of my Instagram followers. How did they get my friends number which has me thinking it’s unrelated but they also texted my friend with my own name…. Because this was texted to my friend not me.

The extortion 5 days prior :

I went through a sextortion scam about 5 days ago and I’m trying to figure out if something new is connected or just a coincidence.

Here’s what happened:
I met someone online and we moved to WhatsApp. Things became sexual and they recorded explicit content of me without my consent. After that, they threatened to send it to people I know unless I paid.

They had screenshots of:

-my main Instagram profile, but it’s private, so they could only see the profile page, not my followers

-my burner Instagram, which was public and had around 70 followers

- two girls from that burner account/following list, which they showed as “proof” they would send it

I almost paid through a payment app, but the payment failed/declined and I stopped last second. I did not retry, did not pay, blocked them, reported them, deleted the burner Instagram, and locked everything down.

Since then:
-no one has received anything
-no threats or leaks
-no direct contact from the scammer for several days

Now today, one of my friends who followed that burner account got a random iMessage from an unknown number. The message used my name and basically said something like “[my friends name], let me know if you’re free right now. - my name. ” There was no threat, no mention of explicit content, no demand for money, and no context.

What’s confusing me is:
the original scammer was using WhatsApp and seemed to be from the Philippines

this new message came from what looks like a Canadian number

I never gave them access to my contacts

Instagram doesn’t show phone numbers from followers

I don’t understand how they would have gotten my friend’s phone number

So I’m trying to figure out:

Is this realistically connected to the sextortion attempt, or is it more likely random spam/name reuse/bad timing?

If it is connected, how would they even get my friend’s number from just a burner Instagram follower?

Would they need outside data leaks, public info, contact syncing, or is this probably unrelated?

Would appreciate blunt, honest input from people who understand sextortion/spam scams.