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Investigation

Erpressung with intimate images: what to do now and what penalty the law provides

Author
Rechtsanwältin Virginia Elisabeth von Burgsdorff
Published
Last updated
10 minute read
10 minute read

Secure the evidence first and delete nothing: messages, profile names, times, demands for payment, account or wallet details. Where there is immediate danger, call the police emergency number 110. You can make a report under § 158 Abs. 1 Satz 1 StPO to the Staatsanwaltschaft (the public prosecution office), to the authorities and officers of the police service or to the Amtsgerichte, the local courts, and that also where intimate images are involved. Erpressung, extortion, carries under § 253 Abs. 1 StGB imprisonment of up to five years or a fine; in particularly serious cases the penalty under § 253 Abs. 4 Satz 1 StGB is imprisonment of not less than one year.

01

Where you can get help now

In acute danger: the police emergency number 110.

For advice and support: the victim helpline of the WEISSER RING on 116 006. According to the organisation it can be reached throughout Germany, free of charge and anonymously, seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

We do not name further bodies here, because we name only what we have checked.

02

Secure the evidence instead of deleting it

The first impulse may be to delete the chat, block the account or block the profile. That is understandable and at the same time it removes the basis of the matter. Without the message history, without user names and profile links, without the payment routes that were named, the investigation lacks starting points.

In practice that means: take screenshots, leave the history complete, note contact details and account numbers, record the date and time of the messages. Blocking is possible once things have been secured. Anyone who, as an injured person, asks for this under § 158 Abs. 1 Satz 3 StPO receives written confirmation that their report has been received; under sentence 4 the confirmation should contain a short summary of the details about the time of the offence, the place of the offence and the offence reported. Anyone who does not speak German receives under § 158 Abs. 4 StPO the necessary help with communication in order to make the report in a language they understand.

03

On the question of paying

On the question whether payment should be made, this text deliberately gives no recommendation, in either direction. That decision depends on circumstances that cannot be assessed from outside, and nobody can take it off your hands.

Just as little can anyone give an assurance that publication will be prevented. Anyone who promises that promises something they cannot deliver. What criminal proceedings can achieve is the prosecution of the offence; what they cannot achieve is a guarantee about the conduct of others.

04

What does the law understand by Erpressung?

§ 253 Abs. 1 StGB covers anyone who unlawfully, by force or by threatening an appreciable harm, coerces a person into an act, an acquiescence or an omission and thereby causes a detriment to the assets of the person coerced or of another, in order to enrich themselves or a third party unlawfully.

Four building blocks, then: a means of coercion, a compelled act, a detriment to assets and the intention of unlawful enrichment. The threat to publish intimate images is a threat of an appreciable harm. Where the connection to assets is missing, because something other than money is demanded, the view turns to § 240 StGB.

05

What penalty applies for Erpressung?

The basic offence in § 253 Abs. 1 StGB provides for imprisonment of up to five years or a fine. Under § 253 Abs. 3 StGB the attempt is a criminal offence; under § 22 StGB a person attempts an offence where, according to their conception of the act, they take an immediate step towards fulfilling the elements of the offence, and under § 23 Abs. 2 StGB the attempt can be punished more leniently than the completed offence. That is the reason why a report continues to make sense even where nothing was paid.

§ 253 Abs. 4 StGB governs the particularly serious cases: the penalty is then imprisonment of not less than one year. Under sentence 2 a particularly serious case exists as a rule where the offender acts on a commercial basis or as a member of a gang that has joined together for the continued commission of extortion.

§ 255 StGB concerns extortion by force: where the extortion is committed by force against a person or by using threats of present danger to life or limb, the offender is to be punished in the same way as a robber.

06

Nötigung, Bedrohung, Nachstellung

§ 240 Abs. 1 StGB makes Nötigung, coercion, a criminal offence, that is, unlawfully coercing a person by force or by threatening an appreciable harm into an act, an acquiescence or an omission, with imprisonment of up to three years or a fine. The difference from Erpressung lies in the detriment to assets and in the intention to obtain enrichment.

§ 241 Abs. 1 StGB covers Bedrohung, threatening a person with the commission of an unlawful act against sexual self determination, physical integrity, personal freedom or against an object of significant value, and provides for imprisonment of up to one year or a fine. Under § 241 Abs. 2 StGB a range of up to two years applies to a threat with a Verbrechen, the more serious of the two categories of criminal offence in German law, and under subsection 4 the ranges increase where the offence is committed publicly, in a meeting or by disseminating a piece of content.

Where repeated attempts at contact, threats or the dissemination of images come together, § 238 Abs. 1 StGB can come into consideration alongside this, which makes Nachstellung, the persistent pursuit of another person, a criminal offence.

07

What applies where images are involved?

§ 201a StGB protects the most personal sphere of life against images. Under § 201a Abs. 1 Nr. 4 und Nr. 5 StGB it is a criminal offence, among other things, to use an image of the kind named there made without authority, or to make it available to a third person, or knowingly and without authority to make available to a third person an image of that kind made with authority. Under § 201a Abs. 2 Satz 1 StGB the same punishment applies to anyone who without authority makes available to a third person an image of another person that is capable of significantly damaging that person's reputation. The range of penalty in these cases is imprisonment of up to two years or a fine.

§ 184k Abs. 1 StGB covers images of the intimate area, likewise with imprisonment of up to two years or a fine. Subsection 2 is important: the offence is prosecuted only on application, unless the prosecuting authority considers intervention of its own motion to be called for on account of the special public interest in prosecution. For the Strafantrag, the formal application for prosecution, § 77b StGB applies: an offence that can be prosecuted only on application is not prosecuted where the person entitled to apply omits to make the application before the expiry of a period of three months. Under § 77b Abs. 2 Satz 1 StGB the period begins at the end of the day on which the person entitled obtains knowledge of the offence and of the person of the offender. Time is therefore a factor in its own right here.

08

Where the allegation is made against you

Allegations of extortion do not arise only out of anonymous messages. They also arise out of disputes in which someone couples a demand with an announcement that otherwise they will report the matter, approach the employer or make something public.

The statute resolves these cases through § 253 Abs. 2 StGB: the act is unlawful where the use of force or the threat of the harm is to be regarded as reprehensible in relation to the purpose pursued. § 240 Abs. 2 StGB contains the same clause for Nötigung. Whether an announcement crosses that threshold is assessed by the court on the basis of the individual case. This text sets out where the line runs; it gives no help with wording a demand so that it might just still be permissible.

09

Your rights as an injured person

For the injured person a lawyer can obtain Akteneinsicht (inspection of the case file) under § 406e Abs. 1 Satz 1 StPO in so far as they set out a legitimate interest. Under § 406e Abs. 2 Satz 1 StPO inspection is to be refused in so far as overriding interests of the accused person or of other persons worthy of protection stand in the way.

Joining the proceedings as a Nebenkläger, an accessory prosecutor, is admissible under § 395 Abs. 4 Satz 1 StPO at every stage of the proceedings. For which offences it is open is governed in stages. The list in § 395 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 StPO contains § 184k StGB, and the list in § 395 Abs. 1 Nr. 4 StPO contains § 238 StGB; in these cases being injured by the offence is enough. For Erpressung under § 253 StGB and extortion by force under § 255 StGB, by contrast, § 395 Abs. 3 StPO applies: joining is possible where it appears called for on special grounds, in particular on account of the serious consequences of the offence, in order to protect the person's interests.

On the requirements listed individually in § 397a Abs. 1 StPO, a lawyer is to be appointed as assistant to the Nebenkläger on their application. Where those requirements are not met, legal aid for the costs of the proceedings comes into consideration under § 397a Abs. 2 StPO where the Nebenkläger cannot adequately protect their interests themselves or cannot reasonably be expected to do so. Under § 406g Abs. 1 StPO injured persons can additionally make use of the assistance of a psychosocial court companion.

Frequently asked questions

I have already paid. Can I still report it?

Yes. The report can be made under § 158 Abs. 1 Satz 1 StPO to the Staatsanwaltschaft, the police or the Amtsgericht, regardless of whether payment was made. A payment changes nothing about the assessment of the offence in criminal law.

§ 253 Abs. 3 StGB expressly provides that the attempt at extortion is a criminal offence. What matters under § 22 StGB is whether, according to their conception of the act, the offender took an immediate step towards fulfilling the elements of the offence.

Which evidence is needed in the proceedings is determined by the state of the investigation. It makes sense to secure everything and to clarify beforehand what will be handed over and what will not. Under § 406e StPO a lawyer can obtain Akteneinsicht for you, so that you know what is in the case file.

Then what matters is § 253 Abs. 2 StGB, that is, whether the threat is to be regarded as reprehensible in relation to the purpose pursued. That is an assessment of the individual case by the court. Akteneinsicht should come before any statement to the police or the Staatsanwaltschaft.

This information is general in nature and does not replace advice on an individual case. It reflects the statutory texts as checked on 10 August 2026.

Which rights injured persons have in criminal proceedings, and how a Nebenklage is conducted, is described on our page on victim representation. Where the allegation is directed against you, the page on general criminal law is the right starting point.

If you would like to discuss your case, you can reach the office by telephone or by email.

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Provisions referred to

The provisions mentioned in this article, each with a link to the official German text.