ICON partnered with Australia’s eSafety Commissioner to launch a confronting new campaign that helps young men spot the warning signs of sextortion before it escalates.
The campaign, “If sextortionists were honest”, turns scammers’ own tactics against them. Instead of showing the polished fake persona a blackmailer might use online, the campaign reveals what sextortionists would say if they were honest from the very first message.
Using generative AI, the campaign lifts the lid on the manipulation, urgency and fear that sit behind many sextortion scams. It is designed to help young men recognise deceptive approaches, understand how these crimes unfold, and know what to do if they or someone they know is targeted.
The campaign was created by ICON for the eSafety Commissioner and is rolling out across Meta platforms, YouTube, TikTok, Tinder and Snapchat.
Turning scam scripts into a public warning
The creative idea behind “If sextortionists were honest” is simple, direct and unsettling.
- What if the fake profile dropped the act?
- What if the scammer said what they were really doing?
By stripping away the romance scam-style performance, the campaign exposes the mechanics of sextortion in plain language. It shows how scammers build trust quickly, shift platforms, request intimate images, and then use threats, shame and countdown tactics to demand payment.
Generative AI plays a deliberate role in the campaign. eSafety has noted that criminals are already using AI tools to create fake but convincing online personas, refine scam scripts, and remove older warning signs such as poor spelling or grammar.
For ICON, the creative challenge was to use the same visual and behavioural cues that make sextortion scams feel believable, then flip them into a protective message. The result is a campaign that meets young men in the digital spaces where these scams often begin, while giving them the language and confidence to recognise what is happening.
Helping young men know what to do
A key message of the campaign is that sextortion is a crime, and being targeted is not the victim’s fault.
eSafety’s advice is clear. If someone is being sextorted, they should stop contact, avoid paying, report the account to the platform, block the offender and seek support. eSafety also warns that paying rarely makes the threats stop, as scammers often return with further demands.
The campaign directs people to eSafety’s sextortion resources, where they can learn how sextortion unfolds, what warning signs to look for, how to support someone who has been targeted, and how to report image-based abuse.
Behaviour change for a high-risk digital environment
Sextortion is a complex behaviour change challenge. Victims may feel ashamed, frightened or isolated, while perpetrators rely on speed, secrecy and emotional pressure.
That meant the campaign needed to do more than raise awareness. It needed to interrupt a scammer’s script at the moment it might become persuasive.
ICON’s approach combines digital behaviour insight, platform-specific creative, AI-assisted production and public-sector communications expertise. The campaign is designed for the social and dating environments where young men are most likely to encounter fake profiles, while giving them simple, memorable cues that can help them pause, question and act.
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