Sextortion
Using AI to expose the scams AI is supercharging
Overview
ICON partnered with the eSafety Commissioner to develop and deliver a national behaviour change campaign addressing the rapid rise of financial sextortion targeting young Australian men.
Grounded in behavioural research, audience insights and close collaboration with eSafety’s investigations team, the campaign used the same AI-enabled deception techniques employed by perpetrators to expose the crime before it could unfold.
The result was If Sextortionists Were Honest, an integrated awareness campaign designed to help young men recognise the warning signs of sextortion, reduce shame and encourage early help-seeking.
Background
Sextortion has emerged as one of Australia’s fastest-growing online harms.
In 2025 alone, eSafety received more than 3,300 reports of sexual extortion, with young men disproportionately affected.
As generative AI enables offenders to create increasingly convincing fake identities, traditional warning signs are becoming harder to detect, increasing both the scale and sophistication of the threat.
The eSafety Commissioner engaged ICON to develop a national campaign that would help Australians recognise, prevent and respond to this rapidly evolving form of online abuse.
Challenge
Sextortion is one of Australia’s fastest-growing online harms, yet awareness of the issue lagged well behind its rapid growth.
Many young men had never heard the term “sextortion”, didn’t recognise the tactics being used against them, or assumed it was something that happened to someone else.
By the time they realised they had been targeted, perpetrators had already exploited fear, shame and urgency to pressure victims into acting.
The challenge for ICON was to create a campaign that would cut through to a highly sceptical audience, make the threat personally relevant without resorting to fear-based messaging, and encourage recognition and help-seeking before a situation escalated.
Solution
ICON undertook extensive strategic discovery, including a comparator review, behavioural research, audience focus groups with young men aged 18–24, SEO analysis, review of eSafety data and consultation with eSafety's investigations specialists to ensure the campaign remained accurate, ethical and victim-centred.
This research uncovered a simple but powerful insight:
Every sextortion attempt relies on a lie. What if the scammer told the truth instead?
From this insight, ICON developed If Sextortionists Were Honest, a creative platform that flipped the scam on its head.
Using the same generative AI technologies increasingly adopted by offenders, the campaign created fake online personas who openly admitted their intention to manipulate, threaten and extort victims from the very first message.
By revealing the ending at the beginning, the campaign disrupted the scam script, helping young men recognise manipulation before becoming emotionally invested.
Delivered across Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Tinder and Snapchat, the campaign met audiences in the digital environments where these interactions most commonly begin, while directing them to practical advice and support from eSafety.
Services
Behaviour change strategy
Audience research and insights
Focus group research
Campaign strategy and messaging
Creative concept development
AI-enabled creative production
Video production
Social and digital content
Integrated campaign development
Government communications
Stakeholder collaboration
Project management