Digital Forensics Corp & Dmitry Belkin Sued by FTC Over…

Published Oct. 13, 2026. Case status is current as of that date. This is a civil case. No court has made any finding that Digital Forensics Corporation, Dmitry Belkin or any affiliated company broke the law.

Case status

Case: FTC v. Digital Forensics Corporation LLC, et al., No. 1:26-cv-02615 (N.D. Ohio) [2]

Type: Civil lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission. Not a criminal case.

Defendants: Dmitry Belkin, Digital Forensics Corporation LLC and 11 affiliated companies [1]

Alleged harm: At least $60 million from sextortion victims, February 2023 to July 2026, according to the FTC's complaint, which also alleges the company has deceptively advertised and sold these services since at least 2020 [1][2]

Where it stands: A federal court granted a temporary restraining order halting the company's activities, according to the FTC. USA Today reports assets were temporarily frozen and that company attorneys said they will oppose the order and the FTC's request for a receiver [1][4]

Findings: None. The FTC says "the case will be decided by the court" [1]

Company response: DFC did not respond to The Record's request for comment, and did not immediately respond to USA Today [3][4]

Sextortion works by panic. A stranger, often posing as a romantic match, gets intimate images and then threatens to send them to the victim's family, employer or commanding officer unless the victim pays. Frightened people search online for help, often at night, often alone.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, one of the companies many of them found was running a second scam.

On Oct. 13, 2026, the FTC announced that it had sued Digital Forensics Corporation LLC (DFC), its owner Dmitry Belkin and 11 affiliated companies in federal court in Ohio. The agency alleges the company "misled victims of sextortion into paying at least $60 million by falsely claiming that it would provide sextortion assistance services" [1]. At the FTC's request, a federal court temporarily halted the company's activities while the case proceeds [1].

"Digital Forensics preys on consumers already in crisis, exploiting victims of sextortion by using fear to pressure them into paying thousands of dollars for services that are never provided," Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in the agency's announcement [1].

Important: Everything below about what DFC did comes from the FTC's allegations or from earlier news reporting. The company has not been found liable for anything. In earlier comments to USA Today, DFC defended its sales practices and pointed to positive customer reviews [4][5].

Who is being sued

The FTC's complaint names Belkin individually and as an officer or owner of the companies, along with Digital Forensics Corporation LLC, 1st All Data Recovery LLC, 1st All File Recovery USA Inc., I & D Belkin LLC, Remote Backup Corp LLC, Digital Cyber Forensics Investigations LLC, Cyber Digital Forensics Response LLC, 1st All Investments LLC, Salon Place LLC, VPR Academy LLC, 21111 Chagrin Investments LLC and 4350 Renaissance LLC [1].

According to the caption of the FTC's complaint, several of these entities did business under other names, including "Cyber Blackmail 911," "File Recoup," "Digital Investigation," "Data Recovery Services" and "Cyber Investigation" [2]. The FTC's consumer alert says the company was behind websites including BlackmailHelpline.com, DigitalForensics.com, CyberBlackmail911.com and SecurityBreach911.com [6].

The Better Business Bureau's profile lists Digital Forensics Corp. in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, with Belkin as business management, and shows the company is not BBB accredited [8]. USA Today reported the company has offices in Costa Rica, Mexico, Belarus, the Philippines, India and Canada [4]. Scammers.com has not independently verified those locations.

The FTC's complaint was approved by a 2-0 Commission vote [1]. The agency alleges violations of the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the Reviews and Testimonials Rule and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and USA Today reports the FTC is seeking unspecified monetary relief [1][4].

The pitch: 'fight back'

The FTC alleges DFC advertised on Google, YouTube, X and other platforms to reach people searching for sextortion help. According to the agency, the ads claimed DFC could "track down cyber criminals across the world [and] beat them" and "identify [perpetrators] with a high degree of success [and] give law enforcement the evidence they need to make arrests" [1].

Victims were told not to pay the sextortionist but to contact DFC "right away" so experts could "fight back," the FTC alleges. The company also allegedly told victims not to block the criminal and to let DFC keep communicating instead, which the FTC says is "contrary to the advice of the FBI and other law enforcement experts" [1]. According to The Record, the complaint says DFC workers called blocking "the last thing you want to do," and told victims law enforcement would not help them [3].

USA Today's March 2025 investigation quoted a DFC call script with similar language: "If they think you are ignoring them they could start releasing your information to get your attention" [5]. DFC told USA Today that "blocking cyber criminal blackmailer only infuriates and entices them" in some cases. It also said it never tells clients to avoid police, calling that "contrary to DFC policy" [5]. DFC's attorneys described the scripts USA Today obtained as "stolen" and said they had not been verified or authenticated [5].

Phase 1: what victims paid for, and what the FTC says they got

According to the FTC, victims were pushed to buy a "Phase 1" package costing between $1,499 and $20,000 [1]. It was supposed to include communicating with the sextortionist, a "tracking campaign" to locate the criminal, a detailed investigative report, a report to law enforcement and, per The Record's account of the complaint, a cease-and-desist letter [1][3].

The FTC alleges that in numerous instances DFC did not perform these services. Instead, the agency says, the company often "simply blocked the sextortionist on the victims' social media accounts — which victims can do themselves — created fake chat transcripts, used made-up investigative information and did not contact law enforcement" [1].

The complaint, as quoted by The Record, puts it plainly: "Instead of communicating with the sextortionist through the victim's account, defendants routinely change the victim's account settings simply to block the sextortionist's communications. Instead of obtaining investigative information, defendants fabricate chat transcripts" [3].

The most striking allegation concerns location tracking. According to The Record, the FTC alleges DFC routinely reused pre-saved location coordinates, typically for Nigeria and the Philippines, to make customers believe the sextortionist had been located [3].

When customers asked for refunds under DFC's own contractual refund policy, the FTC alleges the company failed to honor it [1].

Scripts built on fear

The FTC alleges DFC telemarketers worked from scripts tailored to each victim's "pain points." According to the agency, servicemembers were warned the attack could lead to a dishonorable discharge, and married victims were told the sextortionist would target their spouse and in-laws [1].

That allegation echoes what USA Today reported 19 months earlier. The newspaper quoted an internal call script telling salespeople to "ask more probing questions" if a caller's "marriage might be on the rocks, if infidelity has been an issue before, or if they have young kids that would mean a custody battle" [5]. Former clients told USA Today they were warned about the dark web, stolen Social Security numbers, and images being doctored next to photos of minors [5]. DFC told the paper it "feels obligated to inform client of potential possible outcomes" [5].

USA Today also reported that DFC offered installment financing lasting up to six years at up to 18% interest, and that its in-house collections department once called a customer 35 times in four months after he had declared bankruptcy [5]. These are USA Today's findings, not allegations in the FTC's press release.

Phase 2: the upsell

After Phase 1, the FTC alleges DFC pressured victims to buy "Phase 2," supposedly ongoing monitoring of the victim's accounts and the web, plus reporting to law enforcement [1]. According to The Record, the complaint alleges that although victims were told Phase 2 was offered only in rare cases, every customer was pressured to buy it [3]. The FTC says DFC "did not follow through on its promises" [1].

USA Today reported in 2025 that customers said DFC withheld Phase 1 results until a phone call, which was then used to pitch Phase 2. Nearly all of the satisfied customers DFC itself referred to the paper had bought monitoring, but few said DFC obtained proof their content had been deleted [5].

Alleged fake reviews and complaint sites

The FTC alleges DFC hid its failures behind a manufactured reputation. According to the agency, the company used India-based employees to write fake reviews, bought positive reviews from Uber drivers who had never used its services, and coerced customers into posting positive reviews before they had received any service [1]. The Record reports the complaint describes Uber drivers posting "fabricated testimonials using staged photos" [3].

The FTC also alleges DFC suppressed negative reviews, refused partial refunds unless customers removed them, and steered upset customers to fake Better Business Bureau websites to file complaints that went nowhere, according to The Record [3].

The FTC's announcement thanks the BBB Serving Greater Cleveland, along with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, for helping with the investigation [1].

Warnings that came before

The FTC lawsuit did not come out of nowhere. Here is what was public earlier, according to the sources cited:

FBI (April 2023): The FBI warned against for-profit "sextortion assistance" companies charging high fees, without naming any company, according to USA Today [5].
Reddit (2023): r/Sextortion, the largest online support forum for victims, banned recommendations of DFC after a moderator accused it of "predatory sales tactics," USA Today reported. DFC questioned whether the posters were real customers [5].
BBB: The BBB in Ohio issued two warning alerts about DFC and fielded 92 complaints in three years, USA Today reported. The BBB said DFC had asked consumers to remove reviews as a condition of refunds, a practice an FTC rule has banned since October 2024 [5]. The BBB profile currently notes a pattern of complaints the business has failed to resolve [8].
NCMEC: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received more than two dozen CyberTipline reports related to DFC, according to USA Today [5].
Homeland Security: "We do not work with any of these for-profit companies," Mike Prado of DHS's Cyber Crimes Center told USA Today in 2025 [5].

The FTC's filing seeking the restraining order said, per USA Today, that "Defendants have repeatedly demonstrated they will not cease their unlawful activities despite many complaints and multiple inquiries from consumer protection agencies" [4]. USA Today also reports FTC investigators posed undercover as sextortion victims, and that the complaint cites USA Today's 2025 reporting [4].

Unverified: Scammers.com found no earlier lawsuit by a government agency against DFC or Belkin, and no public Ohio Attorney General enforcement action. Some customers say online that they filed complaints with the Ohio AG, but we could not confirm any action resulted. We have not reviewed the federal docket directly.

What DFC has said

DFC did not respond to The Record's request for comment on the FTC case [3], and did not immediately respond to USA Today [4]. USA Today reports company attorneys wrote in a court filing that they will oppose the restraining order and the FTC's effort to appoint a receiver over company assets [4].

In 2025, DFC's in-house counsel, Jeromy Simonovic, told USA Today that most of the roughly 1,000 customers signing up each month leave satisfied, and that the contract "reflects transparency and honesty in stating that we cannot guarantee outcomes." He added: "identifying cyber criminals in third world countries is not a perfect science" and said "We've identified and found blackmailers and we rely on our track record" [5]. Scammers.com found no public statement from Belkin personally.

Timeline

2016: BBB file for Digital Forensics Corp. opened, per its BBB profile [8].
2020: The FTC's complaint alleges the company has deceptively advertised and sold sextortion assistance services "since at least 2020" [2].
February 2023: Start of the period in which, the complaint alleges, consumers paid at least $60 million [2].
April 2023: FBI warns against for-profit sextortion "assistance" firms, per USA Today [5].
2023: r/Sextortion bans recommendations of DFC, per USA Today [5].
October 2024: FTC rule banning review suppression takes effect, per USA Today [5].
March 20, 2025: USA Today publishes its investigation of DFC [5].
July 2026: End of that $60 million period in the complaint [2].
Oct. 6, 2026: FTC complaint filed in the Northern District of Ohio, per the court stamp on the complaint; USA Today reports the restraining-order request was filed Oct. 5 [2][4].
Oct. 13, 2026: Complaint unsealed; FTC announces the court has temporarily halted DFC [1][4].
Next: The court will consider whether to replace the temporary order with a longer-lasting injunction. No hearing date has been confirmed by Scammers.com.

Why this is 'the second scam'

Scammers.com tracks recovery scams: fraudsters, or companies, that target people who have already been victimized. The pattern is familiar. The first criminal creates the panic; the "helper" monetizes it. If the FTC's allegations are proven, DFC fits the pattern in a particularly painful way, because sextortion victims are often too ashamed to tell anyone, and the same shame makes them unlikely to complain afterward.

What to do if you're being sextorted

This advice comes from the FTC and FBI. All of it is free.

Stop responding and block. The FTC says to ignore and block the blackmailer, and not to pay or give them access to your devices or accounts [6]. The FBI gives the same advice [9].
Don't pay anyone, including "helpers." Paying a sextortionist rarely ends it, and the FBI and DHS say legitimate law enforcement doesn't work with for-profit sextortion services [5][9].
Save evidence before blocking: usernames, screenshots and messages [9].
Report it. Contact the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or file at ic3.gov, and tell your local police [6][9].
If you're under 18, or the images were taken when you were: Use NCMEC's free Take It Down service (takeitdown.ncmec.org) to help get images removed from participating platforms, and report to NCMEC's CyberTipline or call 1-800-843-5678 [6][10].
If you're an adult: StopNCII.org is a free tool that helps stop intimate images from being shared on participating platforms [4].
Use the Take It Down Act. The FTC says platforms must remove intimate images within 48 hours of your request, free. If they don't, report it at TakeItDown.ftc.gov [6].
Talk to someone. You're not alone and it's not your fault. If you're thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988.

If you paid DFC: Report your experience at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Scammers.com has not seen any refund process announced in this case.

Sources

FTC press release, "FTC Sues Operator of Sextortion Relief Scheme for Misleading Consumers into Believing it Would Identify Criminals and End Sextortion Attacks," Oct. 13, 2026 (accessed via LegiStorm mirror). https://www.legistorm.com/stormfeed/view_rss/8207272/organization/69522/title/ftc-sues-operator-of-sextortion-relief-scheme-for-misleading-consumers-into-believing-it-would-identify-criminals-and-end-sextortion-attacks.html
FTC complaint, FTC v. Digital Forensics Corporation, LLC, et al., No. 1:26-cv-02615 (N.D. Ohio), filed Oct. 6, 2026. https://search.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/digitalforensicscomplaint.pdf
Suzanne Smalley, "FTC: Company netted at least $60 million charging sextortion victims for help it didn't provide," The Record, Oct. 13, 2026. https://therecord.media/sextortion-assistance-company-alleged-fraud-ftc-complaint
Nick Penzenstadler and Rachel Hale, "Young men were sextorted. The firm that claimed to help was shut down," USA Today, Oct. 13, 2026. https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2026/10/13/ftc-halts-company-accused-of-sextortion-recovery-scams/92236884007/
Rachel Hale and Nick Penzenstadler, "This company is taking advantage of sextortion victims, some customers say," USA Today, March 20, 2025 (updated April 22, 2025). https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/03/20/digital-forensics-sexortion-blackmail-recovery-services/81934584007/
FTC Consumer Alert, "How to avoid deceptive sextortion assistance services and find real help," Oct. 13, 2026. https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2026/10/how-avoid-deceptive-sextortion-assistance-services-and-find-real-help
USA Today network, "Sextortion, recovery services and what happens when you seek paid help," March 20, 2025. https://www.ocala.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/03/20/sextortion-recovery-services-stolen-nude-photos/81339804007/
Better Business Bureau, Digital Forensics Corp. business profile. https://www.bbb.org/us/oh/warrensville-heights/profile/forensic-computers/digital-forensics-corp-0312-92018715
FBI, "Sextortion." https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes/sextortion
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Take It Down. https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/

Corrections and updates: If you are named in this article, or represent someone who is, and believe anything here is inaccurate or out of date (including a court ruling, dismissal, settlement or any other change in case status), please contact us at editorandchief@scammers.com. We will review it and update the article promptly.