Is Attempted Extortion a Crime? Penalties and Defenses

Yes, attempted extortion is a crime. Under federal law and in every state, the threat is the offense: once you communicate a demand for money, property, or something else of value backed by a wrongful threat, you can be charged whether or not the victim ever pays. Federal penalties run from one year to twenty depending on what you threatened and how you delivered the message.

Extortion sits in a category called inchoate offenses, meaning crimes that are punishable even when they are not completed. The federal Hobbs Act is explicit on this point, criminalizing both completed extortion and any attempt that affects interstate commerce.¹ A victim’s refusal to pay is not a defense. Police intervention before any money changes hands is not a defense either.

What Prosecutors Have to Prove

To convict someone of attempted extortion, the government has to establish two things beyond a reasonable doubt. The first is intent: the defendant had the specific purpose of obtaining money, property, or something else of value from the victim through coercion. The second is an overt act: the defendant did something concrete to carry the plan out, like delivering a written demand, making a verbal threat, or sending an email. Thinking about it is not enough. Communicating the threat usually is.

Under the Hobbs Act, prosecutors also have to show the attempt would have affected interstate or foreign commerce.¹ Under the statutes covering interstate communications and the mail, they prove instead that the threat traveled across state lines or through the postal system. In most prosecutions, the communication itself is the central piece of evidence.

Which Threats Are Covered and What They Carry

Federal law treats different kinds of extortionate threats differently, and each supports a charge on its own.

Threats to kidnap or injure a person are treated most seriously. Sending that kind of threat across state lines or through the mail, with intent to extort, carries up to twenty years in prison.² Hobbs Act extortion affecting commerce carries the same twenty-year maximum.¹

Threats to damage property or reputation, or to accuse someone of a crime, carry up to two years when the threat is sent across state lines or through the mail.²³ Demanding money in exchange for not reporting someone’s violation of federal law is covered by the federal blackmail statute and carries up to one year.⁴

Demanding payment while threatening to damage a computer system, steal data, or release improperly obtained information is a separate federal offense carrying up to five years, or ten for a repeat conviction.⁵ Online sextortion, where the demand is backed by a threat to release intimate images, is prosecuted under these same provisions. No special sextortion statute is needed.

Fines for federal felonies can reach $250,000 per offense.⁶ Courts may also impose supervised release after prison and order restitution for the victim’s financial losses. Restitution is mandatory when the offense qualifies as a crime of violence or an offense against property and the victim has an identifiable loss.⁷

When a Hard Demand Becomes Extortion

Not every aggressive demand is criminal. Threatening to sue someone unless they settle a legitimate dispute is lawyering, not extortion. The line turns on whether the threat connects to the underlying claim and whether the threatened action is itself wrongful.

A demand crosses the line when it reaches outside the dispute: threatening to publicize embarrassing information to the media, to report the person to law enforcement on unrelated matters, or to inflict harm that has nothing to do with any lawful claim. Courts weigh whether the threat was tied to the actual dispute, whether it was aimed at third parties like the press rather than only at the opposing side, and whether the person making the demand had any lawful entitlement to what they were seeking.⁸

“Pay what you owe or I’ll see you in court” is lawful. “Pay me or I’ll send your private photos to your employer” is extortion.

Federal or State Case

Which court hears the case usually depends on how the threat traveled. Federal authorities take cases where the threat crossed state lines by email, text, phone, social media, or U.S. mail, or where the attempt affected interstate commerce.² Threats aimed at a business engaged in interstate trade also fall under federal jurisdiction, typically with the FBI investigating. Purely local threats between people in the same area are usually prosecuted under state law, where the penalties vary.

Sentencing Enhancements

Federal sentencing guidelines add offense levels when aggravating facts are present, and each level adds meaningful prison time. For extortion by force or threat of injury, the guidelines increase the sentence when:⁹

A firearm or other dangerous weapon was involved, with larger increases for discharging a firearm.
The victim was physically injured, scaling with severity up to permanent or life-threatening harm.
The threat included killing or kidnapping someone.
The amount demanded or lost exceeded $20,000, with further increases on a sliding scale.
The victim’s movement was restricted or they were physically confined.

A base-level extortion case and one involving a firearm plus serious injury produce very different sentences under the guidelines.

Consequences Beyond Prison

A federal felony conviction carries lifelong effects. It permanently bars you from possessing firearms or ammunition.¹⁰ It blocks employment in fields subject to federal background checks, including banking, airport security, law enforcement, and jobs with access to sensitive information. Depending on the state, it can affect voting rights, professional licensing, and public benefits. For non-citizens, a felony extortion conviction can trigger deportation.

Defenses That Can Apply

Several defenses may be available, though each depends on the facts and requires the defendant to put on supporting evidence.

Lack of intent. Extortion requires a specific purpose to obtain something of value. A threat driven by anger or revenge, with no demand for money or property attached, may fall outside the statute even if the words were alarming.

Entrapment. If law enforcement induced the offense through persuasion, coercion, or extraordinary promises, and the defendant was not already inclined to commit it, entrapment can apply. Merely giving someone an opportunity to commit the crime is not enough; the government must have pushed a person toward conduct they would not otherwise have engaged in.¹¹

Claim of right. A defendant who genuinely believes they are entitled to the money or property demanded may raise this defense in some contexts. The Supreme Court has recognized it in labor-management disputes under the Hobbs Act, but courts have been reluctant to extend it to cases involving threats of violence or public corruption.⁸

Statute of Limitations

Federal extortion charges carry a general five-year statute of limitations. Prosecutors have to file within five years of the offense or they lose the case.¹² The clock usually starts on the date the threatening communication was sent or the last overt act occurred. State limitations periods vary.

If You Are the One Being Threatened

If someone is trying to extract money or concessions from you by threat, do not pay. Payment rarely ends it and often escalates the demands. Preserve every text, email, voicemail, social media message, and letter, with timestamped screenshots backed up somewhere separate from the device they arrived on. Avoid engaging beyond what you need to document the threats.

Call 911 if you feel you are in immediate danger. Otherwise, file a report with local police. If the threats arrived through the internet, phone, mail, or across state lines, file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov; complaints are analyzed and may be referred to federal, state, or local investigators.¹³ Many jurisdictions also allow you to seek a civil protective order, often with the filing fee waived.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1951 – Interference With Commerce by Threats or Violence
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 875 – Interstate Communications
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 876 – Mailing Threatening Communications
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 873 – Blackmail
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1030 – Fraud and Related Activity in Connection With Computers
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3571 – Sentence of Fine
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3663A – Mandatory Restitution to Victims of Certain Crimes
8
Department of Justice Archives. Criminal Resource Manual 2403 – Hobbs Act Extortion By Force, Violence, or Fear
9
United States Sentencing Commission. USSG 2B3.2 – Extortion by Force or Threat of Injury or Serious Damage
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
11
United States Department of Justice Archives. Criminal Resource Manual 645 – Entrapment Elements
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3282 – Offenses Not Capital
13
Internet Crime Complaint Center. IC3 Home Page