Extortion is the crime of forcing someone to give you money or do what you want by threatening to harm them or reveal embarrassing information about them. It's a form of theft that uses fear instead of physical force.

Imagine a bully who tells a classmate, “Give me your lunch money every day, or I'll tell everyone your secret.” That's the basic idea of extortion: using threats to make someone hand over something valuable. Real extortion is much more serious than schoolyard bullying and is a major crime. A criminal might threaten to damage someone's business, hurt their family, or expose private information unless they're paid. Sometimes criminals extort businesses by threatening to release stolen data or shut down their computer systems.

Unlike robbery, where a thief takes something directly by force, extortion makes the victim feel they have no choice but to cooperate.

Blackmail is a specific type of extortion where the threat involves revealing secrets or damaging someone's reputation. Protection rackets, where criminals demand payment to “protect” a business from harm (often harm they would cause), are another form of extortion.