If a fan threatens you, first decide whether you could be in danger right now. A threat that names where you are, mentions a time, or comes from someone who says they are nearby means calling 000 in Australia (911 in the US, 999 in the UK) straight away. Otherwise, save the messages with their context before you block anyone, report the account to the platform, and take threats of violence to police. In Australia, eSafety can step in when a platform leaves seriously harmful abuse online.
Threat triage table
Read the message once, then sort it by what it signals rather than how angry it sounds. When a message fits more than one row, follow the most serious one.
| Signal in the message | What it may mean | Do this now | Who to contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Names your location, a time or a plan, or claims to be close by | Possible immediate danger | Get to a safe, locked or staffed place and stop replying | Emergency services: 000, 911 or 999 |
| Shows they know your home, car, gym or family, without spelling out a threat | Behaviour heading towards stalking | Start an incident log and a safety plan today | Police, and our stalking safety plan |
| Says they will hurt or kill you, with no time or place | A threat police should hear about | Preserve it, report the account, then report to police | The platform, then police on their non-emergency line |
| Threatens to post your address, legal name or family details | A doxxing threat | Capture it and start closing the sources of those details | The platform; our doxxing response plan if it happens |
| Demands money or more content in return for not sharing intimate material | Sextortion | Stop contact, do not pay, keep the demand | Our sextortion safety steps and eSafety |
| Repeated abuse, slurs or a pile-on with no specific threat | Harassment that may become serious abuse | Mute or restrict, preserve, and report each account | The platform, then eSafety if it is severe and stays up |
| Promises to “ruin” you with fake reports, reviews or chargebacks | Pressure or attempted fraud rather than violence | Document it and do not negotiate or pay | Platform support, with your chargeback records ready |
| A fan says they will hurt themselves if you do not reply | A welfare emergency for them, not a threat to you | Point them to crisis help rather than becoming their counsellor | 000 if a life is at risk; Lifeline on 13 11 14 in Australia |
Trust your read of the situation. You know your audience, and a message that seems minor to a friend may feel very different when you know the sender has been watching your streams for months. If you are unsure which row fits, treat it as the more serious one and ask police.
Platform rules often cover the threat itself, not only what follows it. X's private information policy, for example, lists threatening to publicly expose someone's private information as a violation in its own right, so you can report a doxxing threat on X before anything has actually been posted.
Preserve the messages before you block
- Screenshot each message with the sender's display name, handle and the date and time visible, and include the messages around it so the threat keeps its context.
- Copy the sender's profile link or user ID, because handles can change between the threat and your report.
- Use the platform's chat export or data download where one exists, which captures more than screenshots can.
- Save voice notes, images and files as files, and write down any links the sender included without opening them.
- Keep copies in an account the sender cannot reach and, if it helps, send a set to someone you trust.
- Report the account, and record the confirmation, ticket or reference number the platform gives you.
Then decide about blocking, where eSafety's own pages pull in different directions. Its page on how to report adult cyber abuse suggests using in-app tools to ignore or mute the accounts and not blocking until you have advice from eSafety, while its doxing guidance lists blocking unwanted contact as a standard step. The two fit together if you preserve first. If you expect to report to eSafety, mute rather than block for now; if the contact is frightening or relentless, capture it and block, because your safety matters more than a perfect evidence file.
Report to the platform, then escalate in Australia
The platform report comes first for practical and legal reasons. Services can remove content and accounts quickly, and eSafety's adult cyber abuse scheme only investigates once the content has been reported to the service that hosts it. The scheme covers a specific adult who ordinarily lives in Australia, and the content has to be intended to cause serious harm as well as being menacing, harassing or offensive in all the circumstances. eSafety gives realistic threats and content that places a person in physical danger as examples that can qualify.
When you report to eSafety, it will ask for proof of your earlier complaint, such as a receipt or report number, so keep that from the preservation step. eSafety's regulatory guidance for the scheme says a removal notice can only follow once 48 hours have passed since your report to the service, and that notices can go to the service or to the person who posted the material, requiring them to take reasonable steps to remove it within 24 hours. The guidance describes the scheme as a safety net rather than a first stop, which is why the platform report matters even when you expect it to fail.
Police routes in Australia, the UK and the US
In Australia, call 000 for immediate danger. eSafety's guidance on feeling unsafe lists 131 444 for contacting local police about threats to your safety or to friends and family. Scamwatch's reporting page notes that cybercrimes, including attempts to extort you, can be reported to police, and the national route for an online report is ReportCyber at cyber.gov.au. Threats made online can be offences under Commonwealth and state law, and police decide which applies.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, section 181 of the Online Safety Act 2023 makes it an offence to send a message conveying a threat of death or serious harm while intending, or being reckless as to whether, the person who sees it fears it will be carried out; it has been in force since 31 January 2024. Report to police on 999 in an emergency or 101 otherwise. In the US, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center takes reports of cyber-enabled crime, tells anyone in immediate danger to call 911 or local police, and directs threats such as terrorism to tips.fbi.gov; it also says it cannot respond to every complaint, so a local police report is still worth making.
When the threat is not only online
Some threats come from people you know, arrive through the letterbox or reach the people around you. Each changes the response:
- If the sender is a current or former partner or a family member, you are in family violence territory, with its own orders and services; in Australia, 1800RESPECT offers counselling and support on 1800 737 732.
- If a letter, parcel or gift arrives from the person, do not open anything unexpected, photograph it where it landed, keep the packaging, and call police rather than handling it further.
- If they threaten your partner, family or team, tell those people the same day so they can preserve and report what they receive; eSafety's regulatory guidance allows a complaint by the person targeted or by someone they authorise.
- If the threat mentions an event, a meet-up or a venue, tell the organiser at once and decide together whether to add security, change the arrangements or cancel.
- If threats keep coming from the same person or new accounts, it has become a pattern, and our stalking safety plan and its protection-order table are the next step.
A report template you can reuse
Police, platforms and regulators ask for the same core facts. Keep this filled in so each new report takes minutes, and update it as things change:
- About you: the name you create under and, for police, your legal name and safest contact details.
- The account: platform, display name, handle, and profile link or user ID for every account involved.
- The threat in their words: quoted exactly, with dates and times, oldest first.
- Why it worries you: signs they know where you live, have travelled, have contacted people close to you, or have escalated.
- Evidence attached: a numbered list of screenshot, export and audio files.
- Earlier reports: platform reference numbers, eSafety case numbers and police event numbers.
- What you are asking for: removal, a welfare check, a police response, or advice about a protection order.
After you report: lower your exposure
A threat is a good moment to cut what a hostile fan can see and reach. Pause live streams and real-time location posts for a while, and lean on our streamer safety tips when you return. Close direct messages from strangers on the apps where the contact happened, starting with community spaces such as Discord, which our Discord safety guide covers. Run our exposure audit to find out what the person could already know about where you live.
Tell the people who share your workload: a manager, moderators or chat staff should know not to engage with the account and to pass on anything new. Resist posting the threat or the sender's handle publicly; it rarely deters someone looking for attention and can bring copycats. Some threats are dressed up as official, such as fake legal notices demanding payment, and our guide to common scams targeting creators shows how to spot them.
Limitations of this triage
This guide is general information based on official pages we read on 1 October 2026; it is not legal advice and not a professional threat assessment. The rows in the table are a starting point, and real situations often sit between them. Offences, thresholds and police practice vary between countries and states, and eSafety's scheme only covers people who ordinarily live in Australia. If you feel unsafe, contact police whatever the message says, and talk to a lawyer, community legal centre or legal aid service about intervention or protection orders if the threats continue.