What is Blackmail?
{{other uses}} '''Blackmail''' means [[threat]]ening to say something bad about someone unless that person pays some [[money]]. If someone has committed a [[crime]], another person might blackmail them. The blackmailer might, for example, say that if the [[criminal]] does not give them a large amount of [[money]], they will tell the [[police]]. A blackmailer may threaten to say something embarrassing that someone unless they hand over a sum of money. For example, it maybe something about an [[Intimacy|intimac]]<nowiki/>y that they are having that they do not want everyone to know about. Sometimes, a business may blackmail another business. They might threaten to harm that business in some way unless money is paid. Blackmail is against the law. People who are caught blackmailing may be sent to [[jail]]. == History == Blackmail started on the [[border]]s of [[England]] and [[Scotland]]. Blackmail was the money left out by landowners in England so that raiders from Scotland did not steal their animals or damage the property. ==Related pages== *[[Bribery]] [[Category:Financial crimes]]