Being blackmailled and outed...

Hi everyone, 

So in the last few weeks, I had the unfortunate experience of being blackmailed. I met a person on a dating site, they seemed nice and we talked online with each other for about a week, things seemed to be looking good, and she wanted to take steps for a date, but before we did, I decided to be honest about my crossdressing and told her about it. She seemed pretty cool about it, said a lot of nice things, things I possibly wanted to hear. She asked to see what I looked like so I sent her a picture of me in my blue dress. It included my face etc. She also asked to do a video chat before we met and reluctantly I agreed, she wanted me to dress up so she could decide if she was into it or not. We did the chat, which was really stupid, because without me knowing she recorded screenshots of it and after 10 minutes of talking she sent me a message saying unless I wanted these pictures spread all over my social media and linked in, I had to send her £3000. I dont have that lying around, so I stalled for time to think, said I couldnt get that much, and I needed time to see what I could get. At this point I took screenshots of all our conversation and started searching online for help. I had to shutdown my facebook, linked in and other social media, she had pictures of my linked in account as well, she looked me up.

Since then, I have spent a long time on with the police, the advice they gave me was to never pay. They will just keep coming back for more. I didnt pay and I blocked them on the dating site as well as google chat and ********. I also had to take steps just in case they released the pictures. I told the majority of my family and friends and even my work. Unfortunately, it wasnt how I imagined outing myself, but here I am.

Since then, I have been really touched by the responses and support I have received by my friends, housemates, work colleages and pretty much everyone else. 

The reason I post here was because this experience has completely turned my world upside down, I am angry about it and it may take me a long time to get over it. But I am now in a position where it cant really hurt me that way anymore. I dont know if anyone else has experienced something like this, I think possibly more than I think! But now I have to make the decisions and do the hard part. The worst part is the options they have taken away, I dont get to hide it anymore really, but I do get to choose what I do with it moving forward...