TellyCast Digital Video Awards 2026 has named Hunting My Sextortion Scammer – UNTOLD from Channel 4 and Full Fat TV as the winner of the Documentary Single category. The award recognises exceptional digital-first documentaries that combine strong journalism, powerful storytelling and high-end production craft, with judges rewarding formats that tackle important and difficult subjects with clarity and impact.
Sextortion affects thousands of young people every year, with many cases going unreported, and has been linked to multiple teenage suicides in the UK, including Murray Dowey, whose family feature in the film. The documentary explores this growing online crime and the devastating human impact behind it, bringing visibility to a largely faceless and international form of exploitation.
The creative ambition behind the film was to actively demonstrate how sextortion operates in real time. To achieve this, the team created controlled investigative setups, including fake social media profiles posing as young British men in order to engage with suspected scammers. These interactions were carefully structured so that the scammers had to initiate contact and escalate the conversation themselves.
The film blends investigative journalism with real-time digital deception, turning a hidden online threat into a tangible, confrontable reality. It reveals both the vulnerability of victims and the scale of international enforcement challenges, while maintaining a clear ethical framework to avoid entrapment.
Produced by Full Fat TV, the documentary was released across Channel 4 platforms including streaming and social, with additional reach on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. The film generated strong digital performance, with millions of views across short-form clips and hundreds of thousands of long-form documentary views.
Judges praised the film for its fearless storytelling, emotional weight and ability to translate a complex, distressing subject into a clear and compelling investigative narrative with real-world consequences.
