How to handle receiving a death threat online?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Main issue: a merchant received online death threats and asked how seriously to take them and whom to report to for safety.

Key guidance provided:

  • Report to Shopify immediately. Use the general support channel and, if the threats came via Shopify Chat (Shopify’s built‑in messaging tool), email security@shopify.com to request any available technical details (e.g., IP address).
  • Report to law enforcement/cybercrime authorities. Obtain a police case number and share it with Shopify Security so they can coordinate and provide any internal findings.

Developments/outcomes:

  • The merchant already contacted Shopify support and was directed to file a report with the FBI tip center.
  • Shopify staff confirmed external reporting is appropriate and added that forwarding the threat to security@shopify.com is also important for internal action.
  • The merchant agreed to proceed with both steps.

Notes:

  • Screenshots of the threatening messages were referenced as context.

Status: Action plan established (report to authorities and Shopify Security); no further unresolved questions were raised.

Summarized with AI on January 24. AI used: gpt-5.
1

So I received these messages this morning…Not really sure how to deal with this or how seriously to take it. The world is pretty crazy these days, and obviously, I don’t want any harm to come to my family. Is this something I should report to the authorities or the Shopify team?

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2

Hello @Dan138

Hope you are doing well,

Yes you should definitely report these type of issues to the shopify team. You can contact them using the following link -

https://help.shopify.com/en/support/login

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3

Please notify the Shopify team as soon as possible and as for the authorities, I would at least check if there’s something they can do about this.

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4

Hi @Dan138

Thank you for sharing those screenshots and I am truly sorry that you had to receive messages like that.

If you are using Shopify Chat, then definitely reach out to our team at security@shopify.com to report this and request any available information (IP address, etc). I do also recommend reporting this to your local authorities.

Once you have a police case number you can also share that with our security team in case they have any additional information about who this person is.

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5

I did speak with Shopify customer support earlier, and they referred me to an FBI tip center to report it. Should I have spoke with Shopify security instead?

6

While reporting this to appropriate cyber crime services outside of Shopify is absolutely valid and can be very helpful for authorities who track and take action on these things, also forwarding it to our security team at security@shopify.com will allow us to do the same internally.

7

Ok, will do, thank you!