14/6/17 The Difference between Blackmail, Graymail, Greenmail, and Feemail

Blackmail is the usual word for illegal extortion; the other terms are spinoffs.

The CIA coined graymail to describe the effort of a criminal defendant to avoid prosecution by threatening to disclose classified information on the witness stand.

Greenmail is the buying of stock in a target corporation, threatening a hostile takeover, and then selling back the stock at an inflated price.

Feemail is the unethical practice of extracting a legal fee by duress threat, or intimidation.