Snapchat is an extremely popular social media platform. It is reported that 93% of teenagers worldwide use social media, and 60% are on Snapchat. This attracts many Snapchat scammers and fraudsters to the platform: first, teenagers are often naive and easy to track, and second, messages and pictures sent via Snapchat disappear in 24 hours or sooner, which makes it harder to catch a cheater.
Parents who know that their children are registered on Snapchat and spend a lot of time there must be aware of this and learn how to inform their children about the online dangers and what to do in case of Snapchat scams scam taking place. We at uMobix have been helping parents keep their children safe from various online dangers for over 5 years, and we want to share everything we know about Snapchat scams in this article.
Why Do Scammers Use Snapchat?
Let’s think about a Snapchat scammer profile: what type of person are they? It is someone who spends a lot of time on the internet to trick people, cheat on them, and get unlawful profits. They often pretend to be not who they actually are and provide people with knowingly false information.
When scammers use Facebook, Instagram, or any other platform, their messages can be shown to other people or even the police, and, as a result, they might be caught. On Snapchat, however, messages can disappear even after being read (if the corresponding settings are on), which makes it much easier for Snapchat scammers to stay unpunishable and continue their shady activity. So, why do scammers use Snapchat? Because it is much easier and safer!
How Do Snapchat Scams Work?
What do fraudsters want from the platform users? Most Snapchat scams are aimed at getting users’ personal information or money. How do Snapchat scams work? Scammers create fake Snapchat accounts and contact people, inviting them to participate in lotteries or questionnaires, asking them to scan random QR codes or open links, etc. Many users, especially teenagers, are often unaware of cyber hygiene and become victims of phishing links or fake QR codes, giving Snapchat scammers reasons to continue their activity.
10 Snapchat Scams to Watch Out in 2024
Snapchat scams have changed over the years, focusing on the most effective online fraud schemes. Here are the most common techniques scammers use in 2024.
Sugar Mommy/Sugar Daddy Snapchat Scams
One of the most popular Snapchat scams for children and teenagers is the sugar mommy/daddy scam. The scammers contact them from fake Snapchat accounts and ask for pictures or nudes in exchange for money. Obviously, no money is ever seen by the picture senders. Here are possible ways the events may move on after the pictures are sent.
- Snapchat scammers ask children to send them a certain sum to “cover the transfer fees” and then disappear.
- Scammers request the bank account information to send the money, but in fact, they hack the account.
How to avoid this Snapchat scam. As with all scams, the golden rule is never to send any pictures or personal information to strangers. Also, a perfect marker for such scams is the request for payment to get paid. When someone tells you to send them some money to get more money from them – block such accounts immediately.
Phishing Snapchat Scams
Phishing Snapchat scams are used to steal the users’ personal information; in the case of Snapchat, it is username and password. Of course, the scammers’ imagination is endless and they constantly come up with new ways to cheat on people, but here is how phishing scams usually look.
- Snapchat scammers create emails or messages from Snapchat support asking to log into the platform following their link.
- As soon as you do so, your credentials get stolen.
- Scammers log into your account and start texting others, stealing your pictures, changing your account information, etc.
How to avoid this Snapchat scam. Never open unknown links, even if they are received from the support agents, and never enter your credentials on unknown sites. Check the website name if you opened the link for some reason: phishing sites used in Snapchat scams usually have hard-to-notice errors in the domain name (“Smapchat” instead of “Snapchat”, for instance).
Snapchat Romance Scams
There are a lot of scams on Snapchat, but only some work in a chain with other platforms. Many scammers look for victims on dating sites like Tinder or Badoo and then ask to move to Snapchat to “exchange pictures freely” and for sexting. The real reason, however, is that Snapchat has disappearing messages. When it happens, the scenario is the following.
- Snapchat scammers start asking for money inventing different reasons: for the train ticket, to help a heavily ill mom in the hospital, for food, etc. They disappear as soon as they get the required sum.
- They text from fake Snapchat accounts and ask for explicit pictures. Such pictures can later be used for blackmailing.
How to avoid this Snapchat scam. Never share your pictures with anyone online, especially explicit ones. Also, do not send money to strangers, even if they seem sweet or their life situation is awful.
Charity Scams
Charity scams on Snapchat are the easiest to execute as it is hard to check whether the charity organization is real, and even if it is possible, teenagers will hardly ever do that. The scheme is pretty simple.
- Snapchat scammer pretends to be a representative of a charity organization, gathering money for any possible honorable reason.
- Users send them money and may never even know that they actually “donated” money to a scammer.
How to avoid this Snapchat scam. First, always check Google to see whether such a charity organization really exists. If it does, it is better to donate to it via its official website. It is rare for a charity organization to gather donations on Snapchat.
Meet-Up Snapchat Scams
For this type of scam, Snapchat scammers usually pretend to be producers, talent hunters, companies looking for endorsers, etc., and their main aim is to get money from people.
- Scammers contact Snapchat users and tell them that they are great candidates for whatever the scammer is up with.
- To participate in such a program, people are requested to send a certain sum of money to the scammer’s account.
How to avoid this Snapchat scam. Never send money to strangers on Snapchat. Also, if you get a REAL offer to participate in anything, you will never be requested to pay for it.
Adult Content Snapchat Scams
Here, scammers usually use fake Snapchat accounts. They pretend to be the adult content creators or distributors offering the content to people.
- Someone contacts a Snapchat user, suggesting they buy some explicit content.
- As soon as the money is transferred or payment details are shared – scammers disappear.
How to avoid this Snapchat scam. As with other Snapchat scams, never send money to strangers and never share your payment details with anyone.
Impostor Scams
It is a common thing for Snapchat scammer to pretend to be another person. For this type of scam, they often use pictures of celebrities or logos of popular businesses.
- A scammer contacts users from a fake celebrity account (learn about catfishing) and makes them excited (works especially well on teenagers).
- When the user is warmed up, scammers start requesting money, and as soon as they get what they need – they disappear.
How to avoid this Snapchat scam. Do not let yourself get carried away by excitement, and never send money to strangers, even if it is Tom Hardy asking you to send him $100.
Fake Contest Scam
The most popular treat for this type of scams on Snapchat is giveaways. Teenagers get attracted by the chance of getting something expensive for free and are ready to do whatever the scammer says.
- Snapchat scammer contacts a user and invites them to take part in a contest.
- Users are requested to pay for participation or share their payment details.
- Scammers get money and disappear.
How to avoid this Snapchat scam. We will not get tired of saying this: never send money to strangers or share your payment details with them. Also, always be alarmed when something is offered for free, no matter how juicy it is.
Account Recovery Scams
Fraudsters often use stolen accounts in their Snapchat scams, and account recovery scams are one of the easiest ways to obtain one.
- Scammers contact people pretending to be support agents and asking to share the login credentials or the confirmation code.
- They change the login credentials, and the original user cannot access their account anymore.
How to avoid this Snapchat scam. Remember, support agents never ask for login credentials or confirmation codes. Never share this information with anyone!
Fake Job Scams
People are always attracted by offers of easy money without or with low effort. Scammers capitalize on this weakness even more.
- Scammers contact teenagers via Snapchat and offer them an easy job that does not require them to do much but can earn them some good money.
- To get this job, they must pay a small, not substantial fee.
- As soon as the fee is paid – scammers disappear.
How to avoid this Snapchat scam. You should never pay for getting a job. It is the main red flag you should avoid.
How to Recognize Fake Snapchat Accounts
Scams on Snapchat often use fake accounts, and, of course, certain signs can help you to identify such pages.
- Generic names. Scammers often use stereotypical names, like John Smith, or even generate usernames with numbers, such as notfake198745.
- Celebrities accounts. What are the chances that Leonardo DiCaprio contacts you on Monday morning, asking: “How are you?” Most probably, it is one of the fake-account Snapchat scams.
- Generated avatars. Snapchat scammer pictures are often generated with filters and emojis.
- Fantastic offers. Free stuff, an invitation to play a role in a movie, an offer to send a new iPhone “to test” – all these things are mostly unrealistic.
- Requests for money. The ultimate aim of almost any Snapchat scam is to get some cash.
Snapchat Scammer Names
Fraudsters often generate Snapchat scammer names because they lack enough imagination or time to create a more or less realistic one. Moreover, a generic name is more or less safe to use because it attracts less attention. It is much harder to remember an account name that consists of random letters and numbers to report to the support service about it or simply record a snap to warn other users.
Snapchat Scammer Pictures
Generating a picture or using one from a stock is much safer than using someone’s photo as an avatar (with the exception of Snapchat scams involving stolen accounts). Moreover, filters and emojis on profile pictures also attract and excite children and teenagers, helping to gain their trust faster.
How to Prevent Snapchat Scams
There are a lot of things parents can do or discuss with their children to protect them from Snapchat scams.
- Disable location sharing. Scammers often search for potential victims in certain locations or countries, so do not help them detect you.
- Do not add strangers to friend lists. You never know who your new e-friend is: a real person or an online predator with a fake Snapchat profile.
- Do not send money to strangers. Even if the reason seems valid and the person is very sweet – DO NOT!
- Do not open links and QR codes. Even if they come from a friend, their account can already be hacked, and the link may be a phishing one.
- Do not post personal info. It is a juicy bite for any Snapchat scammer.
- Enable 2FA. An additional layer of protection will always be reasonable.
- Use a strong password. The stronger it is – the less attractive target you are for scammers.
- Use privacy settings. Make the content you post visible only to your friends. Lots of Snapchat scams start with the fraudster viewing someone’s snaps.
Of course, nothing guarantees that you or your child will not become victims of Snapchat scams, but if you follow these simple rules – your chances will be much lower.
Take Care of Your Kids Safety with uMobix Snapchat Spy Feature
Parental control apps are a great way for parents to protect their children from Snapchat scams. uMobix is an installable tracker that can cover all aspects of your child’s online activity, and its Snapchat spy is the ultimate tool for protecting them from Snapchat scams.
One of the greatest advantages of this feature is that it allows parents to see messages that have already disappeared. Thus, if a child has become a victim of a Snapchat scam and all the messages disappeared, parents can still check everything and contact the platform support to report the fraudster. All monitoring is performed in the form of screenshots taken every 5-10 seconds, so every bit of information will be tracked. No notification will appear on your kid’s device.
Moreover, you can also check if your child has Snapchat’s location-sharing feature on and detect if something weird is happening. It is extremely useful for parents who spend a lot of time at work and cannot control what their child does throughout the day personally.
Conclusion
Snapchat is not a bad platform for children and teenagers; it is not dangerous on its own. However, due to the many various Snapchat scams, it is still important for parents to monitor their children’s platform activity and protect them from fraudsters. There are many rules and recommendations on how not to make a Snapchat scammer richer, and if you combine them with the uMobix Snapchat parental control, you may have a sigh of relief: your child should become a victim of scams on Snapchat.
