Man admits to hacking Snapchat accounts to steal nude photos
A 26-year-old man from Illinois has admitted to orchestrating a wide-ranging cybercrime scheme in which he tricked hundreds of women into surrendering access to their Snapchat accounts, enabling him to steal and trade intimate images online.
Kyle Svara pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a federal court in Boston to charges including computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Reuters reports that the case emerged from a broader investigation linked to a former Northeastern University athletics coach who paid Svara to illegally access the social media accounts of female athletes and other women.
Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Svara is expected to receive a recommended sentence of three years in prison when he appears for sentencing on May 18.
“He has taken full responsibility for his actions to his family and close friends, and today’s plea was a significant relief as it allowed him to finally accept responsibility publicly,” his lawyer, Todd Pugh, said in a statement.
Prosecutors said that between May 2020 and February 2021, Svara used deception and social engineering techniques to harvest login credentials from women who used Snapchat, a social media platform operated by Snap Inc. By posing as a member of Snapchat’s support team, he sent messages requesting security verification codes, which many of the victims provided.
According to court filings, Svara obtained security codes from 571 women, allowing him to unlawfully access at least 59 Snapchat accounts. Once inside, he downloaded nude or semi-nude images belonging to the account holders, which he then kept, sold or exchanged with others on the internet.
Investigators said Svara actively promoted his hacking services on Reddit and other online forums, advertising that he could break into Snapchat accounts and supply private content “for you or trade”.
The prosecution further revealed that in 2020, Svara was hired by Steve Waithe, a former Northeastern University track and field coach, to hack the accounts of women he had coached or with whom he had personal relationships. Svara was allegedly paid $50 for each account he compromised on Waithe’s behalf.
Waithe was sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison after being convicted of running schemes that targeted young women across the United States. Prosecutors said he deceived victims into sending him intimate images or stole such material by gaining unauthorised access to their online accounts, affecting at least 56 women nationwide.
Federal authorities said Svara’s guilty plea brings to a close a significant strand of the investigation, while also underscoring the growing risks posed by online impersonation and social engineering attacks on social media users.
