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Spot These 5 Common Snapchat Scams Before It's Too Late

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Most Common Snapchat Scams and How They Work

Snapchat is dubbed one of the most prominent social networking apps today. Its 300+ million daily active users spend 30 minutes daily on this platform. Unfortunately, hiding among those millions of users are also millions of scammers.

Social media has been a gold mine for scammers, and Snapchat is no exception. They strike through cyber attacks, friend impersonation, and fake romantic relationships. They will do everything to lure you.

In this article, discover the most common Snapchat scams, how scammers plot them, and how to outsmart them. Better take notes!

Most Common Snapchat Scams and How They Work

Con artists can easily find you on Snapchat, especially if you set your Snapchat account to public. A public Snapchat account lets people reach you easily.

Scammers can also harvest your information and try to find you on other social media platforms, helping them create a more solid scheme.

⚠️ Beware: Snapchat isn’t the only place online where someone can scam you. Techjury has looked into social media scams, and these are the platforms we looked into:

For now, let’s focus on Snapchat scams. Learn more about their nature and how to avoid them below.

Private Snapchat Account Scam

Premium Snapchat, a.k.a private snap, is Snapchat's premium subscription. It is a fee-based account sold per subscription or as lifetime access with a one-time payment.

📝 Note: This section is different from Snapchat Plus, the platform’s subscription service that offers exclusive features, such as:

Story Timer
Story Boost
Chat Effects
Replay Again
Story Rewatch Indicator
Friend Snapscore Challenges

Fraudsters develop the Premium Snapchat account scam. Scammers randomly message you on Snapchat, offering their premium accounts containing explicit photos and videos. However, they stole those content from adult entertainment stars or models.

If you want to see their content, these scammers will charge you a subscription fee. Typically, they need you to pay through gift cards, Venmo accounts, etc. But once you have paid, they'll block you.

This scam may seem absurd, but many people have fallen victim to it. Others are trying to warn everyone:

Comment
by u/When-you-get-home from discussion Got scammed out of $60 by Snapchat premium girl
in Scams

Phishing Scams

There were 500 million phishing scams recorded in 2022, and some of them took place on Snapchat.

💡 What Are Phishing Scams?

This type of scam steals a person’s information, especially their login credentials and credit card information. Then, the scammer will use the victim’s details for fraudulent activities.

For instance, some scammers take your info and sell them to the dark web.

Premium Snapchat account scams sometimes leads to phishing scams. It starts by directing you to a spoofed website that looks identical to a Snapchat website asking for your Snapchat details.

They are presented in 3 ways:

Text message

You will receive 2 text messages in this type of phishing scam. One would be from the official Snapchat as part of its two-factor authentication process. It contains the one-time pin (OTP) needed for login.

Then, the scammer will send you a text asking for the OTP. They are posing as a Snapchat customer support team member who detected suspicious login attempts on your account.

heads up on a Snapchat scam. they use your number to request a password change, snap texts you a code, then they text you this fake message to get you to send them the code. wouldn’t want anyone to see the hundreds of triple chin selfies I send my friends sitting in the same room pic.twitter.com/ShXmnNiKh2
— Kellie Rowe (@kellierowe) November 22, 2019

Link

Scammers will send you a malicious link to click to access their private Snapchat accounts.

Email

You will receive an email that looks legitimate from Snapchat.

💡 Did You Know?

In 2022, scammers took advantage of vulnerable Snapchat and American Express domains. They manipulated the sites into sending phishing emails to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 users.

More than 6,800 Snapchat phishing emails and 2,000 for American Express were found, as reported by the cyber-security company INKY.

Someone Pretending to Be Your Friend Scam

Scammers displays a trustworthy persona and can pretend to be your friend. They will hack into your friend's Snapchat accounts, impersonate them, and try to 'borrow' money from you.

Scammers can also propose a fake opportunity to make money using your friend's hacked account.

Sometimes, they pose as your friend locked out of their account, asking for technical help. They get suspicious when they start asking for your personal information, which they will use to scam others.

If you start receiving weird messages from your friends on Snapchat, double-check with them first to ensure they weren't hacked.

Also note that every day, scammers develop new strategies for scheming. Here’s another way Snapchat scammers pretend to be someone you know:

Posts from the scams
community on Reddit

Romance Scam

According to data, 2 in 5 couples meet online. In most cases, these online relationships are a success story. People clamor at this new way of meeting their partner and, hopefully, their husband or wife.

Unfortunately, some people succeed, others don’t. Worse, people get scammed by romance.

Nowadays, people manipulate fake online relationships. A Snapchat scammer with a fake love interest might give you excessive flattery and praise, “love bomb” you, and tell all sorts of lies to steal your heart and money.

💡 Did You Know? In 2022, romance scams victimized 70,000 Americans, according to the reports of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network. Counted scam losses amounted to a staggering $1.3 billion.

Now that you know all of that, Snapchat romance scams usually happen this way:

Catfishing

The scammer will use fictional names and pretend to be an attractive person seeking love and will ask for money, gifts, etc.

Meetup scam

The scammer will make plans and promise an in-person date. They will ask for gas money but will come up with an excuse and cancel.

Dating app

The scammer establishes a relationship with a third-party dating app as quickly as possible and asks for your Snapchat to get you to send your private clips.

Here is a real-life instance of a romance scam that started in a dating app. It eventually moved to Snapchat:

Snapchat scammer
by u/daidoslav in Scams

Sugar Mommy/Daddy/Baby Scam

A sugar baby is a person who seeks financial support from their chosen provider, a.k.a; the sugar mommy/daddy. All in exchange for companionship, fun, sexual favors, pragmatic love, etc.

A fake sugar daddy/mommy will pretend that they are rich. They will make you believe you will receive money but will turn the tables, leaving you in greater financial hardship.

In early 2022, a 17-year-old boy reportedly fell victim to a sugar baby scam on Snapchat.

The teenager was offered to be a sugar baby through online companionship. The woman went by the name of Errina Angels.

Here’s how their conversation went:

"Hello, there. Will you be like my sugar baby?" "Errina Angels," asked the 17-year-old, who we agreed not to identify.

"I'm willing to pay you $500 as allowance on a weekly basis if you're willing," she said over Snapchat

"Yes, I'm down," the boy replied.

However, the scammer asked him to deposit two checks into his Wells Fargo account. Her mockup 'accountant' sent the checks to the boy via email.

Then, he was told he could keep the $500 but donate the rest via the money-transferring app Zelle. As an unsuspecting teen, he agreed to the plan. However, his deposited checks had bounced when he sent the money.

It was never mentioned whether the boy got his money back. It ended with his mother asking why Wells Fargo didn’t notify her of the unusual activity.

✅ Pro Tip: They say prevention is better than cure. Still, you must educate yourself on what to do if you fall victim to one of these scams. One response to this situation is tracking down your scammer, helping them bring them to justice.

Fraudsters take advantage of the widespread popularity of Snapchat, most of which are users who they think are unsuspecting. Don't fall victim to Snapchat scams. One resource that can help you is the tried and tested website Social Catfish.

Social Catfish
Social Catfish has incredible deep reverse search technology uncovering scammers. You only have to enter the information on their website. Then, they can track precisely where the scam attacks originate and who gets paid.

You can look up people you meet online too. Social Catfish will help verify their identities if you doubt it's them.

Choose from Social Catfish's two reverse search memberships:

First, the reverse search for images. Second, the reverse social search, which enables you to search using the following:

Name
Email address
Phone number
Social media accounts

The Bottomline

It’s not easy to trust anyone these days. Although there are many ways to dodge these crafty Snapchat scams, scammers are becoming more innovative. Always remember to verify the identity of who you are talking to online.

Protecting yourself from these types of scams can help you save time and financial resources.

FAQs.

What to do if someone is blackmailing you on Snapchat?

Don’t give in to the scammer’s demands. Stay calm and block them. Take screenshots of everything as evidence and report abuse on Snapchat. You can also seek help from the FBI, local authorities, and blackmail specialists.

How do you know if you are chatting with a scammer?

You can tell that someone you're chatting with is a fraud when they contact you unexpectedly. Usually, their profile is vague; they profess their love quickly; try to gain your trust too fast; ask for your personal information; refuse to appear on video calls; and, most significantly, if they ask you to do something for them, like clicking a link.

What can hackers do with your bank account number?

Having just your account number, scammers can already engage in money laundering. They can also conduct phishing scams, commit identity theft, withdraw money, shop online, and sell your personal information.