Kyle Svara, a 26-year-old from Illinois, pleaded guilty in federal court to hacking nearly 600 Snapchat accounts to steal and distribute private nude photos. His victims included students at various colleges and women targeted at the request of a former university track coach who was previously convicted of sextortion.
Kyle Svara admitted to orchestrating a massive phishing scheme between May 2020 and February 2021 that targeted thousands of women across the country. By posing as a representative from Snap Inc., he sent deceptive text messages to over 4,500 individuals to trick them into providing their account access codes. Through these social engineering tactics, he successfully harvested credentials for approximately 570 victims and personally accessed at least 59 accounts to download compromising images.
The defendant did not just keep the stolen content for himself but actively monetized his illegal activities through various online platforms. He advertised his ability to break into specific Snapchat accounts and traded or sold the stolen images to various clients using encrypted messaging apps. His business model involved both independent hacking of women in his local community and taking specific "contracts" to target groups of women at the request of others.
One of Svara’s primary clients was Steve Waithe, a former track and field coach at Northeastern University who was recently sentenced to five years in prison for his own role in a sextortion and cyberstalking ring. At Waithe’s direction, Svara specifically targeted student-athletes on the university’s track and soccer teams. Beyond these specific requests, Svara also targeted students at Colby College in Maine and women living in Plainfield, Illinois, to expand his collection of stolen media.
The legal consequences for Svara are significant, as he faces a litany of federal charges including wire fraud, computer fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Additionally, despite his initial denials to investigators, authorities discovered that he had collected and distributed child sexual abuse material. These false statements to federal agents carry their own criminal penalties and further complicate his legal standing as he awaits his final judgment.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy is scheduled to sentence Svara on May 18th following his formal guilty plea. The wire fraud charge alone carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, while the identity theft charge requires a mandatory minimum sentence of two years. This case highlights a major crackdown on digital sextortion and the collaborative efforts of federal investigators to dismantle networks that profit from the exploitation of private digital data.
Source: Man Pleads Guilty To Hacking Nearly 600 Women’s Snapchat Accounts