Updated 2019: 3 signs your Snapchat account has been hacked

As one of the favorite social tools, Snapchat had 191 million daily active users. With so many users it’s no wonder that cyber criminals would like to gain access to your Snapchat account.

Several cyber attacks have already been successful

By the end of 2013, a group of hackers published a database including usernames and phone numbers of about 4.6 million users.
The next incident was in February 2016 when someone was able to mimic the CEO of Snapchat. An employee was convinced to forward the payroll of Snapchat employees to this unknown person. This successful phishing attack led to several compromised employee identities.

“Last Friday, Snapchat’s payroll department was targeted by an isolated email phishing scam in which a scammer impersonated our Chief Executive Officer and asked for employee payroll information. Unfortunately, the phishing email wasn’t recognized for what it was — a scam — and payroll information about some current and former employees was disclosed externally.” – Snapchat blog article

Mid April, an Indian group of hackers announced they had stolen data on 1.7 million users. In the aftermath though, this turned out to be a hoax. The next incident in 2018 was no hoax: Thanks to a clever phishing scam around 55000 user accounts were compromised.

Taking all of this into consideration, you might come to the conclusion that it would be really useful to watch out for signs of a hacked account.

What are some of the signs that your Snapchat account might be compromised?

1. Unusual activities

Your account doesn’t look the same as when you last logged in? Are your settings changed or is there a new display name shown? Do you have new “friends” you don’t know? This could be an indicator that someone has fiddled with your account and gained unauthorized access.

2. You have to re-login all the time

Snapchat users actually don’t have to log in that often. Once you’re logged in you normally should stay logged in. This changes if someone else has access to your account: With this person trying to log in you will be logged out every time he or she succeeds. Why? Well, with Snapchat you can only be logged in on one device at a time. So if you have to log in quite often you need to act on the assumption that someone else has unwarranted access to your account.

3. You are receiving an increased amount of emails from Snapchat

Just like many other web services, Snapchat has integrated several measures to protect its user accounts as well. Whenever there is a change to your account you will receive an email notification. This could be e.g. a password change or the change of the email address. Furthermore, you’ll receive an email as soon as Snapchat discovers a login to your account from an uncommon location. So remember: There’s a reason why you are receiving an increased amount of emails from Snapchat – go ahead and check your account settings! 😉

As you can see, it isn’t that hard to see if your Snapchat account has been hacked. You’ve lost access to your account already? Read on about how to regain access to your Snapchat account.