If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Some of the users were in high school at the time, authorities said.Īll told, Mondore admitted to accessing 300 Snapchat accounts, including 14 accounts in the Western District of New York. Then, in one case, according to the Justice Department, Mondore sent the victim’s nude pictures to 116 contacts, accompanied by the message “Flash me back if we are besties.” Four of the 116 contacts complied, sending nude photos of themselves. By sharing that PIN with what appeared to be the security team, the victim in fact surrendered their account to Mondore, who used the PIN to access a collection of explicit images. If the victim did as asked, they then would receive a text message that appeared to be from Snapchat’s security team asking them to enter a PIN number to avoid having their account locked. In this case the suspect targeted dozens of victims, including students at SUNY Geneseo, a university outside Rochester, between July 2018 and August 2020.ĭavid Mondore would take over victims’ Snapchat accounts by impersonating their friends, asking the victim to share their username and password. While instances of the problem are difficult to quantify, the FBI has warned that suspects who trick victims into sending explicit photos often use those images for blackmail or financial extortion. Unlike advanced cyber-espionage activity or digital extortion, cyberstalking is typically aimed at individual victims who have few obvious solutions. Attorney James Kennedy said in a statement. “This case should serve as a cautionary reminder that many individuals lurking on social media use those platforms to engage in decidedly anti-social behavior,” U.S. For instance, someone may hack into the victim’s Snapchat account then leak sensitive photos to porn sites or other online sources.
Snapchat extortion how to#
The fraud, in which Mondore would dupe Snapchat users into providing their passwords, represents only the latest example of ways that scammers exploit otherwise innocuous social media relationships to harass, abuse and torment unwitting users. To avoid becoming the victim of extortion on the internet, know how to spot common online extortion scams and be cautious of what you share online. A New York City man admitted to accessing more than 300 Snapchat accounts to steal victims’ nude pictures as part of a cyberstalking case that ensnared at least 14 people.ĭavid Mondore, 29, pleaded guilty Wednesday to hacking-related charges for orchestrating a scheme in which he would solicit explicit photos from college students by impersonating their friends.
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