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Snapchat Hackers: Ways to Protect Your Kids on Snapchat

The picture and video sharing application, ‘Snapchat,’ has gained popularity among teenagers since the beginning. Snapchat claimed there are no security vulnerabilities. However, in 2014 hackers made the login credentials such as username and password of 4.6 million U.S. Snapchat account holders exposed to the public. Though the site was immediately taken down and improved security measures such as introducing 2FA, there are still questions on Snapchat. What are Snapchat Hackers? What are the ways to protect your kids on Snapchat?

If you are keen on Snapchat or your child actively uses this, you need to be more cautious while using this app. Ignoring the security portions while using this app might one day be the apparent reason for the hacking of your child’s ID, resulting in the ultimate ruining of your child’s life. Here this article covers all the ways to protect your kids on Snapchat.

What are Snapchat Scams?

Snapchat Scammers often pose as someone else that the user knows and start interacting with them. And they steal the important personal information of the user and make them send money. Scammers know how to hack the Snapchat accounts of others even without login credentials.

The most common Snapchat scams are:

Fake money Lottery:

The message popped up with the lottery announcement brings the next level of excitement to every person. But every notification that popped up with such an announcement is not a trusty one.

However, after getting such lottery messages, even parents cannot resist their excitement, and in the flow, they follow all the procedures demanded by the message senders. Without thinking about the negative impact, they become ready to share even the login credentials too.

In such a situation, thinking from the child’s perspective, children are obvious to do anything for money and getting such messages they take it as an easy way to achieve cash without any hurdles. As a result, kids easily fall into the trap of hackers. Therefore, being a responsible parent, tell your child not to believe such lottery announcing messages even if they are from close friends or relatives.

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Pretending to be the victim of hackers

You might not believe it, but sometimes an intruder might come to you saying he\she is a victim of a hacker. In such a scenario, a message will come from your friend’s id, which is already hacked. They ask for your login information to recover their account. Do not ever do the fault of sharing your personal login info.

Pretending to be your friends who need financial help

Being emotional by nature, kids are always eager to help needy persons, no matter whatever they have to do. Making kids trust their stories, hackers’ messages might lead the child to give them money.

For instance: A message might come from your friend’s account saying they are in need of money to treat their injured parents who recently encountered an accident.

To confirm whether the story is true or not, do contact them from other social media apps or call them directly on their cell number.

Snapchat fake romance

Teenagers find romance very interesting. Not everyone on Snapchat is genuine. Someone might be there to take advantage of the fake romance. Asking for the money to wear outfits on the date or demanding any other gifts are the scams that most scammers do to take the money from teens. In addition, those fake romancers don’t hesitate to ask for provoking pictures or videos from kids or teens sent by the kids; hackers might later misuse those videos or photos, threatening them to post those videos and pictures to the public. 

One of the easiest ways to scam is by creating a fake account on social media. So that’s the reason almost all frauds are done through it.

Ways to protect your kids on Snapchat

Based on the hacking methods, here are the points to secure your account.

Choose Strong Password

If your Snapchat password is weak, anyone unaware of tech can also hack it. Don’t include any personal information, and always use a strong password that comprises mixed characters of Upper Case, Lower Case, Numbers, Symbols, and likewise. Also, don’t make the mistake of sharing your password with anyone, even if they are your closer ones.

Enable 2-factor authentication

Enabling two-factor authentication will work as an extra protective shield on your account. As it requires a unique code each time you log in to your account, it minimizes the chance of hackers getting into your account.

But make sure to use an authentication application like google or Okta instead of SMS.

Do Not Talk with Strangers

Kids find it very interesting to talk with strangers, but they don’t think about the negative impact of chatting with an unknown person.

Thus, educate your child not to link up with strangers. If some strangers send them a friend request or messages on their Snapchat, Id tells them not to accept their requests. Replying to them in any way might let them enjoy the benefit of their innocence.

Steps to restrict any stranger person to contact your child on Snapchat:

  1. Access your kid’s profile at the top of the screen and click on the ghost icon.
  2. Now, tap on the gear cog icon, which is placed in the upper right corner below the setting menu.
  3. After that, look for the “Receive Snaps from.” 
  4. Check whether the received Snaps form is set to everyone or Friends. If it is set for everyone, do make sure to change it to Friends. 

Even if the link came from your friends (their account might be hacked), they might be phishing. Use antivirus protection for security. These phishing links usually steer to sextortion.

Recently, one of the Snapchat hackers got arrested by police on a charge of sending an id hacking link to around 20 persons. Embedded with the message of giving them information about the spread of COVID-19 in the locality, he sent the link to many Snapchat users. Among many, around 20 persons opened that link. After receiving the message from that intruder by those 20 persons, their accounts got hacked. In return for the intruder stopping from leaking their personal information and getting their account recovered, the hacker demanded the body-revealing photos of them.

Thus no matter what, don’t open any anonymous link from anyone.

Adjust Privacy Settings

Set the limit on your snap privacy setting so that you can let them send you messages or view your shared photos only by the desired ones.

To restrict others from viewing your location, you have to toggle on the Ghost Mode

Warn your children over what content to send

Thinking it will be deleted after a certain time, your kid may send some personal pictures on Snapchat. But they are unaware that hackers might take screenshots of their shared images and use them for negative purposes. 

Also, restrict your kid from sharing any pictures revealing their location on Snapchat. Not to share anything that they don’t want the whole world to know.

Use Parental Control Applications

Parents can use the parental control application with the intention of protecting their children. You can monitor what your kids are doing, with whom they are chatting, and where they are currently with the help of the parental control app like MobileSpy.io.

Conclusion

In today’s generation, where each and every aspect depends on technology, there is no wonder technology is being everyone’s favorite. If applied properly, technology acts as a boon. In such a situation, restricting your child from using the Internet or mobile app is not a worthwhile decision.

Applying the ways mentioned above to protect your kids on Snapchat, you can let your child relish the services provided by this eminent social media app.