A federal judge recently sentenced an Illinois man to more than six years in prison after he set up a large scam to steal private photos from hundreds of women. The 27-year-old used fake text messages to trick his victims into handing over their account security codes. Once inside their private profiles, he locked the actual owners out and sold their personal pictures across various internet forums.
The hacker tricked victims by posing as legitimate customer support
Kyle Svara of Oswego, Illinois, ran his operation from May 2020 through February 2021. He gathered the phone numbers and usernames of thousands of women. He would then attempt to log into a targeted Snapchat account, which forced the app to automatically send a six-digit security code to the actual owner.
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Using fake phone numbers, Svara sent text messages to more than 4,500 victims pretending to be a representative from the company. He asked them to reply with the code they just received. When the women replied, he gained full access to their accounts. Authorities noted that he specifically targeted college students and women living near his hometown.
He sold stolen images and offered targeted hacks for money
After successfully breaking into an account, Svara downloaded any private photos and videos he could find. He then took this stolen media to websites like Reddit to find buyers. Court records show that he took specific requests from clients who wanted access to certain women.
While investigators did not release a full menu of his exact rates, his pricing and trade setup included:
- Cash payments from clients in exchange for hacking a specific target
- Trading newly stolen images directly for other content
- Selling bulk folders of compromised media to strangers online
One of his known paying clients was Steve Waithe, a former track coach at Northeastern University. Waithe hired Svara to break into the accounts of female athletes he coached. A judge separately sentenced Waithe to five years in prison for his role in the crimes.
Svara pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges, including wire fraud and identity theft. His 76-month sentence will also be followed by supervised release, closing the door on an operation that deeply violated the privacy of over 750 Snapchat users.
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