It has been brought to my attention that some people are creating Snapchat accounts solely for the purpose of flirting. Why and how exactly?
Well, here’s a scenario based on two real-life incidents I’ve seen online.
A guy asks a girl for her Snapchat, she says it’s private. What does he do? He sends her the login credentials for a “burner” Snapchat account and tells her to login and talk to her from there.
Here are two screenshots (in Arabic of course) showing two incidents of this scenario we discussed:
Translation:
“Ok I’ll give you a Snap [account], login to it and talk to me from it.”
*Sends her login credentials*
“This is the Snap [account].”
Translation:
“May I have your Snapchat account?”
“My Snapchat is private.”
“There, I made you an account that isn’t private, talk to me from it.”
*Proceeds to send her the login info*
Here is why you shouldn’t login to these accounts when asked to.
Snapchat allows only one device to access a single account. Meaning that any other login to this account will result in a sudden logout. Also, whenever someone logs in to the account these people create, they will receive an email (on the email address used to sign up for the burner Snapchat account) with the exact IP address, device brand and model from which the account was accessed. The email will also have an approximate location of the person who logged in to the account based on the IP address.
Here’s where things get worse.
The person who created the account most probably made it for the purpose of finding the location of the person he’s flirting with (this happens a lot in the Middle East unfortunately). This could potentially lead to the guy telling the victim he knows where she lives, and this could lead to blackmail or even worse crimes.
How will this happen exactly?
The Snapchat is first created with a random e-mail address and is in no way connected to the person behind the account. Since he’ll most probably not put in his phone number to verify the account and Snapchat won’t force him in the beginning. Then, he will go to Settings and under “Who Can…” he will tap on “See My Location.”
In this tab he will turn on the location to “My Friends” for the added people on this Snapchat account to see. He will have another Snapchat account added (friends with the burner account he has created). Once the person of interest logs in, he will be able to find out her exact location.
The Dangers of this Happening
He will know exactly where her house is located at. All because of her simply logging in to the account he made. As mentioned earlier, this could lead to blackmail and possibly worse. Use your imagination. This is pure social engineering at work that involves trickery and exploitation of human behavior for malicious intent, whether online or offline. Stay safe.