Snapchat Scams: Common Types, Warning Signs and What to Do

The most common Snapchat scams are fake giveaways and prize messages, fake shops selling through Stories and ads, sextortion that starts with a friendly stranger, and account-recovery tricks that steal your login or a verification code. If you’ve been targeted, stop replying, never send a code, a password, money or images, secure your account, save evidence and report the account in the app. If intimate images or someone under 18 are involved, go straight to our sextortion help guide and NCMEC’s CyberTipline.

Snapchat’s disappearing messages, Quick Add suggestions and young audience make it attractive to scammers. None of that means you did anything wrong if you were fooled. Scams are built by people who do this full time, and the steps below work whether you lost nothing or a lot.

Common types of Snapchat scams

Most Snapchat scams fall into a handful of patterns. The details change, but the goal is almost always the same: money, your account, or images that can be used against you.

Fake giveaways and prize messages

An account posing as a creator, brand or “Snapchat team” says you’ve won gift cards, a phone, cash or a free Snapchat+ subscription. To claim it, you’re asked to follow a link, pay a small “shipping” or “processing” fee, or share your login. Real giveaways don’t charge winners, and Snapchat doesn’t hand out prizes through random chats.

Fake shops and sellers

Stories, Spotlight posts and ads show cheap sneakers, designer items, event tickets or electronics. Payment is requested through a payment app, gift card or crypto, and the item never arrives, or something worthless does. Some fake sellers also run “flip your money” offers, promising to turn a small payment into a large one.

Sextortion

A stranger, often using stolen photos and posing as someone around your age, adds you and quickly gets flirty. They send an image first, which is usually fake, and pressure you to send one back. Once they have something, they threaten to send it to your friends and family unless you pay. The FBI has warned publicly that teenage boys are frequent targets of this kind of financially motivated sextortion. If this is happening, you are the victim of a crime, and it can be stopped. Don’t pay and don’t send more.

Account-recovery and “hacker for hire” scams

After an account is hacked, or when someone wants to get into another person’s account, they search for help and find people offering to “recover” or “hack” Snapchat accounts for a fee. These offers are scams. They take payment and disappear, or ask for your login details and take over whatever you have left. Recovery only happens through Snapchat’s own support, and it’s free. Our guide to a hacked Snapchat account covers the real route.

Code and “verify you’re real” requests

A message from a friend’s account, which has usually been hacked, asks you to send the code Snapchat just texted you, “vote” in a contest, or prove you’re not a bot. That code is the key to your account. Nobody legitimate will ever ask you to pass one on.

Fake security warnings

Messages claim your account will be deleted, has broken the rules or needs to be verified, with a link to a login page that looks like Snapchat’s. Snapchat says its team will never ask for your password. Any warning that sends you to a login page from a chat is a phishing attempt.

Romance, “premium content” and investment pitches

Some accounts build a friendship or relationship over weeks, then introduce a crypto platform or a family emergency. Others sell access to “premium” private Snapchat content that never materializes. Both patterns overlap with scams on other apps, which our Instagram scams and crypto scams guides explain in more depth.

Warning signs of a Snapchat scam

• A stranger added you through Quick Add or a username search and moved fast toward flirting, money or a link.
• A request for any code sent to your phone or email, for any reason.
• Payment by gift card, crypto or payment app to a person you’ve never met, especially with a “today only” deadline.
• A prize you didn’t enter that needs a fee or your login to claim.
• A friend who suddenly writes differently, sells things, or asks for money or codes. Check with them another way.
• Pressure to move to another app or to keep the conversation secret.
• Threats and countdowns. Real companies and real friends don’t give you ten minutes to pay.

What to do right now if you’ve been scammed on Snapchat

1. Stop contact. Don’t reply, argue or send “one last payment”. Scammers who receive money usually ask for more.
2. Save evidence first. Screenshot the username, the profile, the chat and any payment requests, because Snapchat messages can disappear. Write down payment usernames or wallet addresses. If the chat involves sexual images, don’t screenshot or save the images themselves, especially if anyone involved is under 18; capture the conversation around them and the account details instead.
3. Secure your account. If you shared a password or code, change your Snapchat password, check that the email and phone number on the account are still yours, turn on two-factor authentication and sign out of other devices. Change the password on your email too if you reused it.
4. Contact your bank or payment app. If you paid, call the number on your card or open the official app, never a number or link from the chat, and report the payment as fraud. Freeze the card if you shared its details.
5. Report and block. Report the account and the messages in Snapchat, then block it. Our guide on blocking someone on Snapchat explains what they can and can’t see afterward.

If a friend’s account sent you the scam, tell them through another app or in person so they can recover it and warn others.

Where to report a Snapchat scam

• Snapchat. Use the report option on the message, Snap or profile (usually found by pressing and holding) and choose the report option that fits: scam or fraud, impersonation, harassment or sexual content. Report every account involved.
• The FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov for any scam, whether or not you lost money.
• The FBI’s IC3 at ic3.gov for online fraud and sextortion. The FBI also takes sextortion tips at tips.fbi.gov.
• NCMEC’s CyberTipline if the person targeted is under 18 or the images were taken when they were under 18.
• IdentityTheft.gov if you shared ID documents, your Social Security number or bank details.
• 7726 for scam texts that came to your phone alongside the Snapchat contact.
• The brand being impersonated, through its official website, if the fake giveaway or shop used a real company’s name.

Our guide on how to report a scammer explains what each route does and how to report outside the US.

Getting your money back: what’s realistic

How you paid decides most of this. Card payments can usually be disputed with your card issuer, and acting quickly helps. Payment apps vary: report the transaction in the app and to your bank and ask directly what they can do, but be aware that transfers you authorized are often hard to reverse. Gift cards are sometimes recoverable only if the issuer freezes the balance before it’s spent, so contact the card company quickly with the card and receipt. Crypto is usually gone once sent, though reporting the wallet address to your exchange and IC3 helps investigators.

If someone contacts you offering to trace or recover the money for a fee, it’s almost always a second scam. Our guide to recovery scams shows how they find victims.

A worked example

This is an illustrative scenario, not a real case. Priya, 15, gets a chat from her friend Leah’s account: “can you send me the code you’re about to get? I’m locked out.” A text with a Snapchat code arrives a second later.

1. Priya thinks it’s odd that Leah is asking on the very account she says she’s locked out of, so she doesn’t send the code.
2. She texts Leah directly. Leah hasn’t sent anything and realizes her account was taken over.
3. Priya screenshots the chat, reports the account as hacked or impersonating, and tells her mom.
4. Her mom helps Priya change her own password and turn on two-factor authentication, just in case.
5. Leah follows Snapchat’s recovery process with a parent and posts from her real account once it’s back, warning friends not to share codes.

Nothing was lost, because the code never left Priya’s phone.

For parents: keeping teens safe from Snapchat scams

Many teens use Snapchat as their main way to talk to friends, so banning it often just moves the risk out of sight. What works better is making sure your child knows the patterns and knows they can come to you without getting in trouble.

• Talk about the big three. Nobody legitimate asks for codes, prizes don’t cost money, and a new “friend” who quickly asks for photos is a red flag.
• Make it safe to tell you. Sextortion works because victims are too ashamed to speak up. Say clearly, before anything happens, that you’ll help and won’t punish them if someone threatens them.
• Use Family Center. Snapchat’s Family Center lets a parent see who their teen is friends with and has been messaging, without reading the messages themselves. Our parental controls guide compares it with other apps’ tools.
• Tighten privacy settings together. Limit who can contact them and who sees their location on the Snap Map. Our Snapchat privacy settings guide walks through them.
• If sextortion or grooming is involved, don’t pay, don’t delete the account yet, and report to Snapchat, the FBI and NCMEC’s CyberTipline. NCMEC’s Take It Down tool can help stop images of under-18s from spreading. Don’t save or forward the images yourself; report the account and any links instead. Our help resources page lists support organizations.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Paying a sextortionist to make it stop. Payment usually leads to more demands, not deletion.
• Blocking before saving evidence. Chats can vanish, and blocking can remove the conversation from view.
• Hiring a “Snapchat hacker” to recover an account. They can’t, and you’ll lose more.
• Replying to a friend’s odd message on Snapchat to check it’s them. If the account is hacked, the scammer answers. Check through another channel.
• Keeping it secret. Telling someone you trust is the fastest way to stop the damage.

How to protect yourself next time

• Turn on two-factor authentication and use a password you don’t use anywhere else.
• Only accept friend requests from people you know in real life.
• Treat any link in a chat as suspicious, and log in only through the app itself.
• Buy from brands’ official sites or checkout systems, not from sellers who want payment app or gift card transfers.
• Keep your location off or limited to close friends.

If a scam has led to fake accounts using your photos, or posts about you spreading beyond Snapchat, our social media reputation management team can help you assess what can be reported and removed.

Frequently asked questions

Will Snapchat ever message me asking for my password or a code?

No. Snapchat says its team will never ask for your password, and a verification code should never be shared with anyone. A message asking for either is a scam, even if it appears to come from Snapchat or a friend.

Can I get money back if I was scammed on Snapchat?

Sometimes. Card payments can usually be disputed through your card issuer. Payment app transfers, gift cards and crypto are much harder to reverse. Contact your bank or payment provider quickly through official channels, and ignore anyone offering paid recovery.

What should I do if someone on Snapchat is threatening to share my photos?

Don’t pay and don’t send anything else. Save the account details and the conversation, report the account in Snapchat, and report it to the FBI. If you’re under 18, or the images were taken when you were, report to NCMEC’s CyberTipline and use Take It Down, and tell a trusted adult.

How do I know if a Snapchat giveaway is real?

Real giveaways are announced on a brand’s verified accounts and official website, and they never ask winners to pay a fee or share a login. If you didn’t enter, or claiming the prize costs money, it’s a scam.