BOSTON — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Massachusetts), published as received.
BOSTON – An Illinois man has been sentenced in federal court in Boston for phishing the Snapchat access codes of over 750 women in an effort to hack their Snapchat accounts and steal nude photos, which he kept, sold, or traded on the internet. The defendant also lied to investigators on two occasions, claiming he had no interest in child sexual abuse material. Investigators later determined that he possessed over 500 photos and 600 videos of child sexual abuse material, including some involving children between three and four years old having sex with adults.
Kyle Svara, 27, of Oswego, Ill., was sentenced on July 21, 2026 by U.S. District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy to 76 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. In February 2026, Svara pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and false statements related to child pornography. Svara was charged in December 2025.
From at least May 2020 to February 2021, Svara used social engineering and other resources to collect victim emails, phone numbers and/or Snapchat usernames. He used those means of identification to access victim Snapchat accounts, which prompted Snap Inc. to send account security codes to victims. Using anonymized phone numbers, Svara posed as a representative of Snap Inc. and texted more than 4,500 victims requesting those Snapchat access codes. Below in gray are some examples of Svara’s phishing text messages:
When approximately 570 women provided the access codes that Svara requested, Svara then accessed the Snapchat accounts of approximately 517 women without permission to download their nude or semi-nude images. Svara would often activate two-factor authentication to lock his victims out of their Snapchat accounts. Once he had the stolen images he wanted, Svara sold or traded them on internet forums or in transactions with others who had hired him to hack the Snapchat accounts.
Svara advertised on internet forums like Reddit that he could “get into girls snap accounts” for others and provide content “for you or trade.” Below is an example of one of his Reddit advertisements in a forum dedicated to “wifepictrading”:
To track his efforts, Svara maintained spreadsheets and “notes” application lists on his computer and phone that contained victims’ names, contact information and Snapchat and Instagram usernames. These trackers also documented Svara’s degree of hacking success with notes to himself like “priority,” “got in, couldn’t crack meo [My Eyes Only],” “got a few,” “wrong snap,” and “TONS OF HOT NUDES, TRY AGAIN,” and contained personal information about victims that appear to have been provided by individuals purchasing Snapchat hacks from Svara to help Svara guess probable passwords, such as “Likes Harry Potter, likes San Francisco, likes Buenos Aires, bday March 4.”
One of Svara’s co-conspirators, Steve Waithe, a former Track and Field Coach at Northeastern University hired and paid Svara to hack the Snapchat accounts of women Waithe coached or had other relationships with. In November 2023, Waithe was convicted in federal court in Boston of 12 counts of wire fraud; one count of cyberstalking; one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud; and one count of computer fraud, aiding and abetting. In March 2024, Waithe was sentenced to five years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.
In addition to the women Waithe and others hired Svara to hack, Svara also targeted women who resided in or around the area of Plainfield, Ill., including his neighbors, family friends, grade school classmates, high school classmates, personal friends, family friends and friends of his wife and sister. He also targeted a small group of women who were students at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
When Svara was interviewed by investigators, he falsely stated that he did not know anything about hacking Snapchat. Additionally, he falsely stated that had no interest in child pornography and had never actively sought out or accessed child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Contrary to these statements, the defendant collected, distributed and solicited CSAM. In Svara’s Mega account, for example, investigators found approximately 530 images and 600 videos depicting CSAM. Several of the videos had the ages three and four in their names and depicted female children of these approximate ages engaging in oral and vaginal sex acts with adult men. And in Svara’s Instagram account, investigators found multiple conversations in which he solicited others to send him CSAM. These included children from whom the defendant attempted to obtain images and videos. In one of these exchanges, a user asked expressly, “[d]oes it bother you that I’m underage?” and stated, “I’m not 18.” Svara replied, “Oh okay. More live pics? (:”
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago and the Oswego Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan Cleary of the Criminal Division prosecuted the case.
