Like any other account, your Snapchat can, unfortunately, get hacked. In this article, we’ll dig into how to tell if your Snapchat has been hacked, and what you can do to get your account back.
How to Tell if Your Snapchat Account Has Been Hacked
You might be able to tell right away if your Snapchat account has been compromised. If you can’t log in and all of your friends are asking about the spammy messages you’re sending them, you’ve probably been hacked.
You can’t log in to your account
Any time you change your password, Snapchat will automatically log you out of any other device. So if someone changes your password from another device, you will likely have to log in again from your own phone. If you can’t get in, that’s a sure sign you’ve been hacked.
Even if can still access your account, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in the clear. Especially if you repeatedly get logged out, that might indicate someone is continuing to break into your account.
Your account has been sending strange or spammy messages
If you see your Snapchat sent messages you have no recollection of sending, your account may have been hacked. It’s one thing to send a few messages while under the influence – but who gets drunk and sends a bunch of spam?
You receive an alert from Snapchat
Snapchat will often alert users when someone logs onto their account from a new device, location, or IP address. That might be perfectly normal – say you got a new phone, or took a trip to Mexico – but it might also be a sign someone has infiltrated your account.
Beware: phishing attackers are known to send emails that look just like an official warning. When you click the link to update your password, they’ll direct you to a fake website designed to look just like the real thing. As soon as you type in your old password, you’ve given them what they need to access your account. For that reason, you should navigate to Snapchat directly rather than clicking a link in an email.
What to Do If Your Account Has Been Hacked
If you can still log in to your account, your first course of action should be to update your account information, starting with your password. Make sure to check your phone number and email address as well to make sure all your credentials are correct.
Hopefully, that will be all you need to do to reclaim your account and force out any hackers. But if you can’t log in, you can still attempt to reset your password. Try do do it through your phone number, if possible – with your Snapchat account hacked, you can’t be sure your email is secure.
If you can’t reset your password, it’s time to contact Snapchat support. Describe the situation in as much detail in possible. If all goes well, you will hopefully be able to reclaim your account in short order.
One Last Step…
Finally, you should make sure no other accounts have been compromised. If you use the same login credentials across multiple apps and websites, you will need to change those passwords, so that the hacker that breached your Snapchat doesn’t compromise any other accounts.
I would strongly recommend using a password manager, so that you can set up unique strong passwords across all your accounts on different services. That makes your login information that much safer – and limits the damage when any one account gets hacked.
You can also set up two factor authentication on Snapchat, so that no hacker will be able to access your Snapchat via password alone. It makes your account much more safe: unless they’ve got your phone, they’ll have a hard time breaking into your Snapchat account.