We were targeted, manipulated, and violated.
Nearly 600 women, including us, had our privacy ripped away after Kyle Svara, a 26-year-old Illinois man, carried out a calculated hacking scheme that turned our personal Snapchat accounts into hunting grounds.
Kyle Svara posed as a Snapchat employee and deliberately exploited moments of fear and confusion. When Snapchat legitimately warned us about suspicious activity and sent security codes to protect our accounts, he struck. Texting from unknown numbers, he lied, claiming to represent Snapchat, and demanded our security codes under the guise of “account verification.”
Trusting what appeared to be official communication, approximately 570 of us were deceived. By handing over those codes, we unknowingly gave Kyle Svara the keys to our private lives. Prosecutors say he gained access to at least 59 accounts, harvesting our emails, phone numbers, usernames, and deeply personal images.
What followed was exploitation.
Kyle Svara allegedly downloaded our nude and semi-nude photos—images never meant for anyone else—and sold or traded them on illegal online forums as if our bodies were commodities. The violation did not stop there. Authorities say he even fulfilled specific requests for photos of particular women, turning our stolen images into currency for others’ depravity.
Among those seeking these images was Steve Waithe, a disgraced track coach. In March 2024, Waithe was sentenced to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to offenses involving dozens of women he personally knew—further exposing the dark network fueled by Svara’s actions.
Between May 2020 and February 2021, this scheme operated silently, while our trust was abused and our dignity stripped away.
Now, Kyle Svara faces multiple federal charges, including aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy, and making false statements related to child pornography. These charges reflect the seriousness of what was done to us—not just hacking, but deliberate, predatory exploitation.
We were not careless.
We were deceived.
And Kyle Svara is the one responsible.