It’s not that easy to tell for sure who is the real person behind a specific social media account. In fact, these days, lots of people struggle to identify anonymous users on social media, including Snapchat. But what makes the problem more complicated is when you notice that someone has created fake accounts on the platform in your name, email, or even phone number and photos.
So, if you find yourself in one of these scenarios, you’re not alone. Millions of users in the US, just like in other parts of the world, are victims of identity theft. Luckily, there are many ways to identify those fake users and even tell when they setup that account.
Use their profile username
The username you see in someone’s account on Snapchat can help you trace it to its owner. Also, that can help you discover more details about the person’s name, location, and even more. However, not all of these details could be found easily. That depends on many factors, such as the type of account, whether it’s public or private, etc…
Now, to see who is behind a specific Snapchat account, use a reverse username lookup tool. Next, type in the search box the exact username of that page. After that, you should be able to see some suggestions from online resources about the person who created that account. Additionally, you may see information like their other social media accounts, photos, name and address, and even phone number, if available.
Public records can save you time and effort when it comes to this type of search. That can help you avoid scammers because you know their online accounts are not real. So, fake profiles are a great way to tell who the users behind them are and report them to authorities or social networks directly.
If there is a profile bio with details, that also can help uncover the identity of the person who manages it. Sometimes, people add their links to Instagram, Facebook, or other social networks. Thus, by typing the profile details that are visible to everyone, you can view who they are through other social accounts they also own.
Additionally, if you’re lucky enough, you may see links to other sites or blogs or mentions of them. That’s why, it’s better to read every single piece of information in the profile bio section.
Do your investigation with search engines
If you’ve probably heard that there are hundreds of search engines, then, that’s not 100% true. Only a few of them can help you search for information about people and social accounts. So, you have to start with Google, as it’s the largest search engine in the world with billions of queries that others search for daily.
Next, type any of the details you can see under that impersonating account. That could be their username, name, or other details, if available, like email.
Bing is the second-most-used search engine in the US, just after Google. However, it’s not the same, even if they share some similar features. In fact, Bing has its own algorithm that ranks web pages and finds data from various sources, including blogs, Snapchat, and more. That means what you can find with Bing might be different from Google, and that’s why it’s worth a try with this search engine.
During this step, make sure to collect as many details as possible about the user. That could help you in the future, especially when you want to delete that account when it impersonates someone else.
Use social media to your advantage
If you get nothing as a result of search engines, you must try social networks this time. But only focus on the biggest sites like Facebook, Twitter, and similar ones. So, basically, what you can do is this:
Visit any social network, like Facebook. Next, type any details you find on the fake Snapchat account, like their username. When you click on the search option on Facebook, their system starts looking for that data. Finally, if there is any profile, comment, post, or information linked to that username, the platforms will list it under the results.
You don’t have to stop with the most popular sites only. In fact, other apps like TikTok and the new platforms can help in discovering people’s hidden accounts and comparing them with their real names. At the end of this social media research, you can tell who that user is with their name and details.
How to see when that account was made?
Thanks to new technologies, you can quickly find out when a Snapchat account was created, and here is how to do that:
The web archive has the largest source of data about websites, social media, and even other types of content. So that can save Snapshots of web pages, including profiles on Snapchat. Of course, you can do that by adding the full URL of the account on Snapchat, like in the following example:
https://www.snapchat.com/add/username
The site will show you all the snapshots of that account’s username. So, choose the first one you can see from the blue circles. After that, you’ll get the exact old profile on the app like it was at that time. That can give you hints about the first time that the Snapchat account was created, as simple as that.
What about photos?
If you see that the users on the app have clear photos, you can use them. So, first, make sure the image is of good quality, as Google can’t help with bad ones. Next, use any of the available reverse image search engines and upload the file. If it belongs to someone’s profile on other Internet accounts, you should be able to tell who they are. Of course, that may take a few minutes of the search or longer, depending on how that person manages their privacy online.
A picture of someone on Snapchat can help you check their real identity faster. But that won’t be as easy as it’s supposed to be if there are so many of them. In other words, if those photos are from a celebrity’s account, there is a high chance that so many people are using them.
If you don’t see pictures, but only Bitmoji, that may not help. The reason is that so many people can share the same Bitmoji on the app. If you add the fact that the person behind that account is using anime pictures, that will complicate the process of identifying them. Instead, try to look for real photos that are easy to investigate online.
How to report that account
Reporting a fake account is not that complicated on Snapchat. All you need is the official page from the platform. From there,
Here is another way to do that from the app directly. So just click on the profile of that person. Next, press and hold on to its name. Finally, click on manage friends, as you’ll get that option, and tap on the report.
Snapchat will then look at that submission and make the right decision if it’s a fake one.
Additionally, you may want to send your feedback about a fake user on the platforms with one of the SU cybersecurity bureaus
The FBI can also help you get more details about such pages, especially if they impersonate you or other people. You need to take your online security and privacy seriously these days.
Conclusion
With the methods I talked about in this guide, you can easily search for someone’s identity on Snapchat. So you may see their real name? address on the map and even contact numbers. However? Nothing is guaranteed these days with regular search engines, including Google and Bing.
