La Center, Washington man sentenced to ten years in prison for scheme to hack Snapchat accounts to access private images and harass teens

Tacoma – A 32-year-old La Center, Washington, man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to ten years in prison and 15 years of supervised release for his scheme to access multiple teens’ private photos by posing as a Snapchat tech support person. Dylan Rex pleaded guilty in August 2025 to seven counts of Wire Fraud; seven counts of Computer Fraud; one count of Possession of Child Pornography; and one count of Attempted Enticement of a Minor. Rex was taken into custody at sentencing to being serving his prison term. Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo told him, “For three years, you were acting like a creature. In the end, your behavior caused unimaginable pain for the victims.”

“This defendant is the dangerous stranger lurking on the Internet that every parent fears,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd. “And he made the deception even worse by posing as tech support to get access to private images. I commend the cyber investigators at the FBI for bringing him to justice.”

“For several years, Mr. Rex deceived his victims by pretending to provide security for their social media accounts. Instead, he used his ill-gotten access to those accounts to steal their personal photos and videos, which he then circulated on the internet,” said W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office. “Even worse, he offered payment to the mother of a child under the age of 10 to sexually abuse the minor child, film that abuse, and send him the imagery. When law enforcement searched Mr. Rex's residence, they uncovered media depicting the mother abusing her minor child along with hundreds of images of child sexual abuse material on multiple devices. He had gone on to distribute some of these images online, inflicting further damage on the victims each time he did. The FBI and our partners will continue to pursue child predators and those who victimize others through the internet so they can be held accountable for their harmful actions.”

According to records filed in the case, between July 2020 and March 2023, Rex defrauded over 170 victims of their private and intimate photos and videos stored in their Snapchat accounts. He would use false phone numbers and false email addresses that made it appear he was a member of the Snapchat tech support team. He would trigger a password reset message to the victim and then ask the victim to provide the six-digit code to assist them in getting back into their account. Once the victim gave up the code Rex locked them out of their account and stole the images he wanted. Many of the images and videos he stole he circulated on the internet, leading to harassment and extortion of the victims.

On March 29, 2023, law enforcement searched Rex’s residence and seized several digital devices. In all agents found more than 600 images of child sexual abuse material on eight different devices.

“What Dylan Rex did was calculated, cruel, and downright depraved. He impersonated a member of Snapchat’s customer support, targeted over 170 victims’ accounts across the country, and stole their photos which were later weaponized against them. To make matters worse, he possessed and distributed child sexual abuse material and even went as far as enticing a young mother into sexually abusing her own child, and documenting that abuse for his own sick gratification,” said Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “With today’s sentence, he’s been held accountable for his crimes, and will be locked away, where he can’t victimize anyone else.”

In asking for the ten-year sentence and 15 years of supervised release prosecutors wrote to the court, “Rex’s sole purpose of hacking into the victims’ Snapchat accounts was to hunt for intimate and sexually suggestive photographs and/or videos of young women that he would in turn share or trade on the internet. Although Rex may not have participated directly in the harassment and intimidation of these victims using their stolen imagery, he undoubtedly contributed to it. His actions created a living nightmare for many of these victims.”

The search of Rex’s devices led to one state court conviction as well.  On October 16, 2025, Rex was sentenced to 90 days in custody after pleading guilty to two counts of Voyeurism in Clark County Superior Court. In that case, Rex photographed and filmed victims, including minors, without their knowledge or consent. Rex used a recording device that he placed in a bathroom to capture these images.

The case was investigated by the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Elyne M. Vaught.