Instagram and Snapchat scam which blackmails users with private photos hits Yorkshire

West Yorkshire Police's fraud team tweeted: "Fraud using Snapchat and Instagram is affecting the West Yorkshire Area.

"Please familiarise yourself and then tell others!"

Action Fraud UK, the UK's national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre, first shared details of the scam in April after receiving multiple reports of accounts on the apps being hacked.

They said: "Users are tricked into handing over two factor authentication codes to fraudsters.

"The victims are then extorted for money with the threat of having their personal photos shared publicly."

On May 13, Action Fraud UK revealed they were seeing an increase in the number of accounts being targeted.

The police's advise to users:

1) Don't respond to messages that ask for your login details or two-factor authentication codes, as they can be used to compromise your account.

2) Use the report functions within Snapchat and Instgram to flag spam messages, or accounts that may have been hacked