Rich Kids of Snapchat is an elaborate hoax – but the smartarse creator is selling it for 30k
Rich Kids of Snapchat is on 34,000 likes and counting. But the ’17-year-old’ brain behind the concept is trolling all of us
Rachel DonaldRich Kids of Snapchat is supposedly the new obnoxious and boastful Facebook page of an anonymous 17-year-old who uploads snapchats of his own lavish lifestyle and those his copycat admirers send in.
Since I interviewed Mr Rich Kid a few weeks ago, he has now decided to sell his Facebook page, Snapchat account, clothing line, and numerous other accounts, and “will only consider serious offers in the £20/30K+ range.”
This page is so obviously fake; there’s no news coverage of this self-made millionaire, there’s no photos of him apart from the odd miscellaneous body part, and he’s even claimed to have been KIDNAPPED. Since when did we all become this easy to trick?
Trying to pin him down for a chat proved almost impossible because of the thick veil of PR and social media privacy he hides behind, giving vague answers to the most simple of questions. I’m not buying it. Especially as he’s now asking his admirers to actually buy it.
Boob jobs available – cash in hand.
The fraud runs a Snapchat account in order to send constant displays of wealth to his contacts, because: “I just thought it was a funny concept. I had a lot of pictures sitting on my phone that were related, so I started the page.”
Whilst this dickish behaviour is hardly new on the internet – Rich Kids of Instagram has been making people gag since 2012 – the difference with RKOSnapchat is that the accounts are run by one 17-year-old boy from London who is “very cautious” about his privacy.
The Snapchat account itself has over 60,000 contacts and now rarely works: “In fact: snapchat can’t handle my account, it is frozen most of the time.”
My personal snapchat from Mr Rich. Hit me where it hurts why don’t ya.
But on the 15th of July Mr Rich announced on his Rich Kids of Snapchat Facbeook page that he will be “letting go” of the Rich Kids brand as it has “gotten too big for me.”
“Despite being offered $150,000 for this Facebook page and the Snapchat account ‘richkidsnaps’ by an American advertising company, I would like one of you, the users, to take over ‘Rich Kid Snaps’. I don’t want a company coming along and ruining what I created.”
What he has created is an army of posh admirers out of absolutely fuck all. My guess is he’s no rich kid, but a clever business mind riding off of the egos and idiocy of kids with cash to burn and egos to stroke. But the minute he gets his £20,000-30,000 paid into his account the joke’s on all of us for falling for it.
That innocent smiley isn’t fooling anyone.
The move to sell his ‘brand’ only confirmed my ongoing theory that it was a hoax, as everything about him screamed false even before the interview. The trail to track him down was pedantic and boring, to say the least. His websites directed me to email his press manager, Alex Priddis. However, I couldn’t find this guy’s PR company anywhere, or any of his other clients. In fact, I couldn’t even find the guy himself. First strike.
The interview was set up for 5pm after his “client’s meeting” and to be done on Facebook Q+A style because the kid is so concerned about his privacy he won’t even take a phone call.
When asked why he was so determined to be followed by the public but remain anonymous, he said: “I don’t like attention, I like to live a stress-free life. That wouldn’t help.
“I don’t want people to judge me as a person.”
Or the sense to put the hood up.
A rather ironic statement, considering his supposed profession as a trader. However, Mr Rich categorises stress into necessary and unnecessary, deeming his work necessary and the stress from the snapchat circus “completely unnecessary and therefore I want to avoid it.”
Odd from a guy that agreed to be interviewed. But he had said he didn’t want to be judged as a person, so I tried to oblige.
Despite this, he’s happy to launch into an explanation that details him as a very stressed child, and a very boastful 17-year-old now.
Mr Rich supposedly started studying trading and computer programming for three hours a night aged 10, and also followed some shares on the side. Aged 12, he combined trading and computer programming “and I wrote my first quantitative trading model.”
Someone call the RSPCA.
He says he started with £500 that he had “saved from birthday money and from doing various chores. My parents were really angry I was staying up so late.”
As noble (and far-fetched) as it all sounds, a quick flick through his ask.fm account reveals his family own nine houses throughout the world, and he attends an unknown, exclusive private school (we presume in London). But he considers himself part-time, and only attends “whenever I have the time to go.”
When pushed for his subjects he admitted he was studying subjects that were “not necessarily A-Levels.” But not everyone admires this kid’s way of living. One privately-educated and sound 17 year old in London said of him: “If he doesn’t do A levels he might be one of those drop out losers who doesn’t need an education because he’s so rich.”
Mr Rich currently has no plans to go to uni as “it doesn’t make sense for me.” It was probably the only truthful statement in the entire interview; whilst school kids might lap up his lies, if the kid really is who he says he is then he’d have a hard time making friends at uni with such a disgusting obsession for wealth and ego.
Everyone else’s motivation is uni, but not for these kids.
Mr Rich now supposedly owns three companies “in imports/exports, retail, and web services. But my first one was founded when I was 15 so it was first registered under my mother’s name.”
He says his companies are not “household names” but the retail company “owns brands that are somewhat known.” Sure. This is the same retail brand that he is now selling after spending “thousands on top designers to design a full clothing line that is closely tied with the ‘RichKidSnaps’ brand. This business was valued to be turning over at least £500,000 in the first year.” Considering how terrible his logo is, I’d say he got ripped off – I could have designed that for a tenner.
Mr Rich was also very protective of his parent’s identity, and would not divulge what they do for a living. Reasonable behaviour for someone who claims on his ask.fm page that he has been kidnapped three times, including another two attempts.
Yup. Sure.
When asked why he claims “the government obliges me to have security at all times”, he responded: “Well it’s to protect me of course! It’s because of my wealth.”
Bear in mind, the kid had started with £500 only four years previously. Impressive that a bunch of “professional kidnappers” picked up on him a year before Forbes Magazine has even heard of him.
“I can’t go into detail, but it really wasn’t bad or scary. It was done in a professional way. All they want is the ransom from the insurance.
“Well, I was a bit scared, but actually I had been prepared what to do when it happens. But no, I never felt at risk.”
He was held for less than twelve hours each time, thanks to a quick-thinking insurance company: “It’s not normal insurance, they deal with these kind of things weekly.”
“Rookie error…”
His ask.fm page details that his siblings and some cousins have also been kidnapped. I presumed because of his family name, perhaps: “It was because of me. And with me. I wouldn’t classify that as another member of my family being kidnapped.”
When asked where the kidnappings took place, I was met with a string of “I can’t say.” However, I was informed that, “It would never occur in London!”
Oh good.
Mr Rich’s London sounds different in many ways to everyone else’s London. He spoke of the launch party he is throwing on August 28th for one of his brands (it’s a real shame that won’t be going ahead now that he’s selling), and I sympathised with being underage at his own launch party – everyone else will be quaffing champagne and he’ll be throwing back OJ like there’s no tomorrow, right?
“Oh, I drink. I have my ways.”
Yeah, Emma Stone loves hanging out with rich kids in their teens..
“His ways” also led him to claim he is bezzies with Emma Stone, hangs out with Cara Delevingne and is, therefore, well-known in the London clubbing scene. In fact, he’s also apparently well-known in the New York clubbing scene, boasting on his ask.fm page: “I can get a 14 year old into any of the good clubs in New York (where the age is strictly 21…)”
Good to know you can buy out the law. Curious as to what else he buys on a weekly basis, I asked him his weekly expenditure:
“Oh, well a ‘very low’ week’s spending would be £1000 maybe.”
He also maintains that any of the photos of his lifestyle are all funded by his own money, including use of private jets, lambos and trips all over the world. Whoever this man is, he wants us to believe that he turned £500 into millions between the ages of 12 and 17. Oh, and that he also donates 80% of his earnings to charity.
Not sure what baffles me more – the helicopter or the personal cricket pitch.
By this point I was beginning to lose patience. All the pieces of the puzzle were creating a far-fetched hoax. He’d have been better off saying he was just interested in trading; the computer programming on top of that raised an eyebrow. Perhaps if he’d said he started at 15, and not 12, he may have had me.
Maybe if he’d even left out the bit about his fame on the New York clubbing circuit I would have believed him. But all this, coupled with three kidnappings, and absolutely no news coverage of this guy, was smelling like a pile of bullshit by this point. The selling only proved that.
A whole loadda shame, that’s what you should wear.
He also went on to claim that despite the fact he will be present (and drinking) at his launch party in London, “my identity will not be revealed there.” Clearly, he thinks of himself as double 0 fucking 7.
The only thing that had me stumped was how he was putting photos on his Snapchat story if he wasn’t taking them – a quick google search revealed numerous apps dedicated to uploading photos from your camera roll to your Snapchat. No doubt he was searching #rolex on Instagram and stealing other people’s photos.
To try and catch him out I asked Mr Rich to verify his age with a phone call, as not only did it all seem to good to be true, I also refused to believe he was 17. From the way he wrote he came across not only as older than 17, but also not British; his English was too clipped and precise. Call it a hunch.
Someone might want to fill him in on statutory rape
I swore to keep his identity secret Lois Lane style, but he had to be persuaded into a deal. He said he would “talk to his team” and get in touch the next morning about a phone call: “Alex will probably email you.”
Surprise, surprise – I received no such email from ‘Mr Priddis’ or Mr Rich (who, by the way, “had a modelling contract with a very well known designer brand, but it was terminated as my businesses started to take off.”) RIGHT.
My guess is the weirdo is a jaded, some-what well-off, early twenties man who is pissed off his parents don’t have as much money as his classmates did when he was in school.
In fact, I’d say this is the result of the biggest chip on someone’s shoulder since Pippa’s sister married a Prince.