Swatting
Imagine a chilling prank where the punchline isn't laughter, but a fully-armed SWAT team bursting through an innocent person's door. This is swatting, a calculated form of criminal harassment that turns emergency services into unwitting weapons of intimidation. It's a phenomenon with potentially deadly consequences, revealing the dark side of online anonymity and malicious intent. Swatting is a criminal act of deception, using false emergency reports to trigger a high-risk police response to an unsuspecting victim's location. Perpetrators employ sophisticated digital and social engineering techniques to disguise their identities and locations, making detection challenging. This dangerous hoax carries severe legal penalties, wastes critical public resources, and has tragically led to innocent people being injured or even killed.
AI Summary
Imagine a chilling prank where the punchline isn't laughter, but a fully-armed SWAT team bursting through an innocent person's door. This is swatting, a calculated form of criminal harassment that turns emergency services into unwitting weapons of intimidation. It's a phenomenon with potentially deadly consequences, revealing the dark side of online anonymity and malicious intent.
- Swatting is a criminal act of deception, using false emergency reports to trigger a high-risk police response to an unsuspecting victim's location.
- Perpetrators employ sophisticated digital and social engineering techniques to disguise their identities and locations, making detection challenging.
- This dangerous hoax carries severe legal penalties, wastes critical public resources, and has tragically led to innocent people being injured or even killed.
What is Swatting?
At its core, swatting is a dangerous form of harassment where a caller deceives emergency services into dispatching a large, armed police response — often a SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) team — to another person's address. The goal is to terrorize the victim and disrupt their life, often under the guise of a grave emergency like a hostage situation or a bomb threat.
The name 'swatting' comes directly from these specialized police units, equipped with tactical gear and weapons for high-risk situations. When a SWAT team responds to a bogus call, it creates an extremely volatile environment, potentially leading to injuries or even death for the innocent occupants.
A Costly and Deadly Hoax
This isn't just a harmless prank; it's a serious criminal offense. Beyond the terrifying ordeal for victims, each incident wastes an average of $10,000 in public resources, diverting police, firefighters, and paramedics from genuine emergencies. Furthermore, the risk of violence is alarmingly high.
The consequences can be devastating. In the U.S., a California man received a 20-year prison sentence for a fatal 2017 swatting incident, highlighting the legal gravity of these actions. In some states, like California, swatters can even be held responsible for the full cost of the emergency response, with fines up to $10,000 if injury or death occurs.
The Evolution of Deception
The roots of swatting can be traced back to earlier forms of prank calls to emergency services, such as bomb threats that caused mass evacuations in the 1970s. These early hoaxes aimed to create panic or disrupt public life, such as delaying exams at schools.
Over time, the sophistication of these calls grew. Callers learned to manipulate emergency systems to ensure specific, high-level responses, giving rise to the term 'swatting.' The FBI officially recognized the term by 2008, and it entered the Oxford Dictionaries Online in 2015, marking its unwelcome entry into common lexicon.
By 2019, the Anti-Defamation League estimated around 1,000 swatting incidents occurred nationwide annually. This sheer volume underscores the pervasive nature of the threat and the significant drain on emergency services.
Perpetrators' Playbook
Swatters often employ a combination of sophisticated techniques to carry out their hoaxes and evade capture. These include caller ID spoofing, which disguises their real phone number, and social engineering, where they manipulate emergency dispatchers with convincing, but false, stories.
They might use phone 'phreaking' techniques or even TTY systems designed for individuals with hearing disabilities to place calls from hundreds or thousands of miles away, or even from other countries. This geographical distance makes tracing the origin of the call extremely challenging for local authorities.
Often, swatting is linked to 'doxing' — the act of obtaining and broadcasting an individual's private information, especially their address, online. This allows perpetrators to target specific individuals and then initiate the swatting incident.
Fighting Back: Countermeasures
Law enforcement agencies are developing strategies to combat swatting. In October 2018, the Seattle Police Department implemented a three-pronged approach: training 911 dispatchers to identify fraudulent calls, ensuring responding officers are aware of potential hoaxes, and establishing an opt-in registry for potential victims.
This registry allows individuals at high risk — such as journalists, celebrities, or live streamers — to provide police with cautionary information about their address. This proactive measure helps officers respond appropriately if a false report is made against them.
Security experts also recommend that police departments exercise extra caution with calls received via non-emergency numbers or speech synthesis systems. Swatters often use these methods when they can't connect directly to regional 911 centers, making them red flags.
Further efforts are underway, with the FBI announcing in June 2023 that it would create a national database to track swatting incidents. This will improve information-sharing among local police agencies and aid in prevention and prosecution.
Legal Landscape
In the United States, swatting can be prosecuted under various federal criminal statutes. These include charges like threatening interstate communications, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, or conspiracy to obstruct justice, carrying significant penalties.
Victims themselves have become advocates for stronger laws. California State Senator Ted Lieu, a victim of swatting himself after proposing anti-swatting legislation, saw firsthand the terrifying reality of a dozen officers surrounding his family home.
Similarly, New Jersey State Assemblyman Paul D. Moriarty was targeted by a hoax after announcing a bill to increase sentences for emergency hoax calls. This bipartisan push in Congress in 2015 sought to make swatting a federal crime with increased penalties, though prosecution rates remain a challenge.
In the United Kingdom, swatting is not a distinct offense but can be prosecuted as 'perverting the course of justice.' A 2015 case saw a 28-year-old receive a suspended sentence, community service, and compensation for a hoax call, demonstrating that international jurisdictions are also taking action.
Tragic Consequences: Deaths and Injuries
The most harrowing aspect of swatting is its potential for tragic outcomes, with several incidents resulting in serious injury or death.
2015 Oklahoma Incident
In January 2015, in Sentinel, Oklahoma, a false bomb threat led to deputies forcing entry into Dallas Horton's home. Unaware it was law enforcement, Horton shot the police chief multiple times. The caller, James Edward Holly, later confessed, angry with Horton, highlighting the danger of misidentification in these high-stress situations.
2017 Wichita Incident
A gaming dispute in December 2017 escalated into a fatal swatting. Casey Viner threatened to swat Shane Gaskill, who provided a former address now occupied by an uninvolved person, Andrew Finch. Viner then hired Tyler Barriss, an anonymous swatter, to make the false call. When Finch exited his home, a police officer tragically shot and killed him.
Barriss pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Viner and Gaskill also received prison sentences for their roles, underscoring the severe legal repercussions for all involved in such a heinous act.
2020 Tennessee Incident
In April 2020, Mark Herring, a 60-year-old man from Bethpage, Tennessee, died of a heart attack after police responded to false reports at his home. The swatting was part of a scheme to force him to give up his coveted Twitter handle, '@tennessee.' Shane Sonderman was sentenced to five years in prison and a substantial fine for his role in this tragic event.
Victims in the Spotlight
From high-profile celebrities to dedicated public servants and even ordinary citizens, swatting has targeted a wide array of individuals.
Targeting Streamers and Celebrities
The rise of live streaming has made many broadcasters vulnerable. Fortnite champion Kyle 'Bugha' Giersdorf was swatted live on Twitch just weeks after winning $3 million. Other popular gamers like Ben 'DrLupo' Lupo and Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins have also been victims.
Celebrities have long been targets. In 2013 alone, a string of swatting incidents hit the residences of stars like Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs, Ashton Kutcher, Tom Cruise, Miley Cyrus, and Justin Bieber, highlighting how easily public figures' addresses can be exploited.
Targeting Public Figures and Activists
Even those fighting cybercrime are not immune. In 2013, computer security expert Brian Krebs was targeted by a network of fraudsters who used swatting hoaxes against him and other public officials. The group's leader, Mir Islam, was convicted of doxing and swatting over 50 public figures, including Michelle Obama and Robert Mueller.
Hal Finney, a paralyzed computer scientist, was swatted in 2014 after refusing a $400,000 ransom. He was forced to endure unsafe conditions on his lawn for half an hour. U.S. federal judges and politicians like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows have also faced swatting attacks, often in retaliation for their actions or stances.
The malicious phenomenon even extends to the virtual world. In 2023, Ned Luke, the voice actor for Michael De Santa in Grand Theft Auto V, was swatted during a Thanksgiving live-stream of himself playing the game, showing the bizarre and far-reaching nature of these attacks.
Article
Swatting
An FBI SWAT team during training
Swatting is a form of criminal harassment that involves deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police or emergency response team to another person's location. This is achieved by false reporting of a serious law enforcement emergency, such as a bomb threat, mass shooting, domestic violence, murder, hostage situation, or a false report of a mental health emergency, such as that a person is suicidal or homicidal and armed, among other things.
The term is derived from the law enforcement unit SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics), a specialized type of police unit in the United States. It is not related to the verb "to swat". SWAT teams are equipped with tactical gear and weapons that differ from patrol units, and are called to situations that are deemed high-risk. A threat may result in evacuations of schools and businesses. Advocates have called for swatting to be considered terrorism due to its use to intimidate and create the risk of injury or death.
Making false reports to emergency services is a criminal offense in many jurisdictions, often punishable by fine or imprisonment. In March 2019, a California man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for carrying out a fatal 2017 swatting. Swatting carries a high risk of violence, and causes resources of about US$10,000 per incident to be wasted by a city or county that responds to a false report of a serious law enforcement emergency, as well as police or municipal liability in cases of violence or use of force. In California, swatters bear the "full cost" of the response, which can lead to fines of up to $10,000 if great bodily injury or death occur as a result of the swatting.
History
Swatting
Bomb threats were a concern to police in the 1970s, with public buildings such as airports being evacuated in response to hoax calls designed to cause mass panic and public disruption, or to delay exams at educational institutions. In recent decades, hoax callers sometimes use techniques to disguise their identity or country of origin.
Swatting has origins in prank calls to emergency services. Over the years, callers used increasingly sophisticated techniques to direct response units of particular types. In particular, attempts to have SWAT teams be dispatched to particular locations spawned the term swatting. The term was used by the FBI as early as 2008, and entered Oxford Dictionaries Online in 2015.
In 2019 the Anti-Defamation League estimated that there were about 1,000 swatting incidents nationwide, each costing about $10,000 of police time.
Techniques
Swatting
Caller ID spoofing, social engineering, prank calls, and phone phreaking techniques may be variously combined by swatting perpetrators, along with TTY systems meant for the use of those with hearing disabilities. 911 systems (including computer telephony systems and human operators) have been tricked by calls placed from cities hundreds of miles away from the location of the purported call, or even from other countries. The caller typically places a 911 call using a spoofed phone number, hiding the caller's real location.
Swatting is linked to the action of doxing, which is obtaining and broadcasting, often via the Internet, the address and details of an individual with an intent to harass or endanger them.
Countermeasures
Swatting
In October 2018, the Seattle Police Department instituted a three-part approach to combating swatting: educating 911 dispatchers to identify fraudulent calls; ensuring that responding officers were aware of the potential for a hoax; and creating an opt-in registry for people who feared that they might become victims of swatting, such as journalists, celebrities, and live streamers. Using the registry, these people can provide cautionary information to the police, to inform officers responding to potential swatting attempts that target the victim's address.
Security reporter Brian Krebs recommends that police departments take extra care when responding to calls received at their non-emergency numbers, or through speech synthesis systems, since these methods are often employed by out-of-area swatters who cannot connect to regional 911 centers.
In September 2019, the Seattle Police Department formed the Swatting Mitigation Advisory Committee, composed of expert community and police representatives. Its purpose is to better understand swatting by collecting and analyzing data, formalizing protocols, and advocating broader awareness and prevention. It is currently co-chaired by Naveed Jamali and Sean Whitcomb, creator of the anti-swatting registry.
In June 2023, the FBI announced that it would create a database to track swattings and improve information-sharing among local police agencies.
Laws
United States
Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, sponsor of the Interstate Swatting Hoax Act of 2015
In the United States, swatting can be prosecuted through federal criminal statutes:
• "Threatening interstate communications" • "Conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, victim, or informant" • "Conspiracy to commit access device fraud and unauthorized access of a protected computer" • An accomplice may be found guilty of "conspiring to obstruct justice" • In California, callers bear the "full cost" of the response which can range up to $10,000
In 2011, California State Senator Ted Lieu authored a bill to increase penalties for swatting. His own family became a victim of swatting when the bill was proposed. A dozen police officers, along with firefighters and paramedics surrounded his family home.
In 2015, New Jersey State Assemblyman Paul D. Moriarty announced a bill to increase sentences for hoax emergency calls, and was targeted by a hoax. The bill proposed prison sentences up to ten years and fines up to $150,000.
A 2015 bipartisan bill in Congress sponsored by Katherine Clark and Patrick Meehan made swatting a federal crime with increased penalties. Congresswoman Clark wrote an op-ed in The Hill saying that 2.5 million cases of cyberstalking between 2010 and 2013 had only resulted in 10 cases prosecuted, although a source for this was not provided. As revenge for the bill, an anonymous caller fraudulently called police to Rep. Clark's house on January 31, 2016.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, swatting is not recognized as an offence under UK laws unlike the US but may be prosecuted as perverting the course of justice where false complaints or allegations were made.
In 2015, 28-year-old Robert Walker-McDaid pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to perverting the course of justice, and was given a 20 month suspended sentence. Walker-McDaid was also required to complete 200 hours of community service and provide £1000 compensation to Tyran Dobbs, who was the victim of Walker-McDaid's hoax call.
Injuries or deaths due to swatting
2015 Oklahoma incident
On January 15, 2015, in Sentinel, Oklahoma, dispatchers received 911 calls from someone identifying himself as Dallas Horton who told dispatchers he had placed a bomb in a local preschool. Washita County sheriff's deputies and the Sentinel police chief Louis Ross made forced entry into Horton's residence. Ross, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot several times by Horton. Further investigation revealed that the calls did not originate from the residence, leading Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents to conclude Horton was unaware it was law enforcement officers who were entering his home. James Edward Holly confessed to investigators that he made the calls with two "nonfunctioning" phones because he was angry with Horton. Ross was treated for his wounds and released from a local hospital.
2017 Wichita incident
During a December 28, 2017 online dispute between Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill regarding the video game Call of Duty: WWII, Viner threatened to have Gaskill swatted. Gaskill gave Viner his former address, which was a home in Wichita, Kansas, occupied by an uninvolved person, Andrew Finch. Viner then asked Tyler Barriss, an anonymous online swatter, to make the fraudulent call to initiate the swatting. Wichita police responded to the false address, and as Finch exited the house, a police officer fatally shot him.
Barriss pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter and several previous unrelated crimes, and in March 2019, he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Viner was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment and two years supervised release for his involvement, while Gaskill was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. The officer was not charged.
2020 Tennessee incident
On April 27, 2020, Mark Herring, a sixty-year-old man from Bethpage, Tennessee, died of a heart attack after police responded to false reports of a woman being killed at his house. The swatting was part of a scheme to force him to give up his Twitter handle "@tennessee". Shane Sonderman was sentenced to five years in prison for the swatting, and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine. A 16-year-old in the United Kingdom was also involved, but they could not be extradited or identified due to their age as a juvenile.
Other notable cases
Video game streamers
Due to the popularity of streaming services, many broadcasters have been victim of swatting. Two weeks after the Fortnite World Cup Finals, where 16-year-old Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf won $3 million and the title of best solo Fortnite player, he was swatted while streaming live on Twitch. Ben "DrLupo" Lupo stated he was swatted three times in one month. Other popular gaming broadcasters have been victims of swatting, including Tyler "Ninja" Blevins.
2013
In 2013, a number of U.S. celebrities were victims of swatting, including Sean Combs (P. Diddy). There were also swatting incidents at the residences of Ashton Kutcher, Tom Cruise, Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, Iggy Azalea, Jason Derulo, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber and Clint Eastwood.
In April 2013 California State Senator Ted Lieu, who was arguing at the time for anti-swatting laws in the state, was himself swatted.
In 2013, a network of fraudsters involved in carding and doxing of public officials using stolen credit reports targeted computer security expert Brian Krebs with malicious police reports. Mir Islam, the group's leader, had also used swatting hoaxes against prosecutor Stephen P. Heymann, congressman Mike Rogers, and a woman he was cyberstalking after she declined his romantic proposals. Islam was convicted of doxing and swatting over 50 public figures, including Michelle Obama, Robert Mueller, John Brennan as well as Krebs, and sentenced to two years in prison. Ukrainian computer hacker Sergey Vovnenko was convicted of trafficking in stolen credit cards, as well as planning to purchase heroin, ship it to Krebs, then swat him. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in Italy, and 41 months in prison in New Jersey.
2014
Hal Finney, a paralyzed computer scientist with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), was swatted in 2014 after refusing to pay a $400,000 ransom. He faced cold, unsafe conditions on his lawn for half an hour while police checked his house. He continued receiving threats until his death in August 2014.
2022
In July 2022, Emmet G. Sullivan, a U.S. federal judge presiding over cases pertaining to the January 6 United States Capitol attack, was the victim of a swatting incident.
On August 5, 2022, Canadian transgender streamer and political commentator Clara "Keffals" Sorrenti was swatted at her home by unknown individuals who also, posing as Sorrenti, sent a threatening email and a photo of an illegal firearm to London city councillors, presumably part of a harassment campaign carried out by Kiwi Farms that began on March 21, 2022. Sorrenti claimed she was repeatedly misgendered and deadnamed by London Police officers, and placed into custody for 11 hours before being released without charges. She stated that she considered the incident a hate crime, an example of harassment towards transgender people by anti-LGBTQ groups in the United States. The London Police Service responded with a statement from Chief of Police Steve Williams, who said that while he could not confirm any language used before Sorrenti's arrest, she was not addressed by her deadname or previous gender while in the agency's holding cells. He also said that any references to Sorrenti's deadname during the investigation seemed to stem from the existence of prior police reports she had accumulated before the event. Three other streamers, Adin Ross, Nadia Amine, and IShowSpeed were also swatted the same week as Sorrenti.
In August 2022, U.S. representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was swatted in Georgia by a caller who allegedly opposed her stances on transgender rights.
2023
In November 2023, Ned Luke, a voice and performance artist for the fictional character Michael De Santa in the video game Grand Theft Auto V, was swatted in his home during a Thanksgiving live-stream of himself playing the game. He took a phone call warning him of the pending police action before he prematurely ended his stream.
There have been widespread doxing, swatting and violent threats against American politicians since early December 2023, predominately members of the Republican Party and conservatives. Beginning in late December 2023, members of the Democratic Party also began to be increasingly targeted. It is unknown if the hoaxes were perpetrated by one or more individuals, or what their motivations were.
Maine Sec. of State Shenna Bellows was targeted with a fake emergency call to police that caused officers to respond to her home the day after she removed former President Donald Trump from Maine's Presidential Primary Ballot under the Constitution's insurrection clause.