Have you heard of Swatting

[Deleted]

It's becoming common in the online gaming world.  Gamers calling real cops to send a SWAT teams to other gamers that are live streaming so they can get the swat team on video.  How did this become a thing?  What is wrong with people. Could you imagine getting a knock on the door and having a SWAT team on the other side and having no idea what the hell was going on.  I remember vaguely reading something about it before but it was the subject on today's Reply All podcast.

gimletmedia.com/episode/ive-killed-people-and-i-have-hostages/

I'm happy H doesn't play games online with random people.  

[pixy0stix]

I've heard about it. People that do it should be fined to the hilt.

[penguingrrl]

They're treating our fucking emergency services as a game? They should be fined a lot for that!

[Scout'sHonor]

This was just on SVU! And that's all I have to add to the convo...

[Deleted]

Here is a story of a kid that got arrested for swatting:

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/alleged-swatting-prankster-famed-god-arrested-in-las-vegas/

A 19-year-old Las Vegas teen is expected to appear in court Monday, days after being arrested in connection to a July swatting incident in suburban Illinois.


Brandon Wilson


Will County state's attorney's office

Brandon Wilson, who goes by the online handle "Famed God," was arrested Thursday in Nevada and faces an extradition hearing to determine whether he should be sent to face hacking and other charges. Illinois prosecutors said there was evidence on his computers about the July 10 swatting incident, in which he allegedly reported a murder to Naperville's emergency 911 line. The SWAT team responded, but the call was a hoax.



The Chicago-Sun Times said that, in addition to the Naperville incident, the suspect's computers held evidence "of similar incidents across the country."



The teen's arrest coincidently came the same day as a popular online gamer, Joshua Peters, aka Koopatroopa787, was swatted while thousands were watching him live stream on Twitch.



Swatting has seemingly become a national phenomenon in the online gaming world, with pranksters calling police and claiming that heinous crimes are underway at a certain location. That usually prompts armed SWAT teams to arrive at the scene. Often, the prank call appears to be coming from the innocent target's address.



"Famed God," meanwhile, is also said to have hacked the gaming consoles owned by two others and threatened to put somebody "in debt for life" by accessing banking information. Illinois prosecutors said charges Wilson faces include computer tampering, intimidation, and identity theft. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

[karinothing]

Mar 6, 2015 11:11:54 GMT -5 Scout'sHonor said:

This was just on SVU! And that's all I have to add to the convo...

ha i was going to add this. I didn't know it was real!

[josieposy]

I did like that the frequent victims finally put themselves on an informal "do not SWAT" list just to help both sides out. It wastes so much time and resources.

[lexxasaurus]

Mar 6, 2015 11:19:13 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Mar 6, 2015 11:11:54 GMT -5 Scout'sHonor said:

This was just on SVU! And that's all I have to add to the convo...

ha i was going to add this. I didn't know it was real!

I saw it on SVU as well! BF is a huge gamer and he confirmed that it was real. He sometimes watches the live streams of games - say if he wants to get a feel for the game play before he buys it - and he's heard of a few cases now.

[IIOY]

I read about this a while back but I didn't realize it had become a thing.  JFC

[ttt]

It's only a matter of time before someone gets killed (or have they already? I feel like this happened already), either a civilian or a cop.

People should be getting jail time for this. It is so incredibly dangerous.

[meshaliuknits]

This strikes me as a good way to get shot.