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Swatting is a form of criminalharassment that involves deceiving anemergency service (via such means ashoaxing an emergency servicesdispatcher) into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by false reporting of a seriouslaw enforcement emergency, such as abomb threat,domestic violence,murder,hostage situation, or a false report of a mental health emergency, such as reporting that a person issuicidal or homicidal and may be armed, among other things.[1]
The term is derived from the law enforcement unitSWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics), aspecialized type of police unit in theUnited States. It is not related to the verb "to swat".[2] SWAT teams are equipped withtactical gear and weapons that differ from patrol units, and are called to situations that are deemed high-risk. A threat may result in the evacuations of schools and businesses. Advocates have called for swatting to be consideredterrorism due to its use to intimidate and create the risk of injury or death.[3][4]
Makingfalse reports to emergency services is a criminal offense in many jurisdictions, often punishable by fine or imprisonment.[5] In March 2019, a California man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for carrying outa fatal 2017 swatting.[6] 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 liability if things go wrong.[7]: 1 [8][9][10] InCalifornia, 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.[11][12]
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,[13][14] or to delay exams at educational institutions.[15][16] In recent decades, hoax callers sometimes use techniques to disguise their identity or country of origin.[17]
Swatting has origins inprank 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 termswatting. The term was used by theFBI as early as 2008,[18] and enteredOxford Dictionaries Online in 2015.[19]
In 2019 theAnti-Defamation League estimated that there were about 1,000 swatting incidents nationwide, each costing about $10,000 of police time.[10]
Caller ID spoofing,social engineering,TTY,prank calls, and phonephreaking techniques may be variously combined by swatting perpetrators. 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.[20] The caller typically places a 911 call using a spoofed phone number, hiding the caller's real location.
Swatting is linked to the action ofdoxing, which is obtaining and broadcasting, often via the Internet, the address and details of an individual with an intent to harass or endanger them.[21]
In October 2018, theSeattle 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.[7][22]
Security reporterBrian Krebs recommends that police departments take extra care when responding to calls received at their non-emergency numbers, or through text-to-speech services (TTY), since these methods are often employed by out-of-area swatters who cannot connect to regional 911 centers.[23]
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 byNaveed Jamali andSean Whitcomb, creator of the anti-swatting registry.[24]
In June 2023, theFBI announced that it would create a database to track swattings and improve information-sharing among local police agencies.[10]
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In theUnited States, swatting can be prosecuted through federal criminal statutes:
In 2011, California State SenatorTed Lieu authored a bill to increase penalties for swatting. His own family became a victim of swatting when the bill was proposed.[31] A dozen police officers, along with firefighters and paramedics surrounded his family home.
In 2015, New Jersey State AssemblymanPaul D. Moriarty announced a bill[32] to increase sentences for hoax emergency calls, and was targeted by a hoax.[33][34] The bill proposed prison sentences up to ten years and fines up to $150,000.
A 2015 bipartisan bill in Congress sponsored byKatherine Clark andPatrick Meehan made swatting a federal crime with increased penalties.[35][36] Congresswoman Clark wrote anop-ed inThe 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.[37][38] As revenge for the bill, an anonymous caller fraudulently called police to Rep. Clark's house on January 31, 2016.[39]
In theUnited Kingdom, swatting is not recognized as an offence under UK laws unlike the US but may be prosecuted asPerverting the course of justice where false complaints or allegations were made.[40]
In 2015, 28-year-old Robert Walker-McDaid pleaded guilty atWarwick Crown Court to Perverting the course of justice and was given a 20 monthSuspended sentence. 200 hours of unpaid work and £1000 compensation to Tyran Dobbs, who was the victim of Walker-McDaid's hoax call.[41]
On January 15, 2015, inSentinel,Washita County, Oklahoma, dispatchers received 911 calls from someone who identified himself as Dallas Horton and told dispatchers he had placed a bomb in a localpreschool. Washita County sheriff's deputies and Sentinel police chief Louis Ross made forced entry into Horton's residence. Ross, who was wearing abulletproof vest, was shot several times by Horton. Further investigation revealed that the calls did not originate from the residence, and ledOklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents to believe Horton was unaware that it was law enforcement officers making entry. James Edward Holly confessed to investigators that he made the calls with two "nonfunctioning" phones because he was angry with Horton.[42] Ross, who was shot multiple times in the chest and arm, was injured, but was treated for his wounds, and released from a local hospital.[43]
On December 28, 2017, aWichita police officer shot a civilian named Andrew Finch directly through his chest in Finch'sWichita, Kansas, residence in a swatting incident. Finch later died at a hospital. Based on a series ofscreenshottedTwitter posts, theWichita Eagle suggests that Finch was the unintended victim of the swatting after twoCall of Duty: WWII players on the same team got into a heated argument about a US$1.50 bet. On December 29, 2017, theLos Angeles Police Department arrested 25-year-old serial swatter Tyler Raj Barriss, known online as "SWAuTistic" and onXbox Live as "GoredTutor36", in connection with the incident.[44][45][46][47] In 2018, Barriss was indicted by a federal grand jury along with two others involved in the incident. According to U.S. AttorneyStephen McAllister, the hoax charge carries a maximum punishment of life in federal prison while other charges carry sentences of up to 20 years.[48] On March 29, 2019, Barriss was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment.[49] The gamer who made the bet with Barriss pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice, and was sentenced to 15 months in prison and banned from playing video games for two years.[50]
On April 27, 2020, Mark Herring, a sixty-year-old man fromBethpage, Tennessee, died of a heart attack after police responded to false reports of a woman being killed at his house. The swatting was organized in an attempt 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 beextradited or identified due to their age as a juvenile.[51][52]
Due to the popularity of streaming services, many broadcasters have been victim of swatting. Two weeks after theFortnite World Cup Finals, where 16-year-oldKyle "Bugha" Giersdorf won $3 million and the title of best soloFortnite player, he was swatted while streaming live on Twitch.[53]Ben "DrLupo" Lupo stated he was swatted three times in one month.[54] Other popular gaming broadcasters have been victims of swatting, includingTyler "Ninja" Blevins.[55]
In 2013, a number of U.S. celebrities were victims of swatting, includingSean Combs (P. Diddy).[56] There were also swatting incidents at the residences ofAshton Kutcher,Tom Cruise,Chris Brown,Miley Cyrus,Iggy Azalea,Jason Derulo,Snoop Dogg,Justin Bieber andClint Eastwood.[11]
In April 2013 California State SenatorTed Lieu, who was arguing at the time for anti-swatting laws in the state, was himself swatted.[57]
In 2013, a network of fraudsters involved incarding anddoxing of public officials using stolen credit reports targeted computer security expertBrian Krebs with malicious police reports.[58][59] Mir Islam, the group's leader, had also used swatting hoaxes against prosecutor Stephen P. Heymann, congressmanMike Rogers, and a woman he was cyberstalking after she declined his romantic proposals. Islam was convicted of doxing and swatting over 50 public figures, includingMichelle Obama,Robert Mueller,John Brennan as well as Krebs, and sentenced to two years in prison.[60] 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.[61] He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in Italy, and 41 months in prison in New Jersey.[62]
Hal Finney, a paralyzed computer scientist withamyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), was swatted in 2014 after refusing to pay a $400,000ransom. 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.[63]
In July 2022,Emmet G. Sullivan, a U.S. federal judge presiding over cases pertaining to theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack, was the victim of a swatting incident.[64]
On August 5, 2022, Canadian transgender streamer and political commentatorClara "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 toLondon city councillors, presumably part of a harassment campaign carried out byKiwi Farms that began on March 21, 2022.[65] Sorrenti claimed she was repeatedly misgendered anddeadnamed byLondon Police officers, and placed into custody for 11 hours before being released without charges. She stated that she considered the incident ahate crime, an example of harassment towards transgender people by anti-LGBTQ groups in the United States.[66] 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.[67] Three other streamers,Adin Ross, Nadia Amine, andIShowSpeed were also swatted the same week as Sorrenti.[68]
In August 2022, U.S. representativeMarjorie Taylor Greene was swatted in Georgia by a caller who allegedly opposed her stances on transgender rights.[69]
In November 2023,Ned Luke, a voice and performance artist for the fictional character Michael De Santa in the video gameGrand 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.[70][71]
There have been widespreaddoxing, swatting andviolent threats against American politicians since early December 2023, predominately members of theRepublican Party andconservatives.[72] Beginning in late December 2023, members of theDemocratic Party also began to be increasingly targeted.[73] It is unknown if the hoaxes were perpetrated by one or more individuals, or what their motivations were.[72]
Maine Sec. of StateShenna Bellows was targeted with a fake emergency call to police that caused officers to respond to her home the day after she removed former PresidentDonald Trump from Maine's Presidential Primary Ballot under the Constitution's insurrection clause.[74] Bellows and her husband were not home for the holiday weekend. At her request, police conducted an exterior sweep of the house and then checked inside. Nothing suspicious was found, though an investigation was opened to locate the perpetrator(s). No one has yet been charged.
By 2019, there were an estimated 1,000 swatting incidents domestically each year, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League, and each incident is estimated to cost at least $10,000 to affected communities, even before expenditures on follow-up work like investigations, property repairs and counseling.
But as I've observed in previous stories about swatting attacks, it would also be nice if more police forces around the country received additional training on exercising restraint in the use of deadly force, particularly in responding to hostage or bomb threat scenarios that have hallmarks of a swatting hoax. For example, perpetrators of swatting often call non-emergency numbers at state and local police departments to carry out their crimes precisely because they are not local to the region and cannot reach the target's police department by calling 911. This is exactly what Tyler Barriss did in the Wichita case and others. Swatters also often use text-to-speech (TTY) services for the hearing impaired to relay hoax swat calls, as was the case with my 2013 swatting.
