Swatting is defined in Wikipedia as "the act of tricking an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing a 9-1-1 dispatcher) into dispatching an emergency response based on the false report of an ongoing critical incident. Episodes range from large to small — from the deployment of bomb squads, SWAT units and other police units and the concurrent evacuations of schools and businesses, to a single fabricated police report meant to discredit an individual as a prank or personal vendetta."
Basically it's a more lethal form of knock, knock with a steel battering ram and eight tactical Police officers raiding your home. Its the ultimate troll, or at least that's what certain malevolent internet trolls think it is, the act of getting revenge on someone you envy because of their livestreaming success or simply because you want to mess with their head but primarily it's nothing more than an attempt at boosting ego and getting bragging rights.
On 27 August 2014, YouTube user Jordan Mathewson, known online as Kootra, live streamed a game of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Twitch. A viewer called 911 claiming that there was a shooting in the building with hostages. A SWAT team raided the office that Mathewson's gaming company, The Creatures LLC, was operating out of. Mathewson was thrown to the ground and searched as officers searched the room. The events were broadcast live on the internet, until law enforcement set the camera lens-down on Mathewson's desk. Videos of the swatting went viral, gaining over three million views on YouTube and being reported on news programs all over the world.(The YouTube clip below shows that incident)
A 16 year old boy from Ottowa has recently been charged with 60 Swatting offences. One of the alleged incidents was a bomb threat which happened April 30 just before 10:30 a.m. at Jean Vanier Catholic Secondary School in Milton, Ont., west of Toronto. An anonymous 911 caller said he had placed explosives near the school that he was going to detonate — creating eight hours of work for more than 30 officers, and prompting an evacuation and search of the three-storey school.
Another story you may have heard about is 15 year old Paul Horner getting 25 years to Life for swatting, the story was in fact a hoax. A website called National Report reported that a 15-year-old Louisiana teen had been sentenced to 25 years to life when he “swatted” a fellow player who had beaten him repeatedly in Battlefield 4. The story includes sufficient fabricated information to convince casual readers of its authenticity, including a photograph, comments from “Judge Arthur Digsby," fake player IDs, and a vague reference to provisions of the Patriot Act that supposedly justified the decision.
The sobbing teen you may have seen in the YouTube video is actually being convicted of murdering a baby he was supposed to be looking after.
The hoax article details were clearly enough to convince a broad audience of its authenticity. Since its publication, the article had 200,000 shares on Facebook and nearly 400 comments that roundly applaud the decision.
 |
| Add caption |
Swatting goes as far back as 2008 but seems to have come to the forefront of late as prankers take more risks to increase the ante on their victims livestreaming accounts. In fact recently Joshua Peters, a Runescape player was swatted live in front of 60,000 viewers, he then tried to make a video about the incident where he describes how Police pointed guns at his younger brother.
The fact no-one has been seriously injured or killed either shows a superb example of the high level of training that SWAT teams undertake or perhaps it's just nothing but pure luck.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment