A Telegram channel may be offering swatting-as-a-service with hundreds of incidents reported...

Daniel Sims

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A hot potato: Swatting has been a serious problem for years, resulting in unnecessary panic, wasted law enforcement resources, and at least two deaths. As a rash of swatting incidents hit the US over the last few months, a recent report connects dozens to one person running a swatting-for-hire service.

On Thursday, Motherboard reported that a Telegram channel is offering to swat specific targets for pay using computerized voices. The service is possibly behind at least dozens, if not hundreds, of swatting incidents across the US.

Swatting is when someone calls the police with a bogus threat of violence, prompting them to send armed officers to unsuspecting locations. The practice is difficult to investigate because perpetrators often spoof phone numbers and call outside local jurisdictions – sometimes from other countries. Law enforcement agencies have struggled with the issue for years.

At least two people have died in swatting incidents. In 2017, police in Kansas shot and killed 28-year-old Andrew Finch after a swatter called in a fake hostage situation at his address. In 2021, 60-year-old grandfather Mark Herring suffered a fatal heart attack when teenagers swatted him over his Twitter handle.

Last October, NPR claimed that within a span of 38 days, law enforcement responded to false threats at 182 schools in 28 states. Local media outlets nationwide have reported dozens of swatting incidents since then, with 20 fake school shooting calls occurring recently in Illinois alone.

Motherboard's investigation traced dozens of these calls to a Telegram user named "Torswats," who uses computerized voices during calls. Whether Torswats uses generative AI to impersonate humans or other voice synthesizer technology is unclear. However, the artificial voice responds to 911 operators' questions in close to real-time. The technique comes amid recent reports of scams that use AI to impersonate the voice of a loved one asking for money.

Motherboard obtained 35 call recordings from the Telegram channel before Torswats deleted them. Although, it is estimated that there may have been up to 170. The calls targeted locations in Florida, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, Texas, California, and other states.

The swatting service offers to lock down a school for $75. For an additional $50, it will make a call that causes the police to handcuff a victim and search their home. Torswats also offers deals for returning customers and negotiates prices for swatting celebrities, public figures, or Twitch streamers, the last being a common target.

This week, Torswats temporarily suspended service for "at least one month." It is unclear if the closure is in response to Motherboard's investigation or one coming from law enforcement.

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Let's not forget that at least two (and possibly three) of those incidents resulted in people being shot while quite clearly offering NO threat. SWAT teams these days are not being properly trained and are not getting the quality of people they once did. Nobody wants to be a cop any more..and is that any surprise when you're constantly dealing with false accusations, corruption and being used as political pawns? In police departments across the nation, desperation is driving them to accept recruits who wouldn't have had a prayer just 10 years ago. This leads to a bleak cycle of mutual mistrust between public and officers, and it will take is nowhere we want to be.
 
If the front door to this process is now known to law enforcement, I wonder if they can set up enough stings where they purchase the service themselves while trying to set up traces for each part of the process, etc.

If the creep behind it is in range of the targeted countries law enforcement, at this scale/volume they can probably lock him up for life by prosecuting him separately in each jurisdiction for each case.
 
This looks like the perfect excuse to censor Telegram, one of the last spaces without censorship on the Internet.
 
When an anonymous call can cause the police to handcuff a victim and search their home, the system is broken.

Innocent until proven guilty?
Serve and protect?
Right.

I like to know that if I called 911 with whatever craziness these swatters are claiming they come ready to take action.

What are they supposed to do if someone says they are being held at gunpoint in the basement by a heavily armed person? “Well….good luck”?
 
I like to know that if I called 911 with whatever craziness these swatters are claiming they come ready to take action.

What are they supposed to do if someone says they are being held at gunpoint in the basement by a heavily armed person? “Well….good luck”?
If only there was something between doing absolutely nothing and a tactical team kicking down the door with guns at the ready*...

Strawmen are easier to argue with I suppose.

*or even ready to shoot anything that moves as has happened multiple times in the past.
 
Anyone offering or using such a service should be charged with a felony with a minimum of 20 years to life. This is attempted murder even at it's lowest denominator .....
True, but difficult when it is coming from an international location with a spoofed phone number.
 
If only there was something between doing absolutely nothing and a tactical team kicking down the door with guns at the ready*...

Strawmen are easier to argue with I suppose.

*or even ready to shoot anything that moves as has happened multiple times in the past.
I understand that, but its pretty obvious that Swat never shows up to a house. I’d like to know wtf these people are telling the police to get Swat to the home. Obviously its something insane
 
Wow, what an alarming article!
I sure hope FBI is working on issues like this.
Instead of harassing PTA mom's.
This better be every PD department internal affairs priorities to track down any suspects who make such bogus calls and made examples of them. Given the harshest punishment. The same should go for impersonating an officer/agent.

The SWAT TEAM from any PD across our nation.
Are the best of the best at urban tactics. 911 calls these guys out when the s##t hits the fan!
Whenever they roll up to whatever location, its expected to be a HOT ZONE. Their there to Stop The Action.

Through unsuspecting perception...
(Let's say its movie night at my house. Ive got a couple of friends over. We're all sitting wherever in the living room. Then I get up to take a p##s, and KAPOW. I get shot in the head cause they thought I was the bogus shooter according to the SWATTING CALL).

I also imagine this also how police officers have been setup to respond to a de-esclated call like a cat in a tree. Only to end up as a police fatalities from AMBUSH by scumbags!

I guess these days, if I were jack##s.?!...
I'd be calling 911 because McDonald's didn't give me enough ketchup with my fries.

Blah, blah, blah.....
 
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