# SWATting? Seriously?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 2, 2014, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224 "2014-09-02T02:29:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224/1 "2014-09-02T02:29:46Z")
The news claims there’s a new scam or prank amongst gamers to “SWAT” by faking a call to 911 (and masking their ALI/ANI info) to claim their gaming opponent just killed their mom, or whatever? Allegedly, a SWAT team will show up on the opponent’s doorstep?
Seriously? This whole thing seems like a UL. ALI info is a database that automatically provides your location, and ANI is a database that automatically provides your number. I think you’d have to go to great lengths to scam the ALI/ANI system. What’s the SD?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224/2 "2014-09-02T02:35:15Z")
[Snopes says nope.](http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/swatted.asp)
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### Author:  [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224/3 "2014-09-02T02:36:20Z")
[It’s a very real thing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting), and it’s been going on for years…
It’s not just gamers, it’s usually just some asshole who wants to mess with a victim, or just the police department.
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### Author:  [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224/4 "2014-09-02T02:38:18Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> [Snopes says nope.](http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/swatted.asp)
No, the article itself notes that SWATing is a real thing in the opening paragraph, what it’s debunking is that a kid got a long prison sentence for “domestic terrorism” for doing it, which was a story created by a satirical news site.
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### Author:  [@dofe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dofe)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224/5 "2014-09-02T02:43:30Z")
This is very much a real thing and has [even happened](http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/anti-swatting-senator-ted-lieu-home-swatted-203922861.html) to a CA state senator:
> [@](#):
>
> A California senator who has drafted a bill to tighten penalties against pranksters who make bogus 911 calls prompting police response to the homes of celebrities – in an only-in-LA-phenomenon – has himself become the victim of a similar call.
>
> Someone sent the Torrance Police Department a text message at 1 p.m. Friday claiming to be Sen. Ted Lieu and saying he had shot his wife, said Lt. Mike Jezulin of the Torrance Police Department.
>
> The call prompted authorities to send up to seven police cars, fire trucks and paramedics and shut down the streets around the Democratic senator’s Torrance home.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224/6 "2014-09-02T02:43:30Z")
First I heard of the practice was when Internet security researcher Brian Krebs had it done to him in March of 2013. [Wrote a blog on the experience](http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/03/the-world-has-no-room-for-cowards/).
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### Author:  [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224/7 "2014-09-02T02:55:09Z")
Recent gaming incident in Colorado:
[http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/gamer-kootra-swatted-while-livestreaming-jordan-mathewson-talks-about-how-he-reacted-in-the-video](http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/gamer-kootra-swatted-while-livestreaming-jordan-mathewson-talks-about-how-he-reacted-in-the-video)
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### Author:  [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224/8 "2014-09-02T18:04:31Z")
As for the how of spoofing the number/locating, it always seems to involve VOIP from a proxy server (to evade detection in a followup investigation).
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224/9 "2014-09-03T18:47:25Z")
It’s been around for over a decade. It was a typical trick of the “Anonymous” type of internet trouble-makers/activists and hacker types.
VoIP technology, among other things, makes it very easy to spoof phone numbers on caller ID. the phone systems have been cracking down recently, but essentially when Caller ID was developed, like email when it was developed, it was not anticipated that the people who might want to mess with it would also have the technical control to do so.
This guy claims it first happened in 2005, but I suspect it was not really the first:
> **[SWATing (Swatting)](https://barrypopik.com/blog/swating_swatting)**
>
> "Swatting" (also "SWATing" or "SWATting") is when someone calls emergency service (such as "911") from an…
> [@](#):
>
> The first “swatting” incident occurred on May 1, 2005, at the suburban Colorado Springs home of Richard Gasper, a TSA screener at the local Colorado Springs Municipal Airport. The word “swatting” first appeared in a newspaper by at least October 13, 2007.
It’s a more lively variation of the tricks my high school classmates used to pull, to have 20 different pizzas delivered at once to the vice-principal’s house one night.
the book “Criminology” by Larry Seigel, I see in Google Books, says more that between 2002 and 2005, in 60 US cities more than 100 victims wer 'swatted".
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### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2014, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swatting-seriously/697224/10 "2014-09-04T05:31:04Z")
Teen arrested for 30+ Swats, two of them directed against reporter:
> **[Teen Arrested for 30+ Swattings, Bomb Threats – Krebs on Security](https://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/05/teen-arrested-for-30-swattings-bomb-threats/)**
>
> A 16-year-old male from Ottawa, Canada has been arrested for allegedly making at least 30 fraudulent calls to emergency services across North America over the past few months. The false alarms -- two of which targeted this reporter -- involved…
Much of this is done by teens in need of better supervision.