September 17, 2024, 8:08 am | Read time: 6 minutes
Anyone who even halfway consumes content on the internet may have already read or heard about swatting. TECHBOOK explains what it’s all about – and why the phenomenon can end in death.
With increasing progress and new technologies, new ways of coping with everyday life or work are constantly emerging. Unfortunately, this also opens up new avenues for harmful or even criminal behavior with which those responsible can endanger the lives of their fellow human beings. This includes so-called swatting. TECHBOOK explains the term and what consequences the phenomenon can have for its victims.
Overview
What swatting means
The term swatting is borrowed from SWAT. It is a well-known acronym for “Special Weapons and Tactics,” which refers to heavily armed special units of the US authorities. These are primarily deployed in high-risk cases such as hostage-taking, shootings, or dangerous arrests.
Swatting itself involves the false alerting of emergency and rescue services in feigned emergencies. These are usually sent to a specific target person in order to harass them or even put them in serious danger. This is because perpetrators usually intend to get a response from armed teams.
Swatting goes back decades
The principle behind swatting is not new: prank calls to emergency numbers have long been an issue, and there have also been false alarms such as bomb threats in the past that triggered evacuations – including one that affected US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967, as the Daily Trojan explained.
Over the years, fake emergency call techniques evolved to target specific emergency responders. As a result, SWAT teams, in particular, had to be deployed more and more frequently, and the term “swatting” became established. The US security agency, the FBI, coined the term back in 2008 in an information letter explaining the dangers.
Swatting is facilitated by technological progress
Although swatting theoretically only requires a telephone, perpetrators benefit from the possibilities offered by modern technologies and other phenomena. They use these to remain undetected themselves or to obtain sensitive data such as the addresses of their victims. The latter often occurs in connection with so-called doxing.
Swatters can use this or other methods, such as hacking attacks, to obtain the information they need. By cleverly manipulating computers and telephone equipment, they can sometimes carry out swatting across the country and even make calls that appear to come from the victims themselves.
Who does it and why?
There can be many reasons for swatting. Revenge or envy often play a central role in harassing another person in this way or causing serious harm. However, boredom and an inflated ego can also lead people to resort to this practice.
In 2008, the FBI described an extensive swatting case involving five people between 2002 and 2006. In 60 cities, they triggered false operations with more than 100 victims – including claims that hotel guests were armed and dangerous or bomb threats that led to evacuations.
And why did they do this? According to the authorities, it was mainly to “show off and for ego” and not for financial gain. “Basically, they did it because they could,” the FBI stated.
Who is targeted by swatting?
Swatting can basically affect anyone. This applies both to large-scale operations where several people have to be evacuated and to cases against individuals. In the past, however, celebrities have also been victims.
In 2013, NBC News reported that Hollywood and pop stars such as Tom Cruise, Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown, Ashton Kutcher, Justin Bieber, Clint Eastwood, and the Kardashians were the targets of a veritable wave of swatting. This took on such proportions that even the governor of California at the time, Jerry Brown, signed a new law against it.
Swatting also has other consequences. It is a general logistical effort to carry out such an operation. The officers are then not available for real cases during this time. This also results in costs that have to be borne by the general public.
Trend in the gaming and streaming scene – with deadly consequences
In the recent past, there have been an increasing number of incidents relating to video games and live game streams. While some of the streamers were also celebrities, cases between private individuals have also come to light. In the gaming community, people swat other disagreeable players, for example, to take revenge for a defeat or insults in the chat.
One well-known case in the USA in 2017 involved a case of swatting between arguing Call of Duty: WWII players. American Casey Viner threatened to swat Shane Gaskill, who then gave out a false address. Viner then asked a third person, Tyler Barriss, to make the false emergency call. A special squad then showed up at the front door of the completely uninvolved Andrew Finch, who was shot and killed by an officer, The Wichita Eagle reported.
Barriss received a 20-year prison sentence. Viner received 15 months and two years probation. Gaskill was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Similar incidents are still occurring today, including in Germany. As reported by Bild, the well-known Twitch streamer Elias Nerlich, who lives in Berlin, was the target of swatting. Previously, a viewer of his stream is said to have said that he was planning an attack on Berlin Central Station.
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Swatting – the legal situation in Germany
Swatting is not a trivial offense, even if some people think they are just joking. As the law firm SBS Legal explains, it is actually “the criminal offense of misusing emergency calls and interfering with accident prevention and emergency aid resources.” This is regulated in Section 145 of the German Criminal Code.
Under German law, offenders must expect a prison sentence of at least one year or a fine. They may also have to reimburse the costs of the unnecessary deployment. If people are injured, an additional penalty for bodily harm is possible. In Germany, for example, the Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court imposed a prison sentence of three and a half years in 2017 because it found a person guilty of several cases.
However, it is difficult for the authorities to prosecute swatting at all. As there are more and more ways to conceal one’s identity, an increasing number of cases remain unsolved.