How would you feel about having the police at your disposal? How about a fully decked out SWAT team—tactical vests, stun grenades, glocks, flash bangs, and spit shield? Imagine them running down a locked door with a battering ram, barking orders to whomever is inside to get their asses to the ground, cuffing the occupants, and immediately searching the house within seconds. Guns loaded and high tensions, right? It’s exciting. The stuff of action movies!
Now imagine those officers aiming their loaded weapon directly in the face of a beloved family member. Safety off, obviously. They’re only doing their job and entering into a hostile situation (to the best of their knowledge, anyway). They’ve kicked down your door and invaded your house, scouring the property. Better hope the family dog is friendly to strangers or holed up in their kennel, otherwise the officers would be in their right to fire and put down Fido. And what devious crime have you commited? What did you do to warrant such a powerful cavalry of law enforcement?
Nothing. You’re an innocent civilian. Enjoying your night home with your family and going about your own business. Binging on the last season of “Parks and Recreation” and eating Cheetos out of the bag. Next thing you know, you’re handcuffed with your face pressed against the floor tile of your mother’s kitchen and focusing on the dust bunny under the refrigerator. Now, make sure you come back to reality—don’t panic—because you have at least one or two officers pointing their guns at you. One slip and you’re gone. Don’t startle them.
This is what “swatting” is. The action itself has been around for a while—years ago it was common for celebrities to get the treatment. Nowadays it’s typically aimed towards gamers who are live-streaming themselves playing video games. A malicious person acquires their address and within the hour a whole SWAT team is kicking down their doors, hoisting them off of their computer chairs, arresting the player, all while being recorded on the live stream for the viewers to behold.
Wait, what?
This is the stuff of scum, folks. Remember those little morons who would curse out your friend because they won a game of "Call of Duty?" This is far worse than that and can cause actual damage. Someone could easily be killed over a bad match of "League of Legends" or "Runescape."
Last week I saw a video of a popular gamer addressing the stranger who called the police to his home. I cannot imagine being in his situation and his video has haunted me since.
“I see you posting my address. I had police point a gun at my little brothers because of you. They could have been shot, they could have died.”
Joshua Peters, a 27 year old veteran and Twitch.tv streamer, slowly makes that statement to the camera. He’s all shaken up, red-eyed from tears, and clearly in need of comfort. He goes on with his speech and the whole scenario is heartbreaking, to say the least. I look up from my phone screen and watch my middle-school-aged niece and nephews playing together. What would I do if they answered the front door to a SWAT team and promptly had a automatic weapon pointed at their faces? I continuously think of Jim Gordon in “The Dark Knight” as Harvey Dent presses his gun to the head of Gordon’s son: “Goddamnit--would you stop pointing that gun at my family!”.
In that moment, for a few seconds, the SWAT team is the enemy. They’re the intruders of your home. The thing is, like I said before, they’re just doing their job. They’re tipped off by these hackers and told some outlandish story. In the situation with Peters, they were told that he had shot his family, thus the police department dispatches the big guns. That’s how the callers do it. They announce that there’s a hostage situation or an active shooter. Something bigger than domestic violence. They make the call using Skype, a VoIP service, or even a phone app that changes their number. Burner phone, pay phones, you name it. Typically the call can’t be traced back.
In the case of gamer Jordon Mathewson, also known as Kootra, police were told that he was an active shooter in his building. SWAT was deployed and Mathewson was “captured” on camera, and he ultimately ended up on the floor while officers stood over him, guns pointed, while one snarled at him, “Don’t you fucking move, boy!” Appropriate for an actual criminal, but scary for an average joe who was just enjoying his quiet night with his friends.
The aftermath? The local schools and businesses were closed for the investigation. Mathewson was eventually released, no one was hurt, and all was right with the world. Except for the fact that it costs approximately $10,000 of taxpayer money to get the job done. But the cost isn’t just financial, wasted manpower is also a concern. What would the consequences be if an actual emergency occurred and the officers were too busy busting down the door of your local MMO player?
And who exactly are these hackers that they don’t consider these things? That lack the basic human compassion? Well, teenage boys for the most part.
Are they completely incapable of feelings? No. From my perspective, it’s difficult for them to remember that there’s a person on the other side of their screens. They think it’s funny. That’s it. That’s really the only reason this whole scenario is brought about.
But what can be done to stop it? Some folks are calling for the culprits to be indebted with the cost of the deployment which would put them 10k in the red. Others are pushing for arrests to be made. States, on the other hand, are trying to pass legislation to shut down this practice. Just a few years ago, California State made it illegal to perform the act and those held responsible face jail time and repayment of wasted funds.
We covered what ought to be done, but what can you do to stop this from happening to you? These events are not exclusive to gamers—remember this is the new “40 pies of pizza sent to your house” prank. If you’ve pissed someone off (or set yourself up to be a target) and your information is available, then you’re vulnerable.
The solution is simple: do not share your information online. Keep all of your information private. That includes Amazon wishlists and your Facebook account. Realize that the average person “trusts” the Internet. Most are more than willing to share their credit card info for some type of good. If you’re the type of person who frequently has to have things sent home then consider getting a P.O. Box. Google yourself—evaluate what you find and change it if it’s too revealing. Understand that all it takes is a name, an identifier like ISP provider, or even your eBay account, and someone can call that company’s customer service or utilize some malware to dig up the rest of your info.
But what if you get the dreaded PM from a stranger saying you’re going to be swatted? Yes, they sometimes do this. Sometimes they’ll even post your address in the IRC chat if you’re in a live stream for everyone to see. If you’re lucky enough to know the police may be on their way, then do the following:
Call your local department. Use the non-emergency line and describe what’s happening. Be as calm as possible and describe what swatting is, although chances are good that they already know what it is. Tell them of any pets or children in your home so the police are aware. Secondly, put all of your lights on if it’s nighttime to avoid them aiming spotlights everywhere. Put your pets in the kennel and have everyone in the house sit in one room with their hands visible. Do not wait outside.
When the police arrive, quietly and calmly go to the door and open it slowly with your hands showing. They’ll run in, do their thing, and when they begin questioning you can explain what is going on (although if you called the department beforehand then the dispatcher would have already informed them).
Repairing the damage is simpler than before. Nowadays, you can reach out to your local courts to press charges or, if you’re more inclined, you can call the FBI’s cyber security team. Plenty of arrests have been made for this crime. It may be hard to trace but it’s not impossible. The pros, in time, can catch them.
What can you do in the meantime? Well, don’t let this change the way you browse online. Sure, you should limit the information you give out. Definitely don’t share your name and address to strangers or flaunt where you work. But that doesn’t mean that’ll limit you from browsing Reddit or mindlessly clicking through YouTube. Be smart.
At this point there have been no deaths related to this. In time, it’ll hopefully become an unpopular practice and the scum of the Internet will move on to something else. Laws will be passed and it’ll become easier to track down offenders. But until then, be mindful of what you share. The Internet is indeed a dangerous place.
