Prank Called 'Swatting' Could Have Your House Surrounded By Police/SWAT

Definitely not a prank...Geeze people need to get out more...

Little pranksters.
Kids will be kids!

OMG. I'm setting up a VPN on my kid's computer right now. Will that help? Since his IP will appear to be somewhere else entirely?

Great cover story

Exactly. Then they can get married, go to college, get a real job, have kids, get bored, and post here all the time.

Sounds like another form of targeting to me. Nasty business and like the other guy said definitely not a prank.

You don't seem to understand the real problem; this isn't exclusive to "gamers" and the GLP'er this happened to is anything but. It can happen to anyone with haters online. It could theoretically happen to me while I'm streaming from my telescope.

Given that most cops I encounter don't initially recognize what my telescope equipment really is, that could end very badly for me. They're usually on edge with me when they first see it since they simply don't know what it is I'm doing. Now add a called in threat on top of it and you have the recipe for a disaster.

yeah, they might think you're trying to blow up the moon or something.

The funniest was the time they rolled up on me thinking it was stolen playground equipment.

With this precedent having been set...what's to stop the .GOV from posing as the online "swatter" and thus granting themselves the right to SWAT your home? I wouldn't put it past them.

this is a great "excuse" for them to swat anyone!
or a push for new internet id

Well, that's just about as dumb as the scenario I made up. That would surprise me less than half of the idiot cop threads that get posted here almost every day. It seems like there's a pretty low standard these days for hiring cops. You would think that hobby identification and whatnot would be pretty important in their 'trade'.

Well in their defense it was dark and my telescope is not exactly the standard "store bought" long skinny tube type that most people think of when they think "telescope." Most people I encounter really don't know what it is when they first see it. Still, it was the first time it had ever been mistaken for "playground equipment."

Just a new twist on an old prank.

When drug dealers were being ratted out, it was supposed fun to call in to 911 to report gun shots on a Sunday morning.

No caller ID back then. Same crap now just different media with a stupid kiddy name attached to it.

... wait a minute, Canada has phones now? Whoda thunk.

No. In my opinion it is done most often by someone with a hard on for their neighbor calling 911 to say someone at said address is shooting, after dark which will cause the cops to come out and knock while victim sleeps. This can lead to a bad situation.

Love how the media makes the incident out to be a new "trend" (coining the term "swatting") that is currently going on, basically advertizing it as an edgy and thus a cool thing to do in some peoples eyes.

More like both.

I think this is probably orchestrated by our own fascist government. It provides a reason for heavier surveillance and control of our communications. Problem-Reaction-Solution

This^^^

Plus, it's being reported on mainstream media. This means there is probably an agenda behind it and makes me question whether there is any truth in it.

This happened at my daughters school last month. Not funny for the kids with all the school shootings. Some of them were really freaking out.

[link to www.news10.com]

It was one of the kids at school, they set it up with another teen in michigan or montana (can't remember) and they both did it the same day. I feel really bad for the kids parents, this is a pretty small town and most here are lifers.

Well shit, SWAT teams across America have to have SOMETHING to do other than sit around all day and wait for the next false flag call-up, right?

Another reason to USE A VPN

Shoot the moon. This is code name lardass.

Side note:while typing the word "lardass" on my iPad it wanted to correct it to a suggested word "kardashian". Now that was funny.

No you don't need anything special to swat from but it'd illegal to do this. Especially calling in fake bomb threats. If someone was killed it sure seems like the person who called it in could be held for conspiracy or a manslaughter charge

Ok I think you guys are really onto something here. It's easy for them to fake a call, so it's recorded, hell they could even use a computer tone voice, a threat is a threat that must be taken seriously. Nobody can prove it's not real. People like us who do nothing wrong so we have no fear of ever bring raided by the police but have guns and are waiting for thieves to break in so we are on edge, could get caught up in a bad way

so wat it's just a prank. as long as they don't look in the basement everything will be fine

Just watched this vice expose on 'swatting'

[link to news.vice.com (secure)]

Authorities can get warrants to have VPN operators release their records. Better off to use tor with exit nodes in non-extradition countries.