Advances in technology allow prank callers to mask their voice, phone number or IP address (also called “spoofing”), or make their false 911 calls sound more credible.

Advances in technology allow prank callers to mask their voice, phone number or IP address, or make their false 911 calls sound more credible.

Author Patrick Tomlinson and his wife, business owner Niki Robinson, have been “swatted” at their home in Milwaukee more than 40 times, often resulting in police pointing guns at their heads. Their tormentors have also called in false bomb threats to venues using their names in three states. Yet law enforcement hasn’t been able to stop the prank calls.

The couple’s terror comes as these incidents appear to be on the rise in the U.S., at least on college campuses. In less than a single week in April, universities including Clemson, Florida, Boston, Harvard, Cornell, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Oklahoma, as well as Middlebury College, were targeted by swatters.

To combat the growing problem, the FBI has begun taking formal measures to get a comprehensive picture of the problem on a national level.

  • Flax
    14•1 year ago

    I remember hearing that a canadian twitch streamer kept getting swatted, moved to the UK, then someone tried to do it to her again, instead a single police officer showed up just to make sure she was alright and said it sounded like a prank call