![]() The caller typically places a 911 call using a spoofed phone number (so as to hide the fraudulent caller's real location) with the goal of tricking emergency authorities into responding with a SWAT team to a fabricated emergency. 911 systems (including computer telephony systems and human operators) have been tricked by calls placed from cities hundreds of miles away from the location of the purported call, or even from other countries. Techniques Ĭaller ID spoofing, social engineering, TTY, prank calls, and phone phreaking techniques may be variously combined by swatting perpetrators. The term was used by the FBI as early as 2008, and has also entered into Oxford Dictionaries Online in 2015. In particular, attempts to have SWAT teams be dispatched to particular locations spawned the term swatting. ![]() Over the years, callers used increasingly sophisticated techniques to direct response units of particular types. Swatting has origins in prank calls to emergency services. In recent decades, hoax callers sometimes make use of techniques to disguise their identity or country of origin. Origins īomb threats were a concern to police in the 1970s, with some public buildings such as airports being evacuated in response to hoax calls that were designed to cause mass panic and public disruption, or to delay exams at educational institutions. : 1 In California, swatters bear the "full cost" of the response which can lead to fines up to $10,000 if great bodily injury or death occur as a result of the swatting. Swatting carries a high risk of violence, and causes resources to be wasted by the city or county when responding to a false report of a serious law enforcement emergency, as well as liability if things go wrong. In March 2019, a California man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for carrying out a fatal 2017 swatting. Making false reports to emergency services is a criminal offense in many jurisdictions, often punishable by fine or imprisonment. Advocates have called for swatting to be described as terrorism due to its use to intimidate and create the risk of injury or death. A threat may result in the evacuations of schools and businesses. These units are equipped with tactical gear and weapons that differ from patrol units, and are called to situations that are deemed high-risk. The term is derived from the law enforcement unit " SWAT" ( special weapons and tactics), a specialized type of police unit in the United States. This is triggered by false reporting of a serious law enforcement emergency, such as a bomb threat, murder, hostage situation, or a false report of a mental health emergency, such as reporting that a person is allegedly suicidal or homicidal and may or may not be armed, among other things. Swatting is a criminal harassment act of deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. For the killing of houseflies, see Fly-killing device § Flyswatter. This article is about the act of fraudulently calling emergency services to another person's address.
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