Online ‘Swatting’ Becomes a Hazard for Popular Video Gamers and Police Responders; New York Times, 3/20/15

Nick Wingfield, New York Times; Online ‘Swatting’ Becomes a Hazard for Popular Video Gamers and Police Responders:

"Swatting has become enough of a drain on local resources that the state’s attorney for Will County in Illinois, James W. Glasgow, recently proposed state legislation that would require defendants found guilty of swatting to pay back municipalities for calling on emergency responders. Swatting victims say they have been able to prevent repeated raids at their homes by asking the police to note in records available to emergency dispatchers that they are likely targets.

Tracking the culprits behind the pranks is difficult. While bomb scares and other hoaxes have been around for decades, making threats anonymously has never been so easy.

Swatters use text messages and online phone services like Skype to relay their threats, employing techniques to make themselves hard to trace. They obtain personal addresses for their victims through property records and other public databases, or by tricking businesses or customer service representatives at a victim’s Internet provider into revealing the information."