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Surprise! SWAT team busting up your video gaming

Gamers use police hoax to lash out at opponents as viewers watch online
Nassau County police officers enter a home in Long Beach, N.Y., in search of an armed killer, based on a phone call that turned out to be a hoax. Authorities say the dangerous and costly prank known as “swatting,” is becoming increasingly popular among people who play combat games over live video feeds while thousands of people watch.

DENVER – The calls to 911 raised an instant alarm: One caller said he shot his co-workers at a Colorado video game company and had hostages. Another in Florida said her father was drunk, wielding a machine gun and threatening their family.

A third caller on New York’s Long Island claimed to have killed his mother and threatened to shoot first responders.

In each case, SWAT teams dispatched to the scene found no violent criminals or wounded victims – only video game players sitting at their computers, the startled victims of a hoax known as “swatting.”

Authorities say the hoax that initially targeted celebrities has now become a way for players of combat-themed video games to retaliate against opponents while thousands of spectators watch. The perpetrators can watch their hijinks unfold minute by minute in a window that shows a live video image of other players.

“It’s like creating your own episode of ‘Cops,’” said Dr. John Grohol, a research psychologist who studies online behavior.

The players, who are often many miles away, look up their opponent’s addresses in phone directories, sometimes using services that can find unlisted numbers. They also exploit online programs that trick 911 dispatchers into believing an emergency call is coming from the victim’s phone or address. All the while, they conceal their own identities and locations.

Authorities spent an estimated $100,000 to send more than 60 officers in April to the hoax in Long Beach, New York. Investigators said the caller was upset over losing a game of Call of Duty when he called police using Skype. SWAT officers found only a teenager wearing headphones.

In Bradenton, Florida, at least 15 officers showed up at the home of a professional video game player on Aug. 31 after a caller posing as his young daughter phoned in a report that he was armed and drunk. Instead, they found him playing Minecraft for a live audience over Twitch.tv, an online network with millions of viewers.

“The officers responding do not know, other than the information they’re getting over the radio, exactly what is going on,” said Bradenton police Capt. William Fowler.

Swatting captured headlines several years ago, when a series of celebrity homes were targeted in Los Angeles. Police were so concerned about copycat crimes that they stopped releasing any public information when a hoax occurred.

“You can literally do it from around the world,” said Justin Cappos, assistant professor of computer science at New York University. “It can be very challenging (to solve) depending on the sophistication of the person doing it.”

Grohol said the prevalence of live game-streaming might be one reason for the trend. As the victim in the Colorado case, Jordan Mathewson, put it to KMGH-TV: “They get to see all this go down right before their eyes and, you know, it’s fun to them.”



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