Gamer Pulls SWATing Hoax on Family, Dispatchers

A Collier County (Fla.) family was terrorized but unharmed after a team of heavily-armed sheriff’s deputies raided their home, relying on a telephone call reporting that a child had been stabbed and the adults were being held hostage by armed criminals. In fact, the hoax call was made from Canada, and was related to the family’s teenage son and online gaming. The ordeal marks one more incident in a thankfully-infrequent series of SWATing calls that report serious incidents and provoke a large—and armed—law enforcement response. Florida investigators say this is likely what happened: the 15 year-old son was playing on-line Xbox games with one or more gamers. One of the gamers maliciously hacked into the son’s Xbox and obtained sufficient personal information to create a believable crime scenario. The gamer then used an VoIP to dial a local Florida deaf interpretation service (TRS), and pretended to be a female victim, and gave the son’s home address. The TRS operator called the sheriff’s office and began relaying the hoax incident information. Over 26 minutes, the gamer described a stabbing and six people being held hostage. The dispatcher asked questions through the TRS and assured the “victim” that help was enroute. Only after deputies entered the home did they discover the hoax. Investigators are studying the son’s Xbox device but so far have no clues about who made the call. Watch a TV news report here.