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You may have heard about “swatting” because it's been in the news recently. What exactly is swatting? Why do people do it?
Because young people are exposed to swatting online, on both mainstream websites and the “dark web” (i.e., hidden websites) and because some swatting incidents begin in online gaming or other digital platforms, it is an important topic to discuss with young people.
What is Swatting?
Swatting is “the deliberate and malicious act of reporting a false crime or emergency to evoke an aggressive response (often a SWAT team) from a law enforcement agency to a target's residence or place of work to harass and intimidate them.” This means that the person doing the swatting reports a fake crime or emergency to get police or other emergency personnel to show up somewhere and possibly scare or cause harm to the individual, group or location they’re targeting.
It is called swatting because the name is based on the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team acronym. SWAT teams are law enforcement officers who respond to situations that are beyond the capabilities of regular police departments or law enforcement agencies. SWAT teams are specially trained and equipped to handle unusually dangerous situations or missions.
How swatting works is that the perpetrator gains access to their intended target’s locational information (i.e., home and/or work address) using various technology-related strategies. They make illegal and potentially dangerous fake calls with the goal of sending SWAT or armed police officers to raid the target’s home, office or other location. The “prank” calls usually involve reporting a fake crime like a home invasion, hostage situation, shooting, bomb threat or other violent incident.
Swatting began in the online gamer and hacker communities and has been around since the early 2000s.
Why do attackers engage in swatting?
There are various motivations of people who engage in swatting. One common motivation is ideological, where attackers are driven by bias and hate towards a particular group of people. Marginalized identity groups (i.e., Jewish people, LGBTQ+ people, Black people, etc.) are targeted based on their identity. In addition, politicians and elected officials have been targeted by individuals who disagree with their viewpoints, policy positions and decisions—a form of political violence and hate. Some perpetrators want to scare and intimidate specific individuals or marginalized groups and communities.
Another motivation is “entertainment.” Sometimes attackers target people participating in online gaming livestreams and the attackers can watch the situation unfold on their streams, which they find entertaining. Other motivations include wanting to get attention through media coverage, social media and online forum discussions. There are even financial motivations for some attackers engaged in swatting. They get paid for their services to do swatting and there have also been cases where people are held for ransom by individuals who claim they will swat victims if a ransom is not paid.
What are some examples of swatting?
There are different reasons why attackers engage in swatting incidents. Specific people, groups and locations are targeted for a variety of reasons and typically are based on the motivation of the attacker, some of which are described above. Targets include celebrities, public figures, politicians, people and groups who hold marginalized identities, those in the gaming world and others. Here are some examples:
During the summer of 2023, there were swatting incidents targeting at least 72 Jewish institutions. Individuals part of this swatting ring called police departments and suicide hotlines claiming that they were planning to conduct a shooting or place a bomb in the targeted building. In December 2023, the swatting continued.
On Christmas Day 2023, New York Republican Congressman Brandon Williams said that the Auburn, NY police had come to his house after receiving a call claiming there was a crisis at his home. The police recognized Williams' address and called him in advance to alert him but only after the swatting incident had disrupted his family holiday. The Congressman instructed his family to assemble in the kitchen and to keep their hands visible when police arrived.
In 2023, a swatting incident at Harvard University resulted in four Black Harvard undergraduate students being held at gunpoint by campus police who responded to the swatting attack. The officers were responding to a fake 911 call. The caller told 911 that there was an armed person in Harvard’s student housing who threatened violence against the residents. After the incident, one of the students shared, "we were all extremely scared, particularly because my roommates and I are Black students who have been bombarded our whole lives with stories and images portraying how situations such as this had ended up terribly."
In 2024, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's federal election interference case, was targeted for swatting. The police and fire department responded to a call that said there was a shooting at her home. The shooting did not occur and the situation was quickly contained. The incident at Judge Chutkan’s home came two weeks after the special counsel, Jack Smith, who filed the election subversion indictment against Mr. Trump, was the victim of a swatting incident at his home in Maryland.
In November 2021, a popular streamer and drag queen known as Elix was swatted while playing video games on a Twitch livestream. Trolls threatened her in the chat and released personal information, including her address. Someone escalated the harassment by calling the police claiming Elix had slit her brother’s throat and planned to kill herself. Police quickly arrived at her home, guns drawn, and asked her to exit with her hands up before they handcuffed her. This incident was not an isolated event. Within two months, six members of Stream Queens, a group of drag queens on Twitch, including Elix, were also the targets of swatting.
In 2023, Nicki Minaj, rapper, singer and songwriter, was swatted on three separate occasions. In the first incident, the person notified child services as a prank, claiming that Minaj's 2-year-old son was being abused. Twenty-four hours later, police received another 911 call that alleged her house was on fire. Less than two months after that, she was swatted again when law enforcement received a hoax call that someone was shot at her house.
In 2023, a Muslim mosque in Florida was swatted. Law enforcement received a call from someone saying he was armed with a gun and explosives and was entering the mosque to carry out a mass shooting. The call also simulated gunfire. A seventeen-year-old was arrested and charged in the case and he has also been accused of making hundreds of swatting threats against high schools, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), homes of FBI agents, government offices, and military bases.
What are the dangers of swatting?
While some may think swatting is harmless and “just a joke,” swatting can have harmful--and potentially deadly—consequences for individuals, communities and society as a whole. Calling in law enforcement or SWAT as a “hoax” to a home, office, or religious institution diverts law enforcement attention and resources from true threats and emergencies. Swatting impacts individuals by intimidating them—causing fear, stress, terror and trauma, which takes many a long time, if ever, to recover.
Innocent people have suffered physical injury as a result of swatting incidents. These so-called “pranks” can also turn deadly. In 2017, a feud between two Call of Duty game players sparked a swatting call to the Wichita police. A police officer, responding to a false swatting call, shot and killed an unarmed innocent man.
Engage in the Conversation
Age
12 and up
Questions to Start the Conversation
What did you learn about swatting that you didn’t know before?
Have you ever seen or heard about swatting? What do you already know about it?
Why do you think swatters carry out potentially dangerous “pranks” like this?
What forms of bias and hate have you heard about involved in swatting incidents?
Have you ever seen any videos of these swatting incidents online? What were your thoughts when you saw them?
Questions to Dig Deeper
(See the Related Content for more information.)
As individuals, what can we do about swatting? As a community and society, what steps do you think we should take to prevent and address swatting?
What are some of the consequences of a swatting incident for the victim, law enforcement and the larger community?
Why do you think swatting is happening more now?
Ideas for Taking Action
Ask: What can we do to help? What individual and group actions can help make a difference?
Educate yourself and others about what swatting is and the dangers of it by sharing important and relevant information on social media or talk with school leaders about organizing a school forum about it and other forms of extremism.
Learn more about state laws about swatting. There are strong anti-swatting laws in Washington, Texas, Maryland and other states across the country. Reach out to your state representative or member of Congress.to share your thoughts and concerns about swatting and encourage them to support legislation that updates these laws.
Help determine if your local law enforcement agencies and 911 dispatchers are sufficiently prepared for the possibility of swatting incidents and advocate for preparedness by providing information about swatting awareness to schools and public and private entities within the community, such as those developed by the New Jersey Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC).