Advances in technology allow prank callers to mask their voice, phone number or IP address (also called “spoofing”), or make their false 911 calls sound more credible.

Advances in technology allow prank callers to mask their voice, phone number or IP address, or make their false 911 calls sound more credible.

Author Patrick Tomlinson and his wife, business owner Niki Robinson, have been “swatted” at their home in Milwaukee more than 40 times, often resulting in police pointing guns at their heads. Their tormentors have also called in false bomb threats to venues using their names in three states. Yet law enforcement hasn’t been able to stop the prank calls.

The couple’s terror comes as these incidents appear to be on the rise in the U.S., at least on college campuses. In less than a single week in April, universities including Clemson, Florida, Boston, Harvard, Cornell, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Oklahoma, as well as Middlebury College, were targeted by swatters.

To combat the growing problem, the FBI has begun taking formal measures to get a comprehensive picture of the problem on a national level.

  •  Crayon8027   ( @Crayon8027@kbin.social ) 
    9•1 year ago

    Sometimes I’ll listen in on police radios and you will hear officers sigh like, “Damn, not this shit again” cause they recognize the address they are being sent to for a call and remember the guy from just a few prior meetings.

    And now these cops are being sent to the same couple over 40 times and are like, “Oh ummm gee, I wonder who these people could be”.

    I honestly think the real reason is that most of these cops want these calls to be true, because they get sold on the idea that being a cop is cool and about fighting crime when 90% of the job is super boring.