A California teenager has pleaded guilty to making hundreds of swatting calls across the US. These hoax calls, often levied against live streamers or other popular online figures, have been a menace for law enforcement agencies and the teen could face up to a 20-year sentence.

Swatting is the practice of making hoax calls to emergency services and is a form of cyber harassment. Swatters make prank calls to report serious crimes, knowing that armed officers, including Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams, will be dispatched to the stated address.

Swatting is much more serious than most prank calls. It puts the victims in harms way as law enforcement teams have to act like the alleged threat is real and often use some degree of force in these responses.

California Teen Pleads Guilty to Making Swatting Calls

In this case, California-based Alan Filion started making these calls in August 2022 when he was just 16. Filion, who has now turned 18, has pleaded guilty to four counts where each count could see him spend five years in prison which means he could potentially be sentenced to 20 years. However, we won’t know how much time he will face until his sentencing hearing on February 11.

According to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco “For well over a year, Alan Filion targeted religious institutions, schools, government officials, and other innocent victims with hundreds of false threats of imminent mass shootings, bombings and other violent crimes. He caused profound fear and chaos and will now face the consequences of his actions.”

What made his offense even more profound was that he was running a “swatting-for-a-fee service” and profited from the illegal activity. Filion made over 375 swatting and threat calls including some where he threatened to detonate bombs or conduct mass shootings.

Swatting Is Worse Than You Might Think

Swatting is quickly becoming a major problem for law enforcement agencies for a variety of reasons. For one, dispatchers are not able to respond to other pressing and real emergencies during the time they are communicating with swatters like Filion.

Similarly, when law enforcement officers respond to swatting calls, crucial manpower is engaged in hoax operations which makes them unavailable for real emergencies. It also leads to stress among law enforcers and unduly harasses them.

Finally, swatting calls leads to massive inconveniences (at the least) for victims around the targeted area as the large presence of armed law enforcers pursuing what they think is a dangerous threat puts everyone in danger. In countless cases, including following calls made by Filion, many innocent people end up getting detained for no fault of theirs.

According to the Justice Department, Filion claimed in a January 2023 post that when he swats someone, he “usually get[s] the cops to drag the victim and their families out of the house, cuff them and search the house for dead bodies.”

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said, “Swatting poses severe danger to first responders and victims, wastes significant time and resources, and creates fear in communities. The FBI will continue to work with partners to aggressively investigate and hold accountable anyone who engages in these activities.”

Filion Used Social Media to Advertise His ‘Services’

While Filion started doing swatting calls for recreation, he soon turned it into a kind of business venture using social media to advertise his services. However, he ran out of luck earlier this year and was arrested in California on charges related to the threat he made to a mosque in Florida in May 2023. He was extradited to Florida since the case was filed in that state and is now pleading guilty.

How Rampant is Swatting?

We don’t have the statistics for swatting in the US as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) doesn’t list it as a specific category and it only formed a national database for swatting incidents last year. Meanwhile, Kevin Kolbye, a former FBI swatting expert, said that cases jumped from 400 in 2011 to 1,000 in 2019. It’s hard to imagine that they didn’t become even more common during the pandemic.

Most swatting incidents are little more than sick, dangerous jokes but some are done for money, like Filion’s operation. Some cybercriminals even use the threat of swatting to extort money from victims.

It is also being used to settle scores with adversaries. For instance, Ukrainian hacker Sergey Vovnenko sent heroin to Brian Krebs, a journalist who investigates cybercrime, via the dark web site Silk Road and the US Postal Service and reported it when it arrived. But journalists are not the most common victims of swatting.

Popular live streamers including Kai Cenat, xQC, and Amouranth have been swatted more times than they can count. Both xQC and Amouranth revealed that they are sometimes swatted multiple times a week.

In one of the most horrific such cases, a Los Angeles resident Tyler Barriss swatted the house of Andrew Finch, saying that he killed his father and took the rest of his family hostage. Finch was shot dead at his front door by the police not long after. Barriss pleaded guilty and is serving 20 years in prison for his crimes.

In one of the most recent cases, last month Indian airlines received dozens of hoax bomb threats. The constant inundation of threats put the country’s aviation sector into disarray in what’s usually the busiest holiday season in the world’s most populous country.

How To Protect from Getting Swatted?

It is not possible to fully protect oneself from swatting as the person would just need your personal information and address to target you. However, one can dramatically reduce the possibility by avoiding oversharing your personal details (especially your address) on social media. Also, maintaining strict privacy settings across devices and frequently changing passwords can help.

In the unfortunate event of being trapped in a swatting incident, it is prudent to remain calm and cooperate with the law enforcement authorities visiting your premises. Not doing so can have dangerous repercussions as the officers are often expecting a dangerous situation.