Legal scholar Jonathan Turley becomes latest ‘swatting’ victim after false report of shooting at his

It’s not a liberal problem. The democratic mayor of Boston was a victim Monday. Thousands occur annually and Jewish centers are the current mass target of them, not snowflake republicans.

Flgator, you are always one extra click away from a rational post.

How recent 'swatting' calls targeting officials may prompt heavier penalties for hoax police calls

In Boston, a male caller claimed on Monday that he had shot his wife and had tied her and another man up at Wu’s home. The Democratic mayor said she was surprised to open the door and see flashing lights, but said her home has been targeted by multiple swatting calls since she took office in 2021.

The Anti-Defamation League estimates that by 2019 there were more than 1,000 incidents of swatting nationwide each year. That group says each incident can costs taxpayers thousands of dollars in emergency response costs.

The FBI said earlier this year that it had created a national database in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies to track swatting incidents nationwide. Police had for months reported a huge surge in fake claims about active shooters at schools and colleges. There have also been reports of hundreds of swatting incidents and bomb threats against synagogues and other Jewish institutions since the Israel-Hamas war began.

 

The phone companies can shut down swatting, but have chosen not to spend the money required.

 

Are people finding pay phones to call these in?

 

You could be right; but, nothing in the article proves your position. I will agree that it's not ONLY a Leftist problem.

Reminds me of the IRS going after non-profits: hundreds of Right-leaning organizations were slowed played for obtaining exempt status and a handful of Left-leaning organizations suffered the same fate. The narrative: "everyone was being targeted!!! Nothing to see here."

 

Serious offense deserves serious penalty

 

It’s just a problem.

 

They need to figure our Spam Calls first. Work top down. I get about 15-20 a day on a weekday.

 

Probably called in by a DeSantis supporter.

 

What do you mean? Ban "burner" phones?

 

Most swatting is done by computer, abusing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and unsecured switches deeper in the system. The phone companies don't want to update the switches between VOIP and POTS (plain old telephone service) because it will cost money, but the current mechanisms are unsecured and just accept whatever the VOIP system is telling the POTS system without any checks to verify that the information being passed along is accurate. This is why spammers are able to spoof caller ID so easily.

With AI, this all gets even easier and harder to trace:
A Computer Generated Swatting Service Is Causing Havoc Across America

 

Couldn't anyone just buy an old inactivate Iphone off Marketplace, take it to a McDonalds, get on their free WiFi, and do VoIP that way? Completely untraceable, I'd think.

 

But not nearly as easy as what already exists, and thanks to the phone companies, is already completely untraceable.

 

I hadn’t really thought about it, but I’d assume if they can spoof the location data it probably looks more legit. Like 911 operators probably are — or should be — trained to be skeptical of a call that originated in FL reporting a shooting in Kansas…

 

How do you know so much about this stuff? Pretty cool. I’ve long wondered if and how people are getting away with swatting. So dangerous.

 

Maine secretary of state’s house 'swatted' day after Trump ballot disqualification decision

 

If the call can't be traced, don't respond.