Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges • Hacker News Board

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#31

Post by ToucanLoucan » Mon, Nov 18, 2024, 1:33 AM UTC

mcherm wrote: post #25

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #9

Okay so like, genuinely not trying to do a "back in my day" fuckin thing here, but also: what the fuck is wrong with kids? Back when I was coming up, pranking at it's absolute worst was like, filling a dudes shoes with yogurt in the locker room, or like, putting plastic bugs in people's desks n shit. Why the fuck are teenagers trying to get each other murdered by cops!?

Fair question, but I would also like to ask "What the f** is wrong with cops?". Receiving an anonymous call claiming some not-particularly-plausible threat at a particular location probably DOES deserve a police investigation. I see no reason why it impels police to drag people from their house in chains, threaten to shoot them, or actually shoot them. If police responses were reasonable and proportionate to the plau…

Extremely valid points there.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#32

Post by __MatrixMan__ » Mon, Nov 18, 2024, 1:34 AM UTC

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #9

Okay so like, genuinely not trying to do a "back in my day" fuckin thing here, but also: what the fuck is wrong with kids? Back when I was coming up, pranking at it's absolute worst was like, filling a dudes shoes with yogurt in the locker room, or like, putting plastic bugs in people's desks n shit. Why the fuck are teenagers trying to get each other murdered by cops!?

From: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/swat...

> Prosecutors say the ... teenager advertised his services under the pseudonym Torswats on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, charging as little as $40 to get someone’s gas shut off, $50 for a “major police response”, and $75 for a “bomb threat/mass shooting threat”.

I don't think this is pranks. I had an antisocial stint in my late teens also and it was more about gaining some power over a world that wants to treat you like a cog. I bet it wasn't even about the money (at least it wasn't for me) it's just that having a "hussle" is a persona that you can wear if you want to focus somewhere besides the consequences of your actions.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#33

Post by dmix » Mon, Nov 18, 2024, 1:37 AM UTC

plagiarist wrote: post #22

It should really not be possible for a single anonymous phone call to dispatch a heavily armed response team to break down someone's door. Aside from that, people who do so are despicable. 20 years is a light sentence. Taking money to put people in situations that could easily become deadly.

I'm sure a lot of consideration was put into how to deal with this problem. It's probably not cheap or easy running specialized SWAT teams for calls and there's nothing police would hate more than being taken advantage of by criminals.

But they seem to have decided this is the least bad option. They have a duty to respond to serious phone calls about armed situations.

The main issue is the insecurity of the old telecom system where spoofing is so easy. But we're heavily invested in it as a society.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#34

Post by aorloff » Mon, Nov 18, 2024, 1:42 AM UTC

plagiarist wrote: post #22

It should really not be possible for a single anonymous phone call to dispatch a heavily armed response team to break down someone's door. Aside from that, people who do so are despicable. 20 years is a light sentence. Taking money to put people in situations that could easily become deadly.

Anonymous being the key word here

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#35

Post by kodt » Mon, Nov 18, 2024, 1:42 AM UTC

Palomides wrote: post #30

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #9

Okay so like, genuinely not trying to do a "back in my day" fuckin thing here, but also: what the fuck is wrong with kids? Back when I was coming up, pranking at it's absolute worst was like, filling a dudes shoes with yogurt in the locker room, or like, putting plastic bugs in people's desks n shit. Why the fuck are teenagers trying to get each other murdered by cops!?

swatting is older than I am, and kids have been calling in bomb threats to get out of school for the better part of a century

Swatting and bomb threats are different things. The rise of live steaming also seemed to encourage swatting as you could see the results live.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#36

Post by throwup238 » Mon, Nov 18, 2024, 1:42 AM UTC

potato3732842 wrote: post #24

tomcam wrote: post #19

Not sure why swatting isn’t treated like attempted murder

That requires not only people wrapping their mind around the fact that death is likely when the cops kick in a door but also the state overtly codifying that reality. It'll happen when pigs fly.

[flagged]

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#37

Post by shiroiushi » Mon, Nov 18, 2024, 1:42 AM UTC

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #9

Okay so like, genuinely not trying to do a "back in my day" fuckin thing here, but also: what the fuck is wrong with kids? Back when I was coming up, pranking at it's absolute worst was like, filling a dudes shoes with yogurt in the locker room, or like, putting plastic bugs in people's desks n shit. Why the fuck are teenagers trying to get each other murdered by cops!?

I guess my friends were weird, but our idea of doing a teenage prank with phone calls was to use our two phone lines (we had 2nd phone lines for our modems) to set up conference calls between each other, and then each of us would call a pizza shop (I might call Domino's, and he'd call Papa John's), and then mute ourselves and laugh while the pizza shop workers would argue about who called who. The smart ones would immediately catch on and say "I think someone is playing a prank on us" and hang up quickly, but the dumb ones would get into an argument with each other.

When Caller ID became the norm, it completely ruined phone pranks like this.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#38

Post by hinkley » Mon, Nov 18, 2024, 1:43 AM UTC

mcherm wrote: post #25

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #9

Okay so like, genuinely not trying to do a "back in my day" fuckin thing here, but also: what the fuck is wrong with kids? Back when I was coming up, pranking at it's absolute worst was like, filling a dudes shoes with yogurt in the locker room, or like, putting plastic bugs in people's desks n shit. Why the fuck are teenagers trying to get each other murdered by cops!?

Fair question, but I would also like to ask "What the f** is wrong with cops?". Receiving an anonymous call claiming some not-particularly-plausible threat at a particular location probably DOES deserve a police investigation. I see no reason why it impels police to drag people from their house in chains, threaten to shoot them, or actually shoot them. If police responses were reasonable and proportionate to the plau…

Should be using plainclothes officers to scout out situations prior to sending in swat.

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#39

Post by amatecha » Mon, Nov 18, 2024, 1:47 AM UTC

"Could"? Absolutely should.

> from approximately August 2022 to January 2024, Filion made more than 375 swatting and threat calls, including calls in which he claimed to have planted bombs in the targeted locations or threatened to detonate bombs and/or conduct mass shootings at those locations.

( from https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/california-teenager-pleads-gu... )

Re: Teen behind hundreds of swatting attacks pleads guilty to federal charges

#40

Post by luckylion » Mon, Nov 18, 2024, 1:48 AM UTC

mcherm wrote: post #25

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #9

Okay so like, genuinely not trying to do a "back in my day" fuckin thing here, but also: what the fuck is wrong with kids? Back when I was coming up, pranking at it's absolute worst was like, filling a dudes shoes with yogurt in the locker room, or like, putting plastic bugs in people's desks n shit. Why the fuck are teenagers trying to get each other murdered by cops!?

Fair question, but I would also like to ask "What the f** is wrong with cops?". Receiving an anonymous call claiming some not-particularly-plausible threat at a particular location probably DOES deserve a police investigation. I see no reason why it impels police to drag people from their house in chains, threaten to shoot them, or actually shoot them. If police responses were reasonable and proportionate to the plau…

What is the reasonable and proportionate response?

"Swatting" isn't really a thing in Germany, but we've always had other disproportionate responses to single phone calls. One call (or even an email) that threatens to blow up the air port, or some particular air plane, and it's shut down for hours until they've looked in all the places you could hide a serious bomb (presumably, I have no idea what their "okay, I guess it was a hoax" signal is).

But what's the alternative when somebody plausibly describes a situation that indicates someone is in extreme danger? Send out a single cruiser the next day to check out what was up?