Gamers Use Police Hoax To Lash Out At Opponents

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No story about swatting would be complete without a moronic statement like this:

Intensely competitive war games that blur the lines of fantasy and reality could also contribute, said Dr. Kimberly Young, a psychologist who directs the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Swatting, to them, seems like part of the game.
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I hope the people doing the swatting thing get some jail time or some severe punishment. I keep hoping karma will come along and decide that 911 suddenly doesn't work when they need it.
 
It's going to take an innocent gamer dying before they put a stop to this.
 
I'm guessing it's more of a console demographic? Or is this happening on PC too? Pretty ridiculous. To me it's not 'part of the game' as Dr. Young says, but more of a spoiled brat wanting to get their way kind of thing.
 
A woman I know who has been cutting my hair for the last 6 years and has been streaming for around a year was just swatted a couple weeks ago. She said it was an absolutely awful experience but the cops quickly reduced the escalation and tension once they mentioned that it was a hoax against them, and that they were quite professional. The case has been moved up to the FBI and they knew far more than our local police about the whole process but the experience has moved her to sell her equipment and never stream again.

In this instance she had a paypal request for a dollar which prompts paypal to show her name to the person who requested it. That's all the guy needed to get the ball rolling
 
viscountalpha said:
I hope the people doing the swatting thing get some jail time or some severe punishment. I keep hoping karma will come along and decide that 911 suddenly doesn't work when they need it.
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In order for them to be punished the police would have to admit they were willing dupes in a cruel and dangerous prank. I'm guessing they tend to get off easy if their lawyers know how to play it.
 
I shudder to think what the gaming world would have been like "back in the day" when stuff like WoW first started and angry players getting ganked or hosed did this. :eek:
 
jpm100 said:
In order for them to be punished the police would have to admit they were willing dupes in a cruel and dangerous prank. I'm guessing they tend to get off easy if their lawyers know how to play it.
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I don't know about that. This kind of thing always catches up to people eventually.
 
Where did Dr. Kimberly Young get her psychology degree? Because it was certainly NOT on planet Earth.

Dear Doctor, the people making these calls are not confused - they are d-bags of the highest order who know better and need to be taught a lesson.

What should become part of the punishment is a return swat. You'll see these calls stop pretty quickly when they learn it's only a matter of time before the swat team shows up to arrest them for real.
 
Ruoh said:
It's going to take an innocent gamer dying before they put a stop to this.
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No, it's going to take a completely innocent non-gamer to get hurt before they stop it. Say the PD or the hoaxer gets the address wrong, and instead of hitting the gamer, they show up at the 75yr old widow's house down the street. See the media attention and urgency get turned WAY up if "Grandma gets Swatted"
 
Steve said:
No story about swatting would be complete without a moronic statement like this:
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Yup, at the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery, our staff likes to identify with our patients so that they understand that having some trouble with reality won't keep them from a successful future. In fact, some lines of work demand it :rolleyes:
 
I'm sure the police just love swatting!
Really, it gives the opportunity to neckless roided out angry manbeasts an excuse to kick in a door and open fire with fully automatic weapons without having to join the military first!
I'm sure some of them are getting an erection just reading this right now, if they can even read...
 
I think the potential for death is probably part of the allure to swatters. They probably have a secret morbid fantasy about someone being killed. I'm not sure how they're getting away with it, last time I heard about police trying to trace the call they discovered it came through skype, so I guess that means at minimum 2 subpoenas for information, one from skype for the IP and another to the ISP it came from. And if that ISP happens to be overseas good luck. And this is all assuming the swatter was dumb enough to do it from his own PC and doesnt have some elaborate proxy setup (actually I wouldnt be surprised in the slightest if they did it from their own PC). I think at that point the cops just dont care to take it that far and find out. Sure they hate having 2 hours of their time wasted but what else you gonna do? People call 911 and report false fires from payphones every day. No way to stop it until you really start aggressively pursuing people to punish them.
 
How do you get someones name and location while playing a game?

Are console people just that dumb?

I was playing BF4 a week ago and some guy was being a huge jerk and when someone said "you only talk like that on the internet" - he posted his full address a moment later. Now who knows if it was him, but that is spectacular on several levels.

Any normal person would be wise to not tie everything they do online back to their real identity.
 
DoubleTap said:
Any normal person would be wise to not tie everything they do online back to their real identity.
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You have a facebook account? If so, I can tie your email address from here to a FB account, and use that to get at your identity. And from that, I can probably get at your default passwords easily enough via "Security Questions", since a good portion of the time, the answer is sitting in your FB profile.

People don't realize how simple it is to get a persons real ID with very little work.
 
For clarity, the above is not meant as a threat, simply a factual statement. It is NOT hard to get someones real ID, and default user/password.
 
jpm100 said:
In order for them to be punished the police would have to admit they were willing dupes in a cruel and dangerous prank.
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Better to show up to a hoax than not show up for the real thing. The pranksters should pay a huge amount though. Maybe not jail-time but a hefty fine and long-term "watchful eye", like a tap on their internet access.
 
lcpiper said:
Their default user/password for what?
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Because of the number of things that require an account nowadays, most people will opt for the same username/password combo so they don't have to remember multiple logins instead of just managing them. Remember, as technology progresses more casual people get involved and the lazier the user population gets.
 
Alls the po-po have to do is catch a few of these morons, and make an example out of them. 5 years in prison and $250,000 minimum restitution would do wonders for making kiddies think twice before calling 911 for a fake tip.
 
And this whole thing comes back to privacy on the net. If all your info is out there. The info is harmless till someone has it out for you.
 
Someone uses the name Destroyer69, a google search turns up a few forum posts on some obscure gaming threads, someone has their real name listed in their forum profile, google that and you get a few facebook matches, look for the 16 yr old white kid, google his name/phone number and see if an address turns up. I imagine it's probably something simple like that.
 
A lot of Twitch streamers also tie into Facebook, YouTube, Reddit and Twitter. So they're not exactly protecting their anonymity to begin with.

That's not to say they deserve to get swatted.
 
Ducman69 said:
Solution: Don't friggen SWAT people based on anonymous tips!!!
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Just how do you do that btw?

I mean if I am in a shopping mall and some jacked up weirded out teenie bopper comes in and starts popping off at people and I don't have my carry gun, I for sure call 911.

But when they start asking me to stay on the line and ask who I am that's when I'll decide I've done my part, time to get the fuck outa Dodge.

Now would that make it anonymous?

"Don't get up SWAT guys, the dude hung up and didn't leave his name so it's anonymous, no joy :rolleyes:
 
McFry said:
Someone uses the name Destroyer69, a google search turns up a few forum posts on some obscure gaming threads, someone has their real name listed in their forum profile, google that and you get a few facebook matches, look for the 16 yr old white kid, google his name/phone number and see if an address turns up. I imagine it's probably something simple like that.
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Maybe it's easier then that.
http://www.iplocation.net/
 
Armenius said:
Because of the number of things that require an account nowadays, most people will opt for the same username/password combo so they don't have to remember multiple logins instead of just managing them. Remember, as technology progresses more casual people get involved and the lazier the user population gets.
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Oh, so you mean someone's individual username and password, not a default for a router or something like that.
 
gamerk2 said:
You have a facebook account? If so, I can tie your email address from here to a FB account, and use that to get at your identity. And from that, I can probably get at your default passwords easily enough via "Security Questions", since a good portion of the time, the answer is sitting in your FB profile.

People don't realize how simple it is to get a persons real ID with very little work.
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I get how your facebook example works and I take some pains to firewall various online activities from my actual identity - it's not a state secret, but I also don't want every person I work with or interview with to find out everything about me with a simple google search.

But if we're playing an online game, it seems pretty difficult to connect someones in game name to a real identity unless they really want you to be able to do that.

I play Guild Wars 2, BF4 and - well, not a lot else lately but let's say I play games on Steam. Good luck connecting those gaming accounts to my home address.
 
Yea sometimes I find myself out hunting in the streets with an AWP after an intense round of CS:GO. Gotta lay off the games a bit.
 
CrazyLarvae said:
Where did Dr. Kimberly Young get her psychology degree? Because it was certainly NOT on planet Earth.

Dear Doctor, the people making these calls are not confused - they are d-bags of the highest order who know better and need to be taught a lesson.
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It's not her fault though! Sometimes she reads psychology books and forgets she isn't a real psychologist.
 
gamerk2 said:
You have a facebook account? If so, I can tie your email address from here to a FB account, and use that to get at your identity. And from that, I can probably get at your default passwords easily enough via "Security Questions", since a good portion of the time, the answer is sitting in your FB profile.

People don't realize how simple it is to get a persons real ID with very little work.
Click to expand...

My wife was pretty active on a "birth board". There are some crazies that want to steal newborns. She thought she was safe.. I googled her username and mapmyrun showed up and the start/end location was our house. Slick!
 
Betaboy1983 said:
I'm guessing it's more of a console demographic? Or is this happening on PC too? Pretty ridiculous. To me it's not 'part of the game' as Dr. Young says, but more of a spoiled brat wanting to get their way kind of thing.
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multiple PC, heck majority i have seen have been PC. Nice job trying to say console 'noobs' are the real butthurt aholes out there.
 
I'm pretty disappointed by the completely upside comment that this Dr. is somehow a moron for actually explaining the thought process behind these assholes.

“They want to win at all costs, including jeopardizing someone’s safety,” she said. “Real life becomes almost meaningless because they’re so entrenched and involved in these games. Swatting, to them, seems like part of the game.”

This is close to exactly what's going on their heads. That doesn't make her a moron, that makes her observant.
It's either that, or simply calling them sociopaths, which would just make her somewhat of a name caller. So she explained with a very valid and rational theory their mindset.
Let's try to not be ignorant as hell, please.
 
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