Twitch Streamer Gets Swatted off a Plane

Megalith

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
In a situation reminiscent of what happened to Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley back in 2014, a Twitch streamer got pulled off a flight after someone impersonated him and claimed that he had a bomb. Paul Denino, known as "Ice_Poseidon” online, had been swatted before at home but did not expect this kind of thing to happen in public.

…police said an anonymous bomb threat was called in. Denino was escorted off of the plane by officers at Phoenix's Sky Harbour airport after the anonymous person allegedly impersonated Denino, and said he had a bomb. Although the incident was little more than an inconvenience to the flight's passengers, in a follow-up video posted to YouTube, Denino explained how the swatting has shaken him. "I'm considering not streaming Dreamhack [an international gaming conference] because I'm afraid," Denino said. "If someone's willing to do that on a fucking plane, what's to stop them from doing it at Dreamhack?"
 
I am in NO way saying he had anything to do with it but.... What's keeping people from orchestrating these things themselves? I would imagine his views/subs went up after his home was raided (live).. Going just a little bit bigger does seem like the next step. "hmm, I got away with it at home... I wonder if.." Again, NOT saying he faked/was responsible, but it seems a little too convenient. And if you DIDN'T have anything to do with it, then it may be time to look for another career.
 
msshammy said:
I am in NO way saying he had anything to do with it but.... What's keeping people from orchestrating these things themselves? I would imagine his views/subs went up after his home was raided (live).. Going just a little bit bigger does seem like the next step. "hmm, I got away with it at home... I wonder if.." Again, NOT saying he faked/was responsible, but it seems a little too convenient. And if you DIDN'T have anything to do with it, then it may be time to look for another career.
Click to expand...


Why anyone would SWAT themselves is beyond comprehension. Depending on what somebody tells the police on a 911 call, you could have SWAT bashing your door down, guns drawn and god knows what could happen. It's a bit ridiculous to claim anyone would do this to themselves.
 
elite.mafia said:
Why anyone would SWAT themselves is beyond comprehension. Depending on what somebody tells the police on a 911 call, you could have SWAT bashing your door down, guns drawn and god knows what could happen. It's a bit ridiculous to claim anyone would do this to themselves.
Click to expand...

But if it equals more subs and more money and you've already experienced it once, know the process, know that ultimately you'll be fine...why not? Crazy as shit, sure, but money and fame will do that to a person. Google the guys name and go to images and tell me you don't think he's full of himself and will go to extremes to increase his popularity...

I mean, the guy plays games for a living...why wouldn't you do what it takes to make as much money off that while you can? I mean, it's fucking gaming. Making millions. Yeah, SWATing is not a big deal for him I'm sure.

TrailRunner said:
Considering that people sometimes get shot by the responders, in addition to the penalties if it's found that you orchestrated the thing, SWATing yourself seems like a horrible idea.
Click to expand...

See above.
 
I don't think many people are going to swat themselves, so no.

I wish we had a way to prevent number spoofing or caller id spoofing. Been reading the current ideas and don't think either will work that well. At least not with current technology. Would be great to know for sure where a call came from and be able to have strict punishment for the people abusing the 911 system like that.
 
How often are the hoax callers found? How often are they prosecuted?
 
msshammy said:
I am in NO way saying he had anything to do with it but.... What's keeping people from orchestrating these things themselves? I would imagine his views/subs went up after his home was raided (live).. Going just a little bit bigger does seem like the next step. "hmm, I got away with it at home... I wonder if.." Again, NOT saying he faked/was responsible, but it seems a little too convenient. And if you DIDN'T have anything to do with it, then it may be time to look for another career.
Click to expand...

Not very likely someone that spends his kind of time on the Internet would swat himself in light of the many instances of trigger happy police, videos of which he'd be privy to.

Moreover, pretty much everyone would rather be shot than have to experience TSA a second time for the same trip.
 
msshammy said:
I am in NO way saying he had anything to do with it but.... What's keeping people from orchestrating these things themselves? I would imagine his views/subs went up after his home was raided (live).. Going just a little bit bigger does seem like the next step. "hmm, I got away with it at home... I wonder if.." Again, NOT saying he faked/was responsible, but it seems a little too convenient. And if you DIDN'T have anything to do with it, then it may be time to look for another career.
Click to expand...

The person who was swatted is already a very popular IRL streamer and regularly gets the #1 spot on Twitch. The thing is his entire career has been built on these stupid IRL moments that happen to him. He also tends to stream 12+ hours a day so literally every location he goes to something dumb happens because he announces the fact that he's going to visit said location and one of his viewers sets him up. Also he's banned now so his viewership actually plummeted as a result lol
 
msshammy said:
I am in NO way saying he had anything to do with it but.... What's keeping people from orchestrating these things themselves? I would imagine his views/subs went up after his home was raided (live).. Going just a little bit bigger does seem like the next step. "hmm, I got away with it at home... I wonder if.." Again, NOT saying he faked/was responsible, but it seems a little too convenient. And if you DIDN'T have anything to do with it, then it may be time to look for another career.
Click to expand...

he basically did do it himself because he gave away the airport, time, airlines and flight number on stream and basically acted like no one could do anything to him.. because of that and the shit he said to the local media twitch banned his account.
 
Instead of a bomb, the caller should've tipped tsa off that he had a large quantity of drugs in his rectum, in an orifice that would not be visible with x-ray machines.
 
Quartz-1 said:
How often are the hoax callers found? How often are they prosecuted?
Click to expand...

Don't think many are found

sirmonkey1985 said:
he basically did do it himself because he gave away the airport, time, airlines and flight number on stream and basically acted like no one could do anything to him.. because of that and the shit he said to the local media twitch banned his account.
Click to expand...

What you just described is probably at least 50% of people on social media. People love to post that they are getting ready to head out for vacation, where are heading and when they will be home. And I just mean normal people not internet personalities. This is why people get robbed as somebody sees that they have just announced my home will be empty for the next X days. If you know where somebody lives then you probably know what airport they are flying out of. If you know when they are leaving you can probably find the flight with some effort without the person needing to post all the details. If you watch some of the more popular streams or online personalities enough you are going to have an idea of where they live enough city wise or at least what part of what state. For example. If I knew that somebody lived in LA and was flying to New York. I would assume that they are most likely going to fly out of LAX. Then lets say that I know that they fly United because either I have seen / heard them say it or have seen them post pictures while in a United plan. So that means that they will be landing in Newark as that is where United flies into for New York City. Now lets say that they post when they are getting ready to leave and make some vague mention of heading to the airport for my flight in a few hours. That might let you narrow it down to a few flights. Lets say maybe you get down to 2 or 3 flights now. Some people like to make a post or mention about how they are heading off to boarding now so they will be in radio silence for the duration of the flight if they are the type of people that are posting / replying all day every day. So now you already have everything narrowed down to a few flights, as soon as you see mention that they are boarding now you know based on your work which flight number they are most likely on.

Which in this case I looked it up. He mentioned a polity with American Airline where you can't fly if you don't check in at least 1 hour before your flight. So there is the info that he probably normally flies with American Airlines so there is part of the information needed. Then you just need to know what day he was flying from LAX to Phoenix for the event, and you have enough to do what this person did. In this case, given that he was picked up when the plan landed and not before boarding the call was made while he was in the air. Doing a search for a random day I see that there is a flight at 6am, 7:41am, 9:59am, 12:40pm, 4:20pm, 5:50pm, 7:40pm. so knowing if he was flying morning or afternoon would allow you to knock a few of those off. If he was streaming that morning before he left it would also be easy to know based on the time he stopped streaming which flight he might be on. So not really that hard to wait till you think he might be in the air and then make the call. We also don't know how much information he gave. The person might have just called American Airlines. Said who he was and that he had a bomb. They looked it up, pulled the information and seen he was on that flight so waited for it to land then pulled him off.
 
Exavior said:
Don't think many are found



What you just described is probably at least 50% of people on social media. People love to post that they are getting ready to head out for vacation, where are heading and when they will be home. And I just mean normal people not internet personalities. This is why people get robbed as somebody sees that they have just announced my home will be empty for the next X days. If you know where somebody lives then you probably know what airport they are flying out of. If you know when they are leaving you can probably find the flight with some effort without the person needing to post all the details. If you watch some of the more popular streams or online personalities enough you are going to have an idea of where they live enough city wise or at least what part of what state. For example. If I knew that somebody lived in LA and was flying to New York. I would assume that they are most likely going to fly out of LAX. Then lets say that I know that they fly United because either I have seen / heard them say it or have seen them post pictures while in a United plan. So that means that they will be landing in Newark as that is where United flies into for New York City. Now lets say that they post when they are getting ready to leave and make some vague mention of heading to the airport for my flight in a few hours. That might let you narrow it down to a few flights. Lets say maybe you get down to 2 or 3 flights now. Some people like to make a post or mention about how they are heading off to boarding now so they will be in radio silence for the duration of the flight if they are the type of people that are posting / replying all day every day. So now you already have everything narrowed down to a few flights, as soon as you see mention that they are boarding now you know based on your work which flight number they are most likely on.

Which in this case I looked it up. He mentioned a polity with American Airline where you can't fly if you don't check in at least 1 hour before your flight. So there is the info that he probably normally flies with American Airlines so there is part of the information needed. Then you just need to know what day he was flying from LAX to Phoenix for the event, and you have enough to do what this person did. In this case, given that he was picked up when the plan landed and not before boarding the call was made while he was in the air. Doing a search for a random day I see that there is a flight at 6am, 7:41am, 9:59am, 12:40pm, 4:20pm, 5:50pm, 7:40pm. so knowing if he was flying morning or afternoon would allow you to knock a few of those off. If he was streaming that morning before he left it would also be easy to know based on the time he stopped streaming which flight he might be on. So not really that hard to wait till you think he might be in the air and then make the call. We also don't know how much information he gave. The person might have just called American Airlines. Said who he was and that he had a bomb. They looked it up, pulled the information and seen he was on that flight so waited for it to land then pulled him off.
Click to expand...

The call if you're curious.


Everyone knows his full name, he gave out everything so yeah it took the swatter no effort. Apparently the swatter is part of a forum for organized raiders who do this on a regular basis and for payment.
 
Hopefully they catch these fuckers and send them to prison for like 20 years or something.

That said, people maybe should stop giving every god damn detail of their lives online maybe?
 
People who do seriously wrong pranks or swatting need to be found and seriously punished.

Seriously, lets take this swatter who took it to an airplane (which is a major no-no above normal swatting) and break his fucking mouse hand with a pipe wrench. It can heal up while he's serving a 5 year sentence. Regular swatting could just be 1 year.
 
elite.mafia said:
Why anyone would SWAT themselves is beyond comprehension. Depending on what somebody tells the police on a 911 call, you could have SWAT bashing your door down, guns drawn and god knows what could happen. It's a bit ridiculous to claim anyone would do this to themselves.
Click to expand...

No way, Plane Bomb threats are a Big Time No NO, if he did it himself, he would be found out period!
 
NickJames said:
Everyone knows his full name, he gave out everything so yeah it took the swatter no effort. Apparently the swatter is part of a forum for organized raiders who do this on a regular basis and for payment.
Click to expand...

Find them all and break all of their hands. Endangering so many lives, abusing and misusing government resources, and trying to profit from it should be handled with extreme prejudice.
 
Exavior said:
Don't think many are found



What you just described is probably at least 50% of people on social media. People love to post that they are getting ready to head out for vacation, where are heading and when they will be home. And I just mean normal people not internet personalities. This is why people get robbed as somebody sees that they have just announced my home will be empty for the next X days. If you know where somebody lives then you probably know what airport they are flying out of. If you know when they are leaving you can probably find the flight with some effort without the person needing to post all the details. If you watch some of the more popular streams or online personalities enough you are going to have an idea of where they live enough city wise or at least what part of what state. For example. If I knew that somebody lived in LA and was flying to New York. I would assume that they are most likely going to fly out of LAX. Then lets say that I know that they fly United because either I have seen / heard them say it or have seen them post pictures while in a United plan. So that means that they will be landing in Newark as that is where United flies into for New York City. Now lets say that they post when they are getting ready to leave and make some vague mention of heading to the airport for my flight in a few hours. That might let you narrow it down to a few flights. Lets say maybe you get down to 2 or 3 flights now. Some people like to make a post or mention about how they are heading off to boarding now so they will be in radio silence for the duration of the flight if they are the type of people that are posting / replying all day every day. So now you already have everything narrowed down to a few flights, as soon as you see mention that they are boarding now you know based on your work which flight number they are most likely on.

Which in this case I looked it up. He mentioned a polity with American Airline where you can't fly if you don't check in at least 1 hour before your flight. So there is the info that he probably normally flies with American Airlines so there is part of the information needed. Then you just need to know what day he was flying from LAX to Phoenix for the event, and you have enough to do what this person did. In this case, given that he was picked up when the plan landed and not before boarding the call was made while he was in the air. Doing a search for a random day I see that there is a flight at 6am, 7:41am, 9:59am, 12:40pm, 4:20pm, 5:50pm, 7:40pm. so knowing if he was flying morning or afternoon would allow you to knock a few of those off. If he was streaming that morning before he left it would also be easy to know based on the time he stopped streaming which flight he might be on. So not really that hard to wait till you think he might be in the air and then make the call. We also don't know how much information he gave. The person might have just called American Airlines. Said who he was and that he had a bomb. They looked it up, pulled the information and seen he was on that flight so waited for it to land then pulled him off.
Click to expand...


completely agree with you but he did all the homework for them by just flat out telling them everything and then egging them on to do something.


Ultima99 said:
Find them all and break all of their hands. Endangering so many lives, abusing and misusing government resources, and trying to profit from it should be handled with extreme prejudice.
Click to expand...

it's damn near impossible since there's to many companies that provide free VOIP services that are easy to spoof with proxy's. yet the government does jack shit about holding the voip services accountable for allowing this to happen with out requiring legitimate information.
 
Wait, he got swatted before? Is there not a mark on his record that'd bring that up before the cops swat him a second time?
 
Megalith said:
If someone's willing to do that on a fucking plane, what's to stop them from doing it at Dreamhack?
Click to expand...

Why not call the local police beforehand, let them know that a swatting is likely to occur, so if there is a call, the swat team doesn't shoot first and ask questions later.
 
Swatting as a whole is a total dick move; no matter where it takes place. People are put in danger because of the shenanigans and that isn't cool. I sincerely hope the person who made the swat call is caught and sentenced to the fullest extent of the law.
 
sir-gold said:
Why not call the local police beforehand, let them know that a swatting is likely to occur, so if there is a call, the swat team doesn't shoot first and ask questions later.
Click to expand...
What is he to do, call every police station whose jurisdiction he is crossing through to warn them that he might get swatted?
 
The real problem is Local Law Enforcement looking to muscle off their SWAT teams to justify their existence. One successful run and you can probably keep it alive for 5 years or more. They don't want to pass on the opportunity, so no thought is put into the call. No surveillance with some reasonable assessment is done prior. There's justifications for this I'm sure. But if we proceed from worst case scenario here, why not for domestic violence or robbery?
 
scojer said:
Wait, he got swatted before? Is there not a mark on his record that'd bring that up before the cops swat him a second time?
Click to expand...

He previously got swatted in his Hollywood, CA apartment, the plane swat was in Las Vegas, NV. There's not much he can do to prevent it since he's basically flying around the country every day. One day he's in Miami the next day he's in New Orleans. It's impossible to prevent because he changes location so much and always makes his streamers aware of where he's at so that random people on the stream can go visit him. His entourage literally consists of 3 or 4 of his viewers following him at all times.
 
jpm100 said:
The real problem is Local Law Enforcement looking to muscle off their SWAT teams to justify their existence. One successful run and you can probably keep it alive for 5 years or more. They don't want to pass on the opportunity, so no thought is put into the call. No surveillance with some reasonable assessment is done prior. There's justifications for this I'm sure. But if we proceed from worst case scenario here, why not for domestic violence or robbery?
Click to expand...

Um no, the problem is they have to act on whatever they have while they are gathering data at the same time. You can't take a bomb threat on a plane and be like, well, let's google this and watch some twitch streams. O fuck, it was legit and now we've got about 200 bodies and we need to justify why we didn't go in. When you get info like this you have to act on it. You look up info nonstop all the way until after the situation is handled but you have to act. It's not Police flexing their muscle, it's Police doing their damn job. Would you rather have one guy arrested and a flight delayed for an hour or two and do an apology for doing your job the right way or sit it out and see if there actually is a bomb and then it goes off and you have to come up with an apology for that.

Imagine the outroar you'd face for not handling the situation. The Police are just doing their job. The only problems here are idiots like this who are pretty much telling people to do this to him, and the guys who actually called it in.
 
NickJames said:
He previously got swatted in his Hollywood, CA apartment, the plane swat was in Las Vegas, NV. There's not much he can do to prevent it since he's basically flying around the country every day. One day he's in Miami the next day he's in New Orleans. It's impossible to prevent because he changes location so much and always makes his streamers aware of where he's at so that random people on the stream can go visit him. His entourage literally consists of 3 or 4 of his viewers following him at all times.
Click to expand...
He makes that much money off twitch to have everything entourage and fly everyday??? Man I'm doing life all wrong
 
caddys83 said:
He makes that much money off twitch to have everything entourage and fly everyday??? Man I'm doing life all wrong
Click to expand...

Oh you wouldn't believe how much money these people make. One of the top paid Twitch streamers, Summit1g makes roughly $500K/year in subscriptions alone. He also makes another $200-400K/year in donations and the guy does nothing but sit on his ass and play video games, he rarely streams outside. So yeah, some of these top streamers can probably break $1M.

I think this guy who got swatted makes somewhere north of $150K last time his his stats were leaked. He started off as a Runescape player who was frequently posted on Reddit LiveStreamFails for his weird and cringey persona. Afterwards once Twitch added the IRL section he started streaming his outside antics and connecting with other popular streamers and his popularity just skyrocketed. He can pull anywhere between $2K-10K/day in donations. Once you break the 1000 concurrent viewers club you're considered somewhat of a social celebrity on Twitch which means you have Twitch staff cater towards you channel by giving you tips on how to stream better, give you better streaming gear, your channel makes the front page and you get Twitch promotions. Twitch staff will literally call you to give you info on popular streaming algorithms to make your channel more successful by formula.
 
Last edited:
Gotta say I feel very bad for the guy... no I'm not a follower but every now and again I see the Twitch Fails and here's what I've seen which isn't even the entire list

Swatted at home
Swatted on the plane
Restaurant called as he was walking in saying he had weapons getting him ejected / attacked / gear smashed "People made the assumption of about $5,000 in gear smashed"
Eating in a Denny's just to have some loon grab a fire extinguisher and empty it in the dining area requiring everyone to evacuate the area
Got fired from his job after someone Doxxed him causing the company he worked for to get a massive number of harassing calls and basically assassinate his & the employers characters.

Several would likely say, it's his own fault for putting himself in the spotlight and not being 100% tight lipped about all of his personal life... people who say that in my opinion are no better than those defending people leaking nude photos of celebs after hacking their accounts.

So yeah, he started off working & only streaming part time until he got Doxxed, at which point he got fired from his job & had his character assassinated because someone thought they were entitled to do that since he was living better than they were -- No he didn't say I work at "X" they tracked it down first by Radio Ads they heard playing in the background while he was gaming & went from there.

The time of 0 accountability and self entitlement needs to end, seriously every single Doxxer/Swatter needs to serve their time and work off their debt to society 10x worse than what they did to their Victim(s)
 
If this is a reoccurrence, why is there not some system in place to prevent a repeat performance? Seems like a simple thing when someone calls in a fake threat to do a background check on the info and determine, based on past history, that the person in question has been associated as a victim of SWAT'ing. At the very least, such info would allow them (law enforcement) to question barging in guns blazing. But, nooooo.... it seems all situations are treated with equal voracity.
 
Pyro411 said:
Gotta say I feel very bad for the guy... no I'm not a follower but every now and again I see the Twitch Fails and here's what I've seen which isn't even the entire list

Swatted at home
Swatted on the plane
Restaurant called as he was walking in saying he had weapons getting him ejected / attacked / gear smashed "People made the assumption of about $5,000 in gear smashed"
Eating in a Denny's just to have some loon grab a fire extinguisher and empty it in the dining area requiring everyone to evacuate the area
Got fired from his job after someone Doxxed him causing the company he worked for to get a massive number of harassing calls and basically assassinate his & the employers characters.

Several would likely say, it's his own fault for putting himself in the spotlight and not being 100% tight lipped about all of his personal life... people who say that in my opinion are no better than those defending people leaking nude photos of celebs after hacking their accounts.

So yeah, he started off working & only streaming part time until he got Doxxed, at which point he got fired from his job & had his character assassinated because someone thought they were entitled to do that since he was living better than they were -- No he didn't say I work at "X" they tracked it down first by Radio Ads they heard playing in the background while he was gaming & went from there.

The time of 0 accountability and self entitlement needs to end, seriously every single Doxxer/Swatter needs to serve their time and work off their debt to society 10x worse than what they did to their Victim(s)
Click to expand...
"Doxxing" isn't a crime in the US. It's your responsibility to control your online footprint. Whatever you put out there has already been found. That's the way of the world. Government is not there to protect people from their own naivety.
 
Scizyr said:
"Doxxing" isn't a crime in the US. It's your responsibility to control your online footprint. Whatever you put out there has already been found. That's the way of the world. Government is not there to protect people from their own naivety.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you, true it takes certain variables for it to be a crime such as the person targeted by it being under 18 or working in one of several different federal job positions, however most cases could VERY easily be won in suits for harassment and defamation of character.
 
Pyro411 said:
I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you, true it takes certain variables for it to be a crime such as the person targeted by it being under 18 or working in one of several different federal job positions, however most cases could VERY easily be won in suits for harassment and defamation of character.
Click to expand...
You're confusing terms here. "Doxxing" is simply posting information about someone on the internet. Doesn't matter if they are 2 months old or have super top secret government clearance, it is not illegal to say anyone's name online. You can even post their social security numbers if you have them. This falls under 1st amendment protected free speech. harassment and defamation is a completely different subject unrelated to publishing documents.
 
Scizyr said:
You're confusing terms here. "Doxxing" is simply posting information about someone on the internet. Doesn't matter if they are 2 months old or have super top secret government clearance, it is not illegal to say anyone's name online. You can even post their social security numbers if you have them. This falls under 1st amendment protected free speech. harassment and defamation is a completely different subject unrelated to publishing documents.
Click to expand...

Intent is a factor.
If you are just posting a name address and phone number, that is fine (assuming it's already public info, and you didn't have to commit a separate crime to obtain it)
If you are posting the info for the purposes of getting other people to harass the target, that could be considered inciting violence.
 
Scizyr said:
You're confusing terms here. "Doxxing" is simply posting information about someone on the internet. Doesn't matter if they are 2 months old or have super top secret government clearance, it is not illegal to say anyone's name online. You can even post their social security numbers if you have them. This falls under 1st amendment protected free speech. harassment and defamation is a completely different subject unrelated to publishing documents.
Click to expand...

Illegal no, but the civil suit that would be easy against you for posting SS numbers and names, would end just as bad for you. Kind of like just because something isn't illegal, doesn't mean it is a good idea to do.
 
Scizyr said:
You're confusing terms here. "Doxxing" is simply posting information about someone on the internet. Doesn't matter if they are 2 months old or have super top secret government clearance, it is not illegal to say anyone's name online. You can even post their social security numbers if you have them. This falls under 1st amendment protected free speech. harassment and defamation is a completely different subject unrelated to publishing documents.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that they are unrelated as the two normally do go hand in hand. That is like saying that date rape drugs are not illegal and don't confuse date rape drugs with the act of raping a woman as they are unrelated. Also doxing is not simplify posting information online it is posting information that is hard to obtain or private. As for the SSN posting. That is a gray area, if you stole the information then can be charged with having committed identity theft. If you happen to get it by some other means, you could still be held legally liable for any damage that the owner of said SSN incurs because of your action. As sir-gold said it all comes down to intent.
 
msshammy said:
I am in NO way saying he had anything to do with it but.... What's keeping people from orchestrating these things themselves? I would imagine his views/subs went up after his home was raided (live).. Going just a little bit bigger does seem like the next step. "hmm, I got away with it at home... I wonder if.." Again, NOT saying he faked/was responsible, but it seems a little too convenient. And if you DIDN'T have anything to do with it, then it may be time to look for another career.
Click to expand...

That is one hell of a gamble. People occasionally end up dead from this sort of thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top