Swatting

Swatting is a harassment tactic where one tricks law enforcement into visiting someone's address. This is usually done by making a false report of an emergency (such as murder, armed assault, aggressive behavior, bomb threats, hostage situation, etc) to provoke the police into an immediate response.

It gets its name from the exploitation of SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) units, who are usually the ones assigned to deal with high-risk situations and terrorist threats. It gained popularity in recent decades as a way for terminally-online losers to best their opponents in video games, and as a way to troll Twitch streamers as a form of stream sniping. A convincing enough threat may result in the evacuations of schools and businesses, the unscheduled raiding of someone's home, and even the slaughter of people's pets by trigger-happy police.

Don't be this guy, Anon. Just don't.

“Swatting” is a criminal offense in many jurisdictions! Because law enforcement does not like having their time wasted on these things, having someone swatted can saddle you with some hefty fines and even land you in prison. It also crosses an unspoken criminal code to not get police involved with personal disputes, so this type of escalation can be responded to in ways you may not be prepared to deal with. Furthermore, the collateral damage it tends to inflict on nearby innocent bystanders is a surefire way to get people hurt or invite retaliation from people you do not even know. Because of these ethical considerations, the Anonymous Military Institute does not condone swatting or similar such attacks.

Prank calls are the classic tried-and-true way of swatting someone, usually used in conjunction with privacy techniques like caller ID spoofing and the use of VOIP numbers. This can be done from any location: 911 systems have been tricked on numerous occasions by calls placed from cities hundreds of miles away, or even from other countries.

Usually the target is doxxed before the swatting takes place, in order to get the target's address. The swatter may reuse dox published by someone else, or they may do the legwork themselves. In the target is a business or a school, this may be as simple as a single Google search.

There are variant forms as well. Some police departments have online reporting systems, but these are generally not treated with the same urgency as a classic phone call. Some people, for example, prefer to file bogus IC3 reports, in order to trigger a long-term federal investigation of the target instead of a traditional police visit.

It may also be used in conjunction with concern trolling, where the swatter pretends to be a concerned friend/relative who is worried about target being suicidal or mentally unwell. In these cases, the swatter is usually trying to get the target locked up in a psych ward.

Defending oneself against swatting is no easy task. While law enforcement agencies have systems in place to track these sorts of things, they are not of much use when a SWAT unit is beating down your front door with a battering ram. In such cases you want to remain calm and cooperative, and not give them any reason to unload a magazine full of ammo into your chest. As long as you haven't done anything wrong, and don't have things like outstanding warrants against you, you will probably make it out of the situation unscathed as long as you stay cool.

The best defense against swatting is good opsec. This means:

• Don't share your address on the internet. Get a post office box for internet deliveries.
• Don't post photos that could identify your location, or stream from your front yard.
• Use a VPN to mask your location.
• Don't hand your phone number (which can be geolocated) out to people or services on the internet. Use a VOIP number or forwarding service.
• Don't post your location from local events, where people can get your license plate number or tail you back to your house.
• Don't use your home address when applying for credit or opening bank accounts, to keep it off of public credit reports.
• Avoid even mentioning which city you live in, if you can help it.

If you are breaking the law, and you are worried about swatting, then you need to be extra careful. This means things like not leaving unattended mirrors of nosedrugs sitting on your kitchen counter, or anything outside that can invite “probably cause”. Don't leave things like assault rifles or crates of grenades in places where anyone (like your neighbors) can see them. Don't wave guns around in the front yard while screaming at the top of your lungs. If you have a drill press in your garage that you use to illegally modify guns, or 3D printers that you use to manufacture ghost guns, don't leave parts for said guns lying around by these tools when you aren't using them. And for fucks sake, don't brag anywhere on the internet that you do these things either.