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Prolific swatter (17 yr old from CA) arrested in conjunction with hundreds of swatting offences

cormack12

Gold Member
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/torswats-swatting-arrest/

A 17-year-old from California is allegedly the swatter known as Torswats, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The teenager is currently in custody and awaiting extradition from California to Seminole County, Florida. The Florida State Attorney’s Office tells WIRED that he faces four felony counts.

The teenager’s arrest comes in the midst of a nationwide swatting surge. Swatting attacks typically involve someone calling in fake attacks to 911 in an attempt to solicit an overwhelming police response.

According to the Florida State Attorney’s Office, the charges against the California teenager include making false reports concerning the planting of a bomb or the use of firearms, causing a law enforcement response. All charges are described as related to acts of terrorism and showing prejudice based on race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, or religion.

Brad “Cafrozed” Dennis, a private investigator who works for high-profile Twitch streamers who've been swatted, has been hunting Torswats for nearly two years and actively helping the FBI’s investigation. “It’s a beautiful day,” Dennis says. “I am very relieved Tor will no longer be able to conduct his reign of terror on our schools and public officials just doing their jobs.”

"HELLO, I AM going to commit a mass shooting in the name of Satan," a voice with a fake Southern accent drawled to a police dispatcher in Seminole County, Florida, on May 12, 2023. The caller spoke slowly and deliberately when he told the dispatcher that he was armed with pipe bombs and an AR-15 rifle, walking into a mosque to kill everyone he saw. The call ends with the sound of gunshots likely sourced from a video game.

That day, the same voice-over-IP phone number called threats into at least two other mosques in Florida, according to police records obtained by WIRED. That week, in a private Telegram chat, an individual operating the Torswats Telegram channel took responsibility for sending police officers scrambling to as many as 20 schools in Washington state and four historically Black colleges and universities in Texas. Audio from 911 calls reviewed by WIRED and interviews with local law enforcement confirm that many if not all of the Washington state calls were made by someone sounding like an individual associated with the Torswats account. Some used a similar script, referencing an AR-15 rifle and pipe bombs.

They then would Google the phone number for the nearest police department and use Google Voice to place calls. While most of this appeared to be done on an Android device, they would occasionally use a digital sound board on their PC to introduce gunshot sounds that appeared to be recorded from the video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

“State and local law enforcement often feel like a swatter is doing something sophisticated, and that’s just often not the case,” Keven Hendricks, a cybercrime expert and swatting investigator, tells WIRED. In November, Torswats claimed to have swatted Hendricks and his family. Hendricks declined to comment about the swatting.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
gunshot sounds that appeared to be recorded from the video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Ken Jeong Yes GIF by The Masked Singer
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.

"Torswats carries out these threatening calls as part of a paid service they offer. For $75, Torswats says they will close down a school. For $50, Torswats says customers can buy “extreme swattings,” in which authorities will handcuff the victim and search the house. Torswats says they offer discounts to returning customers, and can negotiate prices for “famous people and targets such as Twitch streamers.” Torswats says on their Telegram channel that they take payment in cryptocurrency."

What is wrong with people ....?
 
It’s sad the American police are so broken and guns a blazing that swatting even works.
How would you suggest they respond to violent imminent threats?

Seems like you either:
A) Have police respond to threats quickly and with force, stopping actual attacks and potentially hurting innocent victims of swatting, or
B) Do not have police respond to all threats quickly and with force, and true attacks go through more often.

Personally, I wish the world was perfect, but it's not. I wish domestic terrorists didn't exist; I wish swatters didn't exist; I wish the police had precognitive powers to know exactly who the good and bad guys are. But since it is what it is, the best option as I see it is to make an unforgettable punitive example of this kid to minimize the number of swatters out there to allow the police to focus on the real threats.
 

Ballthyrm

Member
Swatting = terrorism since it implies terror to the víctim , violence and is planed.

People doing this should be threated as terrorist

I agree, It fits the FBI definition of domestic terrorism pretty well.
They should charge them as such.
Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.
 

Blade2.0

Member
How would you suggest they respond to violent imminent threats?
Send the closest squad car to check it out. If everything looks fine, have the officers go knock and confirm. If it does look real, the squad car can call in the real swat team. Have them on standby if they are really needed. It isn't that hard to not suit up and break down doors just because you get a call.

Again, USA is the only ones with swatting problems. Why is it that other countries just don't barge in and seem just fine?
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
From what remember, crime rates are typically low in Asian countries. Probably because when you do something dumb you get nailed by cops.

Just copy what they do and the crime rates in western countries should drop like a rock.
 
Send the closest squad car to check it out. If everything looks fine, have the officers go knock and confirm. If it does look real, the squad car can call in the real swat team. Have them on standby if they are really needed. It isn't that hard to not suit up and break down doors just because you get a call.

Again, USA is the only ones with swatting problems. Why is it that other countries just don't barge in and seem just fine?
In that case, you would let the potential real threat know you're onto them, giving them more information to prepare for engagement; leave the initial officer(s) exposed; not to mention SWATs are deployed when the threat is imminent (i.e., time-sensitive, as in innocent people are believed to be currently in danger).

Why is it that other countries don't barge in with the same frequency? Probably comes from the greater availability of guns to the US public (and potential domestic terrorists that are the subject of the SWAT response) compared to other countries, although swatting has happened in Canada, Russia, and probably other countries, too. You could try and pass gun reform laws in the US, but I don't think the genie's going back in the bottle on that one.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Send the closest squad car to check it out. If everything looks fine, have the officers go knock and confirm. If it does look real, the squad car can call in the real swat team. Have them on standby if they are really needed. It isn't that hard to not suit up and break down doors just because you get a call.

Again, USA is the only ones with swatting problems. Why is it that other countries just don't barge in and seem just fine?
Because out of all western countries, the US is by far the most volatile with violence, gun sprees, gangs, school massacres, shootouts and foot chases with cops and other dumb shit. And swatting is another one. The term Going Postal is a US thing. So cops are trained to be amped up charging in guns a blazing to solve a situation even though swatting is a fake situation. But the cops and city cant take that risk it's a college prank because they know gun violence and domestic violence are such a big thing in the US. They arent mind readers, so they have to break down a door kind of thing.

In some countries, the cops I dont think are even armed with guns when doing boring patrols around the city. In the US, it seems every cop is loaded up with guns, billystick and bulletproof vests because you never know when someone with pull out a pistol or AR15 and shoot up a scene.

Go to a Buffalo Sabres hockey game. I got 2-3 times a year. No joke. Outside the arena you get the usual cops doing parking and traffic control..... but also military guys dressed in uniforms, armed with a rifle and have their military assault vehicle beside them. US Army kind of stuff.

I have never seen anything like that going to a Jays, Leafs or Raptors game. All you might get are a couple cops doing traffic control with a whistle for cars and walkers.
 
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FunkMiller

Member
Because out of all western countries, the US is by far the most volatile with violence, gun sprees, gangs, school massacres, shootouts and foot chases with cops and other dumb shit. And swatting is another one. The term Going Postal is a US thing. So cops are trained to be amped up charging in guns a blazing to solve a situation even though swatting is a fake situation. But the cops and city cant take that risk it's a college prank because they know gun violence and domestic violence are such a big thing in the US. They arent mind readers, so they have to break down a door kind of thing.

In some countries, the cops I dont think are even armed with guns when doing boring patrols around the city. In the US, it seems every cop is loaded up with guns, billystick and bulletproof vests because you never know when someone with pull out a pistol or AR15 and shoot up a scene.

Yes indeed. The rest of us in developed first world don't have anything like the problems the US does, because of its bizarre love affair with guns.

We also have well trained police by and large, which stands in direct counterpoint to the US police, who seem like a bunch of either fat cunts with itchy trigger fingers, or Rambo wannabes with a power complex.

This kind of swatting stupidity is an American thing because of these reasons.
 

Tams

Member
It’s sad the American police are so broken and guns a blazing that swatting even works.

In a country where gun ownership is so widespread and common, and it's still easy to obtain and to varying degrees legal to obtain guns that are very efficient at killing people...

Yeah, I wouldn't be a police officer not going in guns drawn to any report of a violent encounter, let alone one where guns have been reported.

To not would only be a matter of time before there'd be some dead police officers.
 
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Banjo64

cumsessed
Will be interesting to see the sentence if he’s found guilty.

Weaponising the police, wasting public resource, endangerment of innocent people - if he’s been prolific he should be spending a large chunk of his life inside.

Would 30 years be fair? At 17 I’d say the chance of rehabilitation is high.
 
So much damage caused by one horrible person with a telephone. Hope they get him for terrorism, attempted murder, all the wasted resources, emotional damage caused to his victims, then lock him in a faraday cage with a phone cord to hang himself.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Pretty sure if you do something stupid on a plane or at the airport like saying "I got a bomb!" you'll get arrested even if you're joking.

So how is swatting any different?
 

Dynasty8

Member
Don't care if they're 17. If someone has done this 100 times, they'll never learn. They'll never be an appropriate member of society. They're a ticking time bomb waiting to ruin the lives of innocents. Get rid of this filth forever. Parents will probably use the excuse "but he's such a good boy".
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
This thread is about an FBI manhunt that led to his arrest.
Just comparing crimes and penalties.
Don't care if they're 17. If someone has done this 100 times, they'll never learn. They'll never be an appropriate member of society. They're a ticking time bomb waiting to ruin the lives of innocents. Get rid of this filth forever. Parents will probably use the excuse "but he's such a good boy".
I agree. The whole "he's a minor, so punishment should be less" is the dumbest thing ever. I can understand a 7 year old not knowing any better, but when youre 17 it's totally different. Normal punishment should start at like 14. At that point someone is in grade 9. Anyone at that age knows the difference between good and bad, and what's a serious infraction and not. As if a 17 year old doesn't know the consequences of swatting so he should get an easier punishment.

Age based punishments at that age makes no sense anyway because it's not like a 17 or 18 year old have different mental states. Yet a 17 year old gets one treatment and an 18 year old gets adult rules. There's chance the 17 year old is more mature than the 18 year old.
 
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Kings Field

Member
Give him the firing squad. He had no regard for human life and could have ended with people being killed. Scum like this has no place on earth.
 

TDiddyLive

Member
I agree, It fits the FBI definition of domestic terrorism pretty well.
They should charge them as such.
Except it’s missing the key portion:
to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.
Up to 20 years in prison for this. Just do it, US.
Swatting is only a misdemeanor in California so up to a year in jail and a fine. Hopefully they hit him with consecutive charges so he has a serve way more time. If someone dies as a result, it becomes manslaughter.
 

Jsisto

Member
I would say I hope he never sees the light of day again, but he probably never goes outside anyway. What scum…. How does one become this person, and so young?
 
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Lunarorbit

Member
Try this piece 9f shit as an adult. He's 17 and has terrorized people for years. Send him to pound you in the ass federal prison and not a country club with tennis.
 

DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
Because out of all western countries, the US is by far the most volatile with violence, gun sprees, gangs, school massacres, shootouts and foot chases with cops and other dumb shit. And swatting is another one. The term Going Postal is a US thing. So cops are trained to be amped up charging in guns a blazing to solve a situation even though swatting is a fake situation. But the cops and city cant take that risk it's a college prank because they know gun violence and domestic violence are such a big thing in the US. They arent mind readers, so they have to break down a door kind of thing.

In some countries, the cops I dont think are even armed with guns when doing boring patrols around the city. In the US, it seems every cop is loaded up with guns, billystick and bulletproof vests because you never know when someone with pull out a pistol or AR15 and shoot up a scene.

Go to a Buffalo Sabres hockey game. I got 2-3 times a year. No joke. Outside the arena you get the usual cops doing parking and traffic control..... but also military guys dressed in uniforms, armed with a rifle and have their military assault vehicle beside them. US Army kind of stuff.

I have never seen anything like that going to a Jays, Leafs or Raptors game. All you might get are a couple cops doing traffic control with a whistle for cars and walkers.

It's not just going in guns blazing... People have been KILLED during these swatting "pranks". Sometimes hoping for a deadly outcome!
 

DavidGzz

Member
Send the closest squad car to check it out. If everything looks fine, have the officers go knock and confirm. If it does look real, the squad car can call in the real swat team. Have them on standby if they are really needed. It isn't that hard to not suit up and break down doors just because you get a call.

Again, USA is the only ones with swatting problems. Why is it that other countries just don't barge in and seem just fine?

I've seen plenty of vids where they only sent a couple of officers for a security check. But when you say crazy shit and have shooting sounds over the 911 call, you think they are going to send one cop to "make sure"? GTFO
 
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