CounterStrike GO streamer the subject of latest incident of "Swatting"

On August 27, a SWAT team responded to a threat at the offices of gaming group The Creatures in Littleton, CO. The threat, however, was fake, the latest incident of a prank known as “swatting.”

Swatting:

Swatting is the practice of calling in a fake bomb or hostage threat using a burner cellphone and other untraceable equipment, targeting the address and name of a popular streamer. In the following video of the Littleton incident, you can hear Jordan “Kootra” Mathewson recognize that it is happening when he hears the SWAT teams clearing rooms as the authorities sweep through the office. The video contains the subsequent entry, search and arrest of Mathewson.

There’s not much to say about this, from game development legal perspective. It’s obviously wrong and illegal – the real question is how to prevent it. Hopefully the publicity doesn’t create a Streisand Effect.

Other incidents:

Vice has a great video on the subject on YouTube:

Additionally, other personalities such as former Microsoft Director of Xbox Live policy Stephen “Stepto” Toulouse have been the subject of these attacks. In this latest incident, three schools were evacuated in the area. More info and photos at The Daily Dot.

Thanks to NeoGAF for the links and videos.

photo credit: andriuXphoto via photopin cc