The FBI has formed a national database to track and prevent 'swatting'

Source: CNBC

The FBI has formed a national database to track and prevent 'swatting'

Advances in technology allow callers to mask their voices, phone numbers or IP addresses (also called “spoofing”) or make their false 911 calls sound more credible.

June 29, 2023, 6:40 PM EDT
By Jacob Ward and Lora Kolodny, CNBC

Author Patrick Tomlinson and his wife, business owner Niki Robinson, have been "swatted" at their home in Milwaukee more than 40 times, often resulting in police pointing guns at their heads. Their tormentors have also called in false bomb threats to venues using their names in three states. Yet law enforcement hasn’t been able to stop the calls.

The couple’s terror comes as these incidents appear to be on the rise in the U.S., at least on college campuses. In less than a single week in April, universities including Clemson, Florida, Boston, Harvard, Cornell, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Oklahoma, as well as Middlebury College, were targeted by swatters.

To combat the growing problem, the FBI has begun taking formal measures to get a comprehensive picture of the problem on a national level.

Chief Scott Schubert with the bureau’s Criminal Justice Information Services headquarters in Clarksburg, West Virginia, told NBC News that the agency formed a national online database in May to facilitate information sharing between hundreds of police departments and law enforcement agencies across the country pertaining to swatting incidents.

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Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-formed-national-database-track-prevent-swatting-rcna91722