SWATTED: Part 2
Members of Com/764 are terrorizing college campuses nationwide with active shooter hoaxes.
College students and faculty across the country had a rough start to the 2025 academic year amid a recent wave of swatting attacks. Starting late last week, at least seven universities - University of South Carolina, Villanova University, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Louisiana State University, the University of Arkansas, Iowa State University, and the University of Colorado - were victims of active shooter hoaxes.
When people think of cybercrime networks, they usually think of the dark web. But swatters are most commonly associated with “Com” or “The Comm”, the broad cybercriminal network that organizes its activities over social media and encrypted apps. People in this network engage in a wide range of criminal activity - hacking, extortion, real life crimes like vandalism and assaults, trading of child sexual abuse material, and swatting - without the inconvenience and inherent risks associated with connecting to the dark web.
While most cybercriminals are motivated by making money, swatters do it “for the lulz”. Although they sometimes also offer swat-for-hire services, there hasn’t been a documented case of anyone actually paying them to swat - at least not one in which the client was caught. The majority of swatters are motivated simply by a desire to cause chaos and disrupt society while maximizing their notoriety in the process. The swatters maintain Telegram channels where they brag and post videos of their swattings.
Active shooter hoaxes are by far the most common swatting tactic. The swatter will use an AI voice changer and call 911 claiming to be in the middle of committing a mass shooting, or to be a student or faculty member reporting an active shooter. They use generative AI and sometimes even video games in the background of the call to replicate the sound of gunfire. This method of attack was perfected by Alan Filion, aka Torswats, the most prolific swatter caught to date.
A few months ago, I wrote an article about my own experiences with a swatting group connected to the 764 child extortion and exploitation network. The leader of that group was called Smiggles, and as far as I can tell, Smiggles is still free and still committing swatting attacks despite being heavily on the FBI’s radar. Smiggles formerly operated a Telegram channel called Goyswats which heavily targeted me along with other victims, including President Trump, Dan Bongino, Ben Shapiro, and multiple schools and government buildings.