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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGamers use police hoax to lash out at opponents
The calls to 911 raised an instant alarm: One caller said he shot his co-workers at a Colorado video game company and had hostages. Another in Florida said her father was drunk, wielding a machine gun and threatening their family.
A third caller on New York's Long Island claimed to have killed his mother and threatened to shoot first responders.
In each case, SWAT teams dispatched to the scene found no violent criminals or wounded victims only video game players sitting at their computers, the startled victims of a hoax known as "swatting."
Authorities say the hoax that initially targeted celebrities has now become a way for players of combat-themed video games to retaliate against opponents while thousands of spectators watch. The perpetrators can watch their hijinks unfold minute by minute in a window that shows a live video image of other players.
http://www.denverpost.com/crime/ci_26534918/gamers-use-police-hoax-lash-out-at-opponents
These people are going to get someone killed one of these days.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)I just happened to run across this article and had a WTF moment.
NutmegYankee
(16,177 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)and skimmed a couple of articles. I still don't know what the hell it's about. Something to do with "gaming journalists."
Recursion
(56,582 posts)And the neckbeards who play Call of Duty not liking that...
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)The couple of articles I read didn't mention that. I will freely admit that I'm out of touch with the gaming community. I grew up with an Atari. My son plays a lot, though.
Hari Seldon
(154 posts)would be a better headline.
Oktober
(1,488 posts)Not everyone has your exact knowledge of the future...
Bosonic
(3,746 posts)Earth_First
(14,910 posts)What is wrong with these kids?!
JHB
(37,132 posts)...from those who pull fire alarms all the way back to the ones who cried "WOLF!"
They get a kick out doing something that makes other people scramble around and/or wreak havoc... until they can't get away with it.
Sheldon Cooper
(3,724 posts)Nowadays, infants in their cribs aren't safe from Swat-Team 6, and these idiotic "pranks" are going to get someone killed. Haha guess they'll really get a laugh then, won't they?
JHB
(37,132 posts)I'm not defending the practice (at all), but Earth_First asked "What is wrong with these kids?"
I just pointed out that this kind of jackassery goes way, way back.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)When this "game" starts targetting people who aren't celebreties, its is likely that a SWAT team could care less about exercising caution before breaking down a door and firing away.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)and throwing the book at them.