A 17-year-old California boy, Alan Filion, has been arrested for allegedly instigating hundreds of incidents of swatting and bomb threats targeting the Pentagon, schools, mosques, FBI offices and military bases across the United States.
After hundreds of false alarms, the police finally arrested one of the perpetrators, a 17-year-old Californian, Alan Filion. The latter was extradited to Florida, where he was charged with multiple misdemeanors for a swatting incident that occurred in May 2023. According to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), Filion called 911 and claimed he was a mass shooter who had entered the Masjid Al Hayy mosque in Sanford, Florida.
The teen played a recording of gunshots in the background and said he had a handgun and explosive devices. It also mentioned Satanism and threatened to kill everyone present in the mosque. Around thirty police officers responded to the call and surrounded the mosque, before discovering that it was a hoax.
Swatting has become a real problem in the United States
Swatting is a form of cyberstalking that involves making false reports to the police so that they can send a police team or armed response team to an innocent person’s address.. The caller usually claims that a violent situation, such as a shooting or hostage situation, is taking place at that location.
SCSO Sheriff Dennis Lemma stated that “ Swatting is a perilous and senseless crime, putting innocent lives in dangerous situations and draining valuable resources » by sparking a “ substantial response from law enforcement “. This malicious practice has recently been used by hackers to extort money from their victims.
The SCSO worked with the FBI and the Department of Justice to track down Filion, whom it considers a “serial swatter” responsible for hundreds of similar incidents across the country. They traced his IP addresses to his home and found evidence of his participation in swatting websites. He was arrested Jan. 18 and charged as an adult with making a false statement while facilitating or encouraging an act of terrorism.
Swatting is fortunately still not very widespread in France, but we have seen many content creators fall victim to it in recent years, particularly those on Twitch.