Multiple Michigan Swatting Events Today

[wwillson]

I dunno. I remember hearing about scam callers in India swatting people who insulted them. Might be a little bit more difficult to trace that way.

I get lots of calls from halfway around the world using VoIP that is identified as US locations. But it's really weird because the sound quality is just so staticky even though VoIP should be clear, although possibly tinny depending on the settings.

For the call to get to your phone, the originating call must enter a regulated service (mobile or landline network). The entry point into the regulated service will be known as will the the metadata about the call. They can be traced, but if the origin is in India, it is very difficult to prosecute, however it has happened.

Poor quality sound on a VoIP call is usually caused by jitter and packet loss. Delay budget can make the call herky-jerky from the other side of the world, because we aren't used to pausing and waiting to see if the far end is done or is beginning to talk.

 

[wwillson]

You guys are really behind times and tech. A phone call can be initiated from any computer or smartphone on the planet, using different proxies and VPNs, and the number displayed on the other side can be anything you want.

This is true, but the call must enter a regulated service to get to your or my phone. The call is completely traceable once it get into the regulated service. It is not impossible to trace the other side of the call, if investigators are willing to do a lot of work. In the case of the calls that are the topic of this thread, investigators are willing to do a ton of work to catch the perp. Even the expert hackers get caught on occasion. They will catch this perp.

 

[oggb]

Do Michigan schools not have "school resource officers" or whatever they call them now? I'm asking because I would think dispatch would ask the SRO what the actual situation was, especially if dispatch wasn't being overwhelmed with calls about gunshots at X school...

If they didn't have SROs before I'm guessing they will after this.

 

[64bawagon]

Do Michigan schools not have "school resource officers" or whatever they call them now? I'm asking because I would think dispatch would ask the SRO what the actual situation was, especially if dispatch wasn't being overwhelmed with calls about gunshots at X school...

If they didn't have SROs before I'm guessing they will after this.

I believe most do have SRO's and its likely that dispatch would contact them by whatever means they have. They likely coordinate that with the response. I doubt they hold units for confirmation though, seconds count and its always better to have units cancelled than it is to wait.
The tragedy at Oxford high school last year definitely revealed some weaknesses but it also proved out some areas that worked.

 

[PWMDMD]

My first practice was in Newtown, CT about 1/2 mile from Sandy Hook school which I visited multiple times per year to do hygiene presentations for various teachers I knew. The morning of Sandy Hook I was traveling to a school in the neighboring town of Monroe with my hygienist when we started to see police car after police car racing in the opposite direction towards Newtown. We gave our presentation and returned to the office to learn the tragic news. Eight of my patients died that day. I attended eight funeral services and continued to see many of the parents and siblings afterward until I left that practice.

Swatting has never been funny but in light of Sandy Hook and all previous and subsequent school shootings, it's positively cruel to parents/teachers/children/the community as a whole. I'm sorry you had to witness that OP.

 

[GON]

I think it could be very beneficial for the media to not use names that downplay the act. Swatting, porch pirates, etc...... All downplay the criminal activity. Maybe even glamours it.

 

[dnewton3]

I'm not an expert by any means on the tech side.
I'm looking at this from a LE motivation side.

Example 1:
Say you get a scammer call to your cell phone or landline which you have on the Do Not Call List, both on your state and federal DNC list. You report this unwanted call to your State Atty General and it goes into a heap of other scammer calls that one junior-assistant attorney is working on. While they will take your complaint (typically logged over a website complaint line), it's obivously not going to get much action. They'll run this back as far as practical, but the likelihood of prosecution is low. It's low becaus if it's singular events, there's not a good ROI to go after single examples. It's not cost effective to attempt to get all the warrants for phone records, serve them to the phone service legal teams, then work through all the garbage only to find you have a scammer in India or some 3rd world country.

Example 2:
Say a despicable person calls NINE schools on one morning and SWATS them with active-shooter calls. This gets national attention, and causes mass terror, and a huge drain on local resources involving many juridictions. Yeah ... There's going to be plenty of effort put into this and it won't go away.



I've seen videos by a YT channel called Scammer Payback; I have no idea if he's legit or not, but at face value, he seems to be true. He's constantly tracing back and heckling the scammers and taking their files, etc. Again - this guy appears to be real, but I've already admitted I'm no expert. But if this guy can trace back stuff across the ocean, I suspect the LE agencies can too.

If the call came from the US, it won't take long to find them.
If the call came from Europe, it may take a tad longer, but the State Department will have good cooperation from InterPol.
If the call came from Russia, China, India or some 3rd world country, well it may be difficult/improbable to locate and even more so to prosecute.

 

[Kira]

Are the assets of the perps (once caught and convicted) of such crimes seized to pay for wasted services?

 

[Hall]

The media has been reporting that the phone call was made through an unknown Google number. Later they stated that the number was confirmed. What does that mean?

With a Google phone number, you can typically pick any available number you want, from any area code. You being in MI could have a Google phone # from New Mexico, for example. Google knows who you are though or at least has some information about the account that's linked to it.

Also, today (the day after) is the Michigan school head count day where the attendance numbers are used to determine each school's funding. With many of these schools canceling classes this second day, I wonder how they will handle this.

I'm sure MI's department of education will acommodate them on this.

You guys are really behind times and tech. A phone call can be initiated from any computer or smartphone on the planet, using different proxies and VPNs, and the number displayed on the other side can be anything you want.

Have you read the comments ? Multiple people have talked about these and others.

 

[KrisZ]

With a Google phone number, you can typically pick any available number you want, from any area code. You being in MI could have a Google phone # from New Mexico, for example. Google knows who you are though or at least has some information about the account that's linked to it.


I'm sure MI's department of education will acommodate them on this.


Have you read the comments ? Multiple people have talked about these and others.

I have. You don’t need a google phone number or any other VOIP service to do this. That’s what you guys don’t understand.

Is it totally untraceable? No, but it can be extremely hard, if the people that pulled this off knew what they were doing. If this was some stupid kid, then yes they should trace them without much problem.
The question is, will they?

 

[Hall]

Do Michigan schools not have "school resource officers"

Can't speak for MI schools but I'd guess the case applies for most schools across the country and the answer is, "it depends". Our kid's school district has (1) police officer from the township's day shift. He covers (3) buildings with one building in one village, another building in the township in between one city and that village, and finally a "campus" with two buildings. No comments are necessary..... In all seriousness, I believe the campus with two buildings is considered covered enough by the city's police (it's a small city).

 

[wwillson]

You don’t need a google phone number or any other VOIP service to do this.

I hope they were dumb enough to use google phone. Google logs everything and knows nearly everything about everyone. If they used a google phone, they already know who made the calls.

 

[KrisZ]

I hope they were dumb enough to use google phone. Google logs everything and knows nearly everything about everyone. If they used a google phone, they already know who made the calls.

Well, you can have a google phone number, not necessarily a google phone, it’s called Google Voice. It’s a VOIP service.
I do hope it was some dumb people and can be easily traced, otherwise it’s quite scary how the law enforcement can be manipulated to overreact in the future with little consequence.

Or, like I said in my deleted post it could be deliberate so people are scared of their neighbors. It’s been done before countless of times.

 

[Hall]

My grand kids tell me how they have active shooter drills. I cannot fathom what anxiety this stuff causes for young people and their parents.

Our kids tell us about the drills and as a parent, it's upsetting that they have to go through this. It's not a case of ignoring reality either. My wife and I have to hold back tears when they have told us.

 

[KrisZ]

Living in fear has to be instilled from the young age.

All these active shooters are quite suspect how they come about. Like the last big one in Texas. 18 or 19 year, no job, living with a poor grandmother yet had around $10k worth of guns and ammo on him and on top of that “found” an open back entrance.
Not a peep on how he got all of that, his computer data or online interactions.

 

[doitmyself]

Our kids tell us about the drills and as a parent, it's upsetting that they have to go through this. It's not a case of ignoring reality either. My wife and I have to hold back tears when they have told us.

In my elementary school days we had nuclear bomb drills: Get under the desk and put your arms over your head. I don't remember having any stress or trauma from that. Today's situation is so much different.

Some of the other affected schools in Michigan claimed they figured it out as a hoax in minutes and did "soft lock downs". I fear that this might invoke a "cry wolf" type of reaction over the long run.

 

[oggb]

All these active shooters are quite suspect how they come about.

Not sure I understand. Mind explaining a bit more clearly/giving examples with citations? Some of us may lack the information that you have on the subject.

 

[KrisZ]

Not sure I understand. Mind explaining a bit more clearly/giving examples with citations? Some of us may lack the information that you have on the subject.

I did, but partially quoting is more convenient I guess. Or you simply don’t find the Texas example suspect?

 

[doitmyself]

Not sure I understand. Mind explaining a bit more clearly/giving examples with citations? Some of us may lack the information that you have on the subject.

There's tons of research articles if you Google "active shooter psychology". The problem is that in many/most/not all instances, the "quite suspect" identification aspect has metrics that obviously still allude us.

 

[Dave Hess]

There's a special place reserved for the idiots that do this stuff.

Yep, very sad and pathetic losers do stuff like this.