Swatting

What this is

Swatting is calling in a fake emergency — usually an armed hostage situation, a domestic with a weapon, or a bomb threat — to a target's home address. The goal is to send an armed police response to a location where no actual threat exists, in the hope that the response itself causes injury or death.

People have died in swatting incidents. Andrew Finch in Wichita in 2017. Mark Herring in Tennessee in 2020. The pattern is consistent: bad address, fake call, real response, real consequences.

The address always comes from somewhere. Most often, a data broker. The swatter doesn't know you. They got your name from a forum, ran it through Spokeo or Whitepages, copied the address, and made the call.

Why first responders catch this more

Officers are swatted in retaliation for arrests, in response to high-profile cases, by defendants and defendants' networks, and increasingly by online harassment campaigns that escalate from doxxing. The address is usually pulled from a broker — same chain that feeds doxxing, sharper end.

The thing that makes swatting particularly dangerous for officers is the coincidence of the threat with the response. You may be the responding officer to a swatting at someone else's house. You may be the target. The same broker page can produce either outcome.

What we sweep that prevents the chain

Swatting depends on the swatter knowing your home address. Remove the address from broker pages and the swatter has to work harder — sometimes hard enough that they pick a different target.

We file opt-outs across 200+ broker sites and re-check every two weeks. For the household: same drill — spouse, parents, adult kids if they live with you. The broker pages link family members; closing one closes the others.

If you've already been swatted, see the swatting recovery checklist for what to do, in order.