„“Swatting”: On February 2nd, 2023, shortly before midnight, a man reported in the Malchin district: He was experiencing domestic violence in a village near Altentreptow. The situation was quite unclear, the phone call was abandoned, and an attempt by the police to call back failed.
Man fell victim to swatting
As a precaution, officers were sent to the alleged crime scene and actually met a young man - but everything was fine. He apparently fell victim to “swatting”, a “trend” from the USA that has already kept the police on their toes several times in other federal states. It is the first case of its kind in the Neubrandenburg police headquarters area. However, almost at the same time tonight there was a fake call in the station in Waren (Müritz), which thank God did not end in an operation.
“Swatting” is supposed to cause the police to suddenly ring at people’s front doors because a crime is supposedly occurring there. Sometimes such dramatic scenes are played over the telephone that SEK operations have already taken place in Germany, which in retrospect were unfounded because the reported facts were fake.
Particularly in the online gaming scene, the perpetrators choose their victims because they can get real names and addresses and get fun out of putting other players in such situations.
The special unit in the USA – similar to our SEK – is called “Swat” for short. This is where the name “swatting” comes from, meaning setting special forces or police forces on someone’s neck.
Of course, the whole thing isn't funny at all and can have dire consequences
On the one hand, emergency services are on the move to supposed crime scenes, while at the same time real crimes are happening to which patrols cannot then be sent. On the other hand, unsuspecting people are brought into disrepute when the police suddenly come racing towards them, visible to the neighborhood.
Not to mention the extreme consequences of a case of “swatting” in the USA: There, a father of a family was even shot by a feigned crime because he was believed to be a perpetrator.
Pretending to commit a crime is a punishable offense and will be consistently prosecuted using all possible means. Anyone in your circle of friends who notices that someone wants to implement such an idea should stop them from doing so instead of encouraging them to do such an “idiotic action”.
Source: Neubrandenburg Police Headquarters
Related to the topic: What is swatting?
Also read:
Chain letter with fake emergency numbers
Facebook scam with a missing 5-year-old girl
Notes:
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