Fake Hostage Situation That Included One Dead Sparked by Xbox Bullying

Entire SWAT team called in as revenge for lack of DLC swap

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Lt. Beavers, on the case. Stop laughing at the back
Lt. Beavers, on the case. Stop laughing at the back
Apparently there's a thing in the USA called 'Swatting' that involves hideous little *rseholes calling their local - and apparently very unlikely to actually check - police department with bomb or hostage threats. The SWAT team is dispatched, everybody expect the household of the victims has a laugh.

One kid in Oviedo, Florida found himself and his terrified family the butt of some swatting having had his Xbox account hacked. Of course the local TV station went nuts and got "Xbox!!! SWAT Team!!!" headlines out of it... So, it took Lt. Mike Beavers, of the Oviedo police to explain. Lt Beavers said that:

"...prior to accessing the Xbox user's account, the hackers attempted to extort the teen for one of is map packs, a downloadable extension gamers can purchase to add functionality to popular multiplayer games.

"They were trying to get the young man to give them a copy of what he had purchased, and they said if he didn't, they were going to cause the police to come to his house by calling in a bomb threat," Beavers said.

NBC reports that, "When the teen didn't comply, the Xbox player’s tormentors apparently accessed his account where they found an address.

"Shortly after the gamer reported his encounter with the hackers to the Oviedo police, AT&T contacted the department, stating the company had received online messages from someone claiming to be at an unrelated home. The messages said that “someone had been killed at that location and others were being held hostage,” according to the police report."


Comments

Daz 1 Feb 2013 12:50
1/1
That's f**king pathetic, it's a f**king map pack, just ask your mum for the cash it's not like you're asking for a car.
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