Criminals’ SWAT Pranks Have Real Life Consequences

ring

The company that makes Ring doorbell cameras is quick to point out that their devices weren’t hacked. Their customers were. Compromised passwords were used to access several of the devices nationwide, to set up “swatting” incidents for social media video entertainment. Two of the three behind the scheme are now behind bars.

Ring camera SWAT show

Two men were indicted on federal crimes “in connection with a scheme to gain access to Ring doorbell cameras and make fake emergency calls to police.

The trio were basically a video version of the Jerky Boys, taunting SWAT teams through the speaker while they streamed the armed police responses out live on social media.

Federal prosecutors announced, on December 19, that 21-year-old Kya Christian Nelson of Racine, Wisconsin and James Thomas Andrew McCarty, age 20, of Charlotte, North Carolina were charged with “multiple federal counts.

The third person involved in the Ring cam swatting scheme is an unnamed minor, listed in court documents as “an unindicted co-conspirator.

The men spent a week back in 2020 gathering “usernames and passwords for Yahoo accounts.” Those were used “to gain access to Ring cameras at homes across the country.” Then, they “placed a variety of bogus emergency calls to police and streamed the live recordings on social media as officers responded to the residences.

The FBI isn’t happy about that. In December 2020, they put out a bulletin “warning homeowners with smart devices” that people were using stolen passwords for swatting scams.

Potential deadly consequences

Hoax calls to police departments have gotten people killed. Ring doesn’t like all the bad publicity so issued a statement.

The company “learned bad actors used stolen customer email credentials obtained from external (non-Ring) services to access other accounts, and took immediate steps to help those customers secure their Ring accounts. We also supported the FBI in identifying the individuals responsible.

Things got serious on November 8, 2020 when Nelson and the juvenile “gained access to a Ring camera in West Covina, California.” One of them, probably the youngster, “then called the police department pretending to be a child and reported that their parents were drinking and shooting guns inside the house.

When the police responded, Nelson used the device speaker to “verbally threaten and taunt” the SWAT team. If someone had been home they could have been blasted.

On November 13, McCarty was also involved and they “accessed a Ring camera in North Port, Florida.” This time, “McCarty called the police department pretending to be a man who had just killed his wife.” He also allegedly told them “he was holding a hostage at the residence and had rigged the home with explosives.

He made the mistake of talking about it on social media, basically confessing. “It’s bleeping funny.” They did it in 9 other cities, too. Nelson and McCarty are each charged with one count of “conspiracy to intentionally access computers without authorization.” Nelson get two more counts of “intentionally accessing without authorization a computer and two counts of aggravated identity theft.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Article
chemistry

Students Petition to FIRE Professor...You Won't Believe the Reason WHY

Next Article
desantis

Trump Discusses His Pick For Vice President...

Related Posts