Nikki Haley, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene swatted. What is swatting?

On Tuesday, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) announced they had a 17-year-old body extradited from California in their custody, charged with "swatting" a local mosque last year.

About 30 law enforcement officers rushed to the Masjid Al Hayy Mosque in Sanford in May after receiving a call from a male voice who said he had a handgun and explosive devices and was going to kill everyone.

"Hello, I am going to commit a mass shooting in the name of Satan," the voice said, according to reports. The call ended with the sound of weapons firing in the background, the SCSO said. Deputies swarmed the area to find nothing there. Other mosques in the state including the Islamic Center of Daytona Beach received similar calls, with similar law enforcement reactions.

Swatting is a dangerous and illegal practice that seeks to fool law enforcement into sending deputies and heavily armed SWAT teams to a specific location to cause havoc. Swatting incidents have risen dramatically in the last few years, often aimed at schools, religious organizations and political leaders.

Nikki Haley, Rick Scott, Majorie Taylor Greene, others swatted in recent weeks

Emergency responders rushed to Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley's South Carolina home on Dec. 30 after a man called 911 to report he shot a woman there and again on New Year's Day when the caller reportedly said Haley shot her daughter.

Two days earlier Florida Senator Rick Scott's home in Naples was swatted, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga, Rep. Brandon Williams, R-NY, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu were all swatted on Christmas Day. Greene said she and her family were swatted for "like the 8th time."

The judge and prosecutor in former president and current Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's D.C. election interference case were both swatted in January, weeks after someone called police in Maryland to report that special counsel Jack Smith had shot his wife.

"These criminals wasted the time & resources of our law enforcement in a sick attempt to terrorize my family," senator and former Florida governor Scott said in a post on X.

Here's what you need to know about this reckless, dangerous, potentially lethal act.

What is swatting?

"Swatting" is the act of making a fake call to law enforcement in the hopes of deliberately causing a large police or SWAT team response. The caller often reports shots fired, or people (especially children) held hostage and may sound terrified. Sometimes it's aimed at a specific person, sometimes at a government office or school, sometimes it's just randomly done to cause chaos and tie up resources.

Swatting began when people would call 911 on video gamers who were streaming themselves playing online so the hoaxsters might be able to watch police break down the door behind the hapless victim in real time. It quickly became a way to harass anyone the caller wanted to antagonize and possibly cause harm.

In October 2022, a school in Sarasota and multiple schools in Miami-Dade, Broward, St. Lucie, and Collier locked down after receiving calls. USA TODAY found at least 30 active shooter false alarms and threats made at schools in one week in September and WIRED reported more than 90 false reports of school shooters during three weeks that same month. Schools in Indian River, Manatee County, Palm Beach County, Volusia and Flagler counties and higher ed schools across South Florida shut down in 2023.

In December two 14-year-old boys, one from Baker, Florida, and one from Mansfield. Texas were arrested for swatting Baker School in November. Both teens were part of a national swatting group called "LulzSEC" that accepted cryptocurrency to commit swatting calls across the United States and Canada, authorities said.

Is swatting illegal?

Yes. Issuing a threat over social media, by text message or through e-mail is a federal crime (threatening interstate communications). People posting or sending such threats can receive up to five years in federal prison, or they can face state or local charges.

In Florida swatting was already illegal as a false report to law enforcement authorities, a first-degree misdemeanor. But in 2021, in an effort to crack down on the growing practice, Florida legislators passed HB 371, False Reports of Crimes, which made swatting a third-degree felony if anyone was hurt as a result of being swatted and a second-degree felony if anyone died in the process. Anyone convicted of swatting also must pay full restitution for any costs incurred.

You also can be charged with a variety of things such as conspiracy to commit access device fraud and unauthorized access of a protected computer, misuse of 911 systems and other related crimes.

On Jan. 17, Rick Scott, Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Sen. Mike Rounds, and Rep. David Kustoff, introduced a bill to expand the federal criminal hoax statute and impose stricter penalties, including "up to 20 years in prison if someone is seriously hurt because of a swatting attack."

“Swatting calls are on the rise and are used to harass and intimidate the victims," said Bill Johnson, Executive Director of the National Association of Police Organizations. "These calls are not only a serious waste of resources, but they also put the officers and any innocent people at the scene of the fake incident in a dangerous and difficult situation."

Is swatting dangerous?

Aside from reports of active shooters traumatizing students, staff and parents, anytime law enforcement must respond to a false call of an active shooter or mass casualties, there is the chance of accidents.

In 2017, California resident Tyler Barriss made a swatting call reporting a fake hostage situation after arguing with a fellow gamer playing "Call of Duty." He gave the address of an innocent, unrelated person who police ended up fatally shooting during their response. Barriss was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a conspirator, Casey Viner, was sentenced to 15 months.

In 2021, Mark Herring, a 60-year-old grandfather who owned the X, then-Twitter handle of @Tennessee, was swatted by people who wanted the potentially valuable nickname. When police arrived at his home with guns drawn, Herring died of a heart attack. Shane Sonderman, 20, was sentenced to five years in prison.

Swatting also drains significant resources from schools and local authorities and pulls law enforcement attention away from actual crimes and emergencies.

Why can't police catch swatters?

They can, and do, but it can be time-consuming. Swatters often use software to falsify phone numbers and caller ID and they call from out-of-state, which complicates investigations.

The FBI has even warned the public that some swatters use "spoofing" technology to make it appear as if the emergency call is coming from the victim's own phone number, and some have gained access to victims' smart devices and used them to watch the police response through the victim's home security cameras or even respond to law enforcement through the victim's speakers.

"In some cases, the offender also live streams the incident on shared online community platforms," the FBI said in a release.

Police tracked one caller who had made four separate swatting calls to Ohio schools about armed gunmen wearing body armor shooting students to a phone number in California, where they found a 66-year-old man in "very poor health" who said he didn't have that number anymore.

Is the FBI investigating swatters?

The FBI does not investigate cases of swatting, leaving that to local law enforcement, but they will provide assistance.

In a release sent after a high school in Texas was evacuated due to a caller falsely claiming that ten people had been shot, the FBI said: "The FBI is aware of the numerous swatting incidents wherein a report of an active shooter at a school is made. Similar incidents have occurred recently across the country.

"The FBI takes swatting very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk. While we have no information to indicate a specific and credible threat, we will continue to work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to gather, share, and act upon threat information as it comes to our attention. We urge the public to remain vigilant, and report any and all suspicious activity and/or individuals to law enforcement immediately.”

In May, the FBI formed the National Swatting Virtual Command Center and online database to track and share information between hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country, according to an NBC report.

Collin Bestor, Northwest Florida Daily News, contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Teen arrested for swatting Florida mosque, others. What is swatting?