Wisconsin man charged with hacking doorbell cameras, placing fake 911 calls

Drew Dawson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·2 min read
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Two men, including one from Wisconsin, are facing federal charges after prosecutors say they hacked into Ring doorbell cameras around the country and placed false 911 calls to live stream the emergency responses.

Kya Christian Nelson, 21, of Racine, and James McCarty, 20, of Charlotte, North Carolina, were indicted by a federal grand jury last week.

The two men are accused of gaining access to Yahoo email accounts and passwords and then using that information to log in to Ring camera accounts in November 2020, according to a news release United States Department of Justice in the Central District of California

With the access, Nelson and McCarty placed false emergency calls to police and livestreamed the response on social media using the doorbell cameras, prosecutors say. The act of placing a false emergency call in an attempt to bring a large police presence is known as "swatting." Similar incidents have been seen in Wisconsin, including at numerous schools around the state in October.

In one incident described in the news release, the two men called West Covina Police Department in California on Nov. 8, 2020, posing as a minor child reporting her parents drinking and shooting guns inside a residence. When officers arrived, they were reportedly verbally threatened and taunted by McCarty and Nelson via the camera's audio.

The indictment states that 11 other similar incidents occurred in nine total states including Michigan, Montana, Texas, Illinois, and Virginia.

Both men are charged with one count of conspiracy to intentionally access computers without authorization. Each count comes with a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

Nelson also faces two counts of intentionally accessing without authorization a computer and two counts of aggravated theft. The first two counts come with a maximum of five years and the latter two counts come with a maximum of two years.

The FBI is still investigating, and the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section is prosecuting the case.

Online security tips

  • Use strong, complex passwords or passphrases for your online accounts.

  • Do not use the same password for different online accounts.

  • Update passwords on a regular basis.

  • Enable two-factor authentication for online accounts and on all devices accessible through an internet connection.

  • Set the second factor for two-factor or multi-factor authentication to a cellphone number, instead of a secondary email account.

  • If you believe your email or other smart device credentials were compromised, you should report the incident at www.ic3.gov.

Source: FBI Public Safety Announcement

Drew Dawson can be reached at ddawson@jrn.com or 262-289-1324.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin man charged with hacking doorbell cameras, fake 911 calls