#swatting

#swatting

Sheriff Derek Fell said deputies were dispatched around 5 p.m. on Sunday after Terre Haute police received an email advising harm had been done to persons inside a home, located in southeastern Vigo County. Officers struggled to make contact at first, Fell said, but eventually confirmed the residents, including the senator, were safe. Goode and his family were secure, safe, and unharmed, Fell said, adding that an investigation showed the threat was a hoax, also known as swatting.

Records show he transferred his Cypress home, located in the Houston area, to his mother's name on Sept. 23. The Harris County Sheriff's Office says deputies were called to the home on Sept. 17, but that turned out to be a falsely reported call. In that swatting incident, a caller claimed there was a shooting with a dead female victim.

The scale of the scheme sounds staggering. The Secret Service said that its agents seized more than 100,000 SIM cards and 300 SIM servers, spread across five different safe houses in or around the city. All were unoccupied, though authorities also seized 80 grams of cocaine, illegal firearms, as well a s computers and cell phones. One official who chose to remain anonymous told the New York Timesthat the network could send 30 million text messages per minute.

The charges are the culmination of an extensive investigation by Merseyside Police working with US law enforcement, including the FBI, regarding swatting activities in North America.