View Full Version : Salinas police get 'Swatted'
NorCalBusa
12-13-2007, 01:29 PM
Yeah, here's a great idea:
The Monterey County Herald
Salinas police got "swatted" by an Illinois teenager on Wednesday — a prank that resulted in a heavy response of armed officers who surrounded an apartment on North Main Street.
Salinas police Commander Robert Eggers said they responded to an emergency call about 9:30 p.m. from someone who reported that three men with AK-47s were trying to break into his apartment.
They surrounded the apartment on the 2200 block of North Main Street, but learned a short while later that the call was a prank designed to generate a heavy police response.
"Further investigation revealed that a 15-year-old juvenile had been on his computer with someone out of Chicago, Ill.," said Eggers. "Unknown to him the subject used some type of computer software to generate the bogus 911 call to county radio making them believe the call was coming from the 15-year-old juvenile.
"Apparently this style of pranking has been occurring all around the United States and computer pranksters refer to it as 'swatting.'"
The Salinas boy had no idea the police were coming to his apartment until his computer friend asked him via the computer if he heard any sirens approaching, Eggers said. The juvenile voluntarily surrendered his computer to our department for follow-up by our computer forensic unit to see if the origin of the 911 call can be determined through an IP address.
Later, the suspect apparently called police dispatchers and asked why police did not respond to his call. "When confronted with the fact that we had responded, the subject just laughed and hung up," said Eggers.
He said the suspect placed additional 911 calls to the North Salinas address, and later ordered $127 worth of pizza and had it delivered to the victim's home.
}Dragon{
12-13-2007, 01:44 PM
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228830
el reposto amigo!
NorCalBusa
12-13-2007, 01:49 PM
It's what I do...!
antarius
12-13-2007, 01:50 PM
I'd like to hear how the kid did it -- that's pretty neat. Can he turn on my sprinklers too? :)
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228830
el reposto amigo!
Are those the same incident?
Salinas and Los Altos are pretty far from each other, and the Sink post didn't have other similar details besides it being a juvenile caller.
SLOW10R
12-13-2007, 08:19 PM
Its been going on alot, saw something on Foxnews the other day about how it is growing in popularity. It is nothing short of domestic terrorism in my opinion and the little bastards should be stuck hard for it.
masameet
12-13-2007, 08:29 PM
I remember reading a story some while back about the Coast Guard getting marine radio Mayday calls from a guy who'd claim he was a distressed sailor on a boat somewhere off the California coast. The CG triangulated him as being in, I think, the Monterey/Salinas area but at the time couldn't find and prosecute him for his bogus calls.
-Baker-
12-13-2007, 08:52 PM
Martinez used a spoof card to conceal his identity in this case, according to court filings, but in the Snohomish County incident he used an even simpler technique: he blocked his caller ID and simply gave 911 operators his victim's number, according to Cole. "Even with our 911 system if you use some blocked numbers for privacy reasons it's hard for our 911 system to read them," he said.
Martinez and another group member, Angela Roberson, have since pled guilty to swatting charges.
Court documents state that he and other group members used social engineering techniques against telephone companies such as AT&T.
For example, Martinez would call an internal AT&T number claiming to be a service representative working in the field in order to get information on victims and sometimes even terminate their phone service, Cole said. "He would fake that he was an AT&T employee, call the internal phone number ... and they would give him that information."
According to an affidavit by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Allyn Lynd, "AT&T employees were being victimized by the swatting group by the misappropriation of the AT&T employees' identities and passwords in order to make the swatting group's illegal access appear more legitimate."
One of the group's members, Matthew Weigman, had registered telephone service for himself under the name of an AT&T representative, the affidavit states.
Members of the group were able to spoof their phone numbers using commercially available "spoofing cards," as well as special hardware that could be used to spoof the ANI (Automatic Number Identification) caller identification system used by some telephone systems.
They accessed systems at AT&T subsidiary CTS Telecommunications, in Grand Prairie, Texas, the Verizon Provisioning Center in Irving Texas, and the Frontier Telecommunications center in Rochester, New York, according to court fillings.
AT&T did not return calls for comment.
Cole said that the group swatted people for two reasons: for kicks, and to get even. "They had very limited social skills so they were kind of immature," he said.
Martinez who is described as the one generally responsible for making the telephone calls, was nicknamed the "Wicked Wizard." He would often swat victims as a way of getting even for some chatroom slight, Cole said. "I think it was a power trip for him. It was his way of being the big man."
http://security.itworld.com/4337/071120swatters/page_1.html
-Baker-
12-13-2007, 08:55 PM
Computers....aw the fun thing about them.
I have some kick ass software that I hack any PC with a login password to any user and simply bypass it through a boot and boom I am in on your profile. Wait for another 10 years you'll hear of some more crazy shit out there people are doing and its only going to get worse.
It's what I do...!
How embarrassing.
NorCalBusa
12-14-2007, 11:19 AM
How embarrassing.
It's all we all do Rel (sorry to burst your bubble)...we take in, regurgitate, rinse/repeat.:shocker
It's all we all do Rel (sorry to burst your bubble)...we take in, regurgitate, rinse/repeat.:shocker
We've all been there brother....
NorCalBusa
12-14-2007, 02:22 PM
LOL:thumbup
T-1 Thunder
12-14-2007, 04:18 PM
"The juvenile voluntarily surrendered his computer to our department for follow-up by our computer forensic unit to see if the origin of the 911 call can be determined through an IP address."
Damn, now they got all his porn. That sucks.
RolnCode3
12-14-2007, 11:11 PM
We've all been there brother....
Calling God on the big white phone? Reminds me of a bad night with Jack.
Anti-Hero
12-17-2007, 11:30 AM
Computers....aw the fun thing about them.
I have some kick ass software that I hack any PC with a login password to any user and simply bypass it through a boot and boom I am in on your profile. Wait for another 10 years you'll hear of some more crazy shit out there people are doing and its only going to get worse.
Huh? Translation please.
}Dragon{
12-17-2007, 11:36 AM
Huh? Translation please.
He 15 @n 1337 H4X0r
SirFonners
12-17-2007, 11:40 AM
I blame the parents:x
but seriously sounds like the kid need a lot beatings as a child, this stuff is so ridiculous and there needs to be waay stricter punishment for kids and or adults who pull this crap. Non of that trialled as a child crap, they just sent SWAT to some innocent families house and somebody could have been hurt.. throw the book at the bastards and let them get a reality check from bubba at their local prison.
-Baker-
12-17-2007, 03:29 PM
Huh? Translation please.
simple terms- say your pc is password protected...ie login needs a password before your PC boots to its desktop and access to files and everything.
WELL...the software I have runs in DOS and I simply bypass the password on any of the user accounts (ie adminstrator , or your profile) thats protected within the operating system. (Known as SAM files and this works for all windows versions)
I guess this sort of thing is needed quite often now....loved ones who passes and the other half doesn't have the password to get into the computer.
Anti-Hero
12-17-2007, 03:56 PM
What if my laptop utilizes a hard drive password after posting? (Which it does)
Razel
12-17-2007, 11:59 PM
What if my laptop utilizes a hard drive password after posting? (Which it does)
Does your laptop have an option to boot from CD first? I think he's describing a program on a CD that boots, then mounts the hard drive as a secondary drive. The hard drivepassword would only become a factor if you were booting up from the hard drive.
Power-on password, though...
Power-on password, though...
Are easily blanked by opening the case and setting a jumper.
Which is the thing...if you have physical access to the computer, there isn't really anything out there that can protect it completely, although I'm not so sure the hard drive encryption passwords are easily bypassed.
-Baker-'s thing also requires physical access to the box, and I'm not even certain it will work if the drive is set to restrict access to folders based on user accounts. Sure, he can reset the admin password and gain access to the system, but the user files are potentially lost forever. Not 100% sure, but again, his "program" (most likely just a windows recovery boot disk) requires physical access to the box. Can't do shit over the internet.
Thread resurrection for an update!
Although not a follow up to the original post, here's (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/03/27/state/n104506D63.DTL&tsp=1) the end result of one of these SWATtings:
A computer hacker was sentenced to three years in prison for placing a phony 911 call that led a SWAT team to storm a family home at gunpoint.
It marked the first prosecution in Orange County for a prank known as "swatting" that involves sending SWAT teams on wild goose chases, county district attorney's spokeswoman Farrah Emami said Thursday.
Randal T. Ellis, 19, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court to five felony counts, including computer access and fraud, false imprisonment by violence and falsely reporting a crime.
He was given prison time and ordered to pay $14,765 in restitution, most of which will go to the county Sheriff's Department.
Not bad...3 years to think about the error of his ways.
SirFonners
03-27-2008, 04:49 PM
Thread resurrection for an update!
Although not a follow up to the original post, here's (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/03/27/state/n104506D63.DTL&tsp=1) the end result of one of these SWATtings:
Not bad...3 years to think about the error of his ways.
:rofl that should make those little bastards think twice
freaking threeee years for doing something stupid and a few minutes of laughter, you can only mess with the law for so long before they pull out the stick
NorCalBusa
03-27-2008, 05:57 PM
Pretty sure "3 years" means more like "<2", but...
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