— has become increasingly common over the last decade as it becomes easier for callers to mask their voices, phone numbers and IP addresses to remain anonymous. A nationwide database the FBI created this year because of the rise recorded over 200 occurrences since May 1, according to the FBI.
"The FBI takes swatting very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk," a FBI spokeperson told Fox News on Thursday."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." Before the database's inception, swatting calls were not officially tracked. But a former FBI agent, Kevin Kolbye, estimated incidents jumped from 400 in 2011 to over 1,000 in 2019, according to aSwatting calls are false 911 reports that are made in an attempt to trigger a powerful police response. Growing concerns about swatting led the FBI to start a national database for tracking the incidents.
Turgal said swatters want to create emotional distress and put Americans in harm's way. He estimated that"There are some threat actors out there that actually do this as a service, as sick as that sounds," Turgal said."They actually put themselves out on the dark web and think, 'well, we'll dox, or we'll SWAT any type of organization that you want us to. You pay us a fee, and we'll do it.
"There's a lot of countries out there now, not to be named, that would like to see the U.S. in chaos," Turgal added."They would like to create help to create that situation."