A Computer Generated Swatting Service Is Causing Havoc Across America
As the U.S. deals with a nationwide swatting wave, Motherboard has traced much of the activity to a particular swatting-as-a-service account on Telegram. Torswats uses synthesized voices to pressure law enforcement to specific locations.
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As the U.S. deals with a nationwide swatting wave, Motherboard has traced much of the activity to a particular swatting-as-a-service account on Telegram. Torswats uses synthesized voices to pressure law enforcement to specific locations.
By Joseph Cox
April 13, 2023, 10:43am
“Hello, I just committed a crime and I want to confess,” a panicked sounding man said in a call to a police department in February. “I’ve placed explosives inside a local school,’ the man continued.
“You did what?!” the operator responded.
“I’ve placed explosives inside a local school,” the man said again, before specifying Hempstead High School in Dubuque, Iowa, and providing its address. In response to the threat, the school went on lockdown, and police searched the school but found nothing, according to a local media report.
The bombs weren’t real. But, crucially, neither was the man’s voice. The panicked man’s lines sound artificially generated, according to recordings of the swatting calls reviewed by Motherboard. It is unclear how exactly the caller generated the voice, be that some form of artificial intelligence tool or another speech synthesis program. The result, though, is a voice that sounds very consistent across multiple calls.
In fact, Motherboard has found, this synthesized call and another against Hempstead High School were just one small part of a months-long, nationwide campaign of dozens, and potentially hundreds, of threats made by one swatter in particular who has weaponized computer generated voices. Known as “Torswats” on the messaging app Telegram, the swatter has been calling in bomb and mass shooting threats against highschools and other locations across the country. Torswat’s connection to these wide ranging swatting incidents has not been previously reported. The further automation of swatting techniques threatens to make an already dangerous harassment technique more prevalent.
Swatting is when someone calls in a bogus threat in an attempt to direct law enforcement resources to a particular home, school, or other location. Often, swatting calls result in heavily armed police raiding an innocent victim’s home. At least one case has resulted in police killing the unsuspecting occupant.
Torswats carries out these threatening calls as part of a paid service they offer. For $75, Torswats says they will close down a school. For $50, Torswats says customers can buy “extreme swattings,” in which authorities will handcuff the victim and search the house. Torswats says they offer discounts to returning customers, and can negotiate prices for “famous people and targets such as Twitch streamers.” Torswats says on their Telegram channel that they take payment in cryptocurrency.
In the Hempstead High School case, authorities have charged a 16-year old boy who allegedly ordered the threats with making a threat of terrorism. But Torswats remains operational, publishing a steady stream of recordings of their crimes as recently as last week. Arguably, Torswats’ use of synthetic voices allows them to carry out swatting threats at scale with relatively little effort, while also protecting what their own voice sounds like.
Motherboard has determined that Torswats' other targets include a CBD shop in Florida; the corporate headquarters of a Bethesda, Maryland, intelligence company that tracks extremism; and multiple private residences across Virginia, Massachusetts, Texas, California, and more.
“The FBI takes swatting very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk,” Steve Bernd, public affairs at FBI Seattle, told Motherboard in an email. Bernd said FBI Seattle was aware of the threats made against Hempstead High School. “These calls are dangerous to first responders and to the victims. The callers often tell tales of hostages about to be executed or bombs about to go off. The community is placed in danger as responders rush to the scene, taking them away from real emergencies, and the officers are placed in danger as unsuspecting residents may try to defend themselves.”
Motherboard’s reporting on Torswats comes as something of a nationwide swatting trend spreads across the United States. In October, NPR reported that 182 schools in 28 states received fake threat calls. Torswats’ use of a computer generated voice also comes as the rise of artificial intelligence poses even greater risks to those who may face harassment online. In February, Motherboard reported that someone had doxed and harassed a series of voice actors by having an artificial intelligence program read out their home addresses. Motherboard has also long reported on the threat posed by deepfakes, which are artificially generated videos of people, often without their consent. Deepfakes started as a tool to create non-consensual pornography of specific people.
the fukkery this AI and CG audio shyt will be unleashing on the world in the next 5 yrs
