He sometimes hears back, but he worries it's never fast enough. He's been sending them to the TextNow company, sometimes tweeting in frustration. Posner, a retired police officer from Florida who is now a VOIP consultant, says those numbers often end up being TextNow numbers. Thomas Bender/Herald-Tribune/USA TODAY NETWORK/Reutersįor several years, Fred Posner has been tracking call center scams, technical support scams, fake threatening calls from the IRS, and more in his spare time. Sarasota law enforcement, state troopers, ambulances and fire trucks all responded to the false threat. On April 21, it was only calls to Louisiana, New Mexico and Arizona.įamilies wait to be reunited with their children following the report of an active shooter that turned out to be a hoax at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., on Oct. On April 5, the number made outgoing calls only to North Carolina and Ohio. And while the caller blanketed 19 different states, they tended to focus on a small number of states on the days they were most active. Together, these accounted for 92% percent of the places that the VOIP number called. The rapid-fire dialing of numbers also indicates that the user had a list of targets at the ready, and a specific focus on schools, law enforcement agencies, fire departments and emergency dispatchers.
Sometimes with as few as four seconds between hanging up one call and dialing the next, the number reached 125 places. On those days, the VOIP user spent between 6 and 8 hours systematically dialing - and often re-dialing - phone numbers. More than three-quarters of the calls placed were made on just three days: March 15, April 5 and April 21. The incoming traffic appeared to be mostly return dials from individuals or institutions that this VOIP user had called.Īn examination of the number's outgoing calls details a curious pattern of activity. But the usage pattern suggests that this phone number was really created with the purpose of making phone calls, because 80 percent of that activity was outgoing calls. Swatting incidents can be particularly dangerous, as officers often enter with force, guns drawn.ĭuring a 40-day period, the VOIP number received or made 437 calls - all of them on just 10 of those days. These have prompted a response known as "swatting," where law enforcement swarms a location where a crime is reportedly in progress.
NPR has found local reports indicating 182 schools in 28 states received false calls about threats between Sept. Similar scenes have played out at schools across the country in recent weeks. One said to the others, "Did you see the email we got today? Swatting. After finding no threat at the school, the officers regrouped in a school hallway. Students had been placed on lockdown, police units deployed and school staff were plunged into minutes of terror as a hoax unfolded. Officers rushed to the school, some entering with their rifles and pistols drawn, running breathlessly through the hallways to find the right classroom. on a sunny Friday in September, police in Chillicothe, Ohio, received a message from dispatch: an active shooter had reportedly injured 24 students at Chillicothe High School and was still on scene.īodycam video shows the fraught minutes that ensued. Similar scenes have played out at schools across the country in recent weeks.Ĭhillicothe Police Department/Screenshot by NPR Police officers respond to a call that an active shooter had reportedly injured 24 students at Chillicothe High School in Chillicothe, Ohio, in September.
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