Posted on 11/22/2007 12:24:23 PM PST by BGHater
A Cleveland, Ohio man has pled guilty to participating in a scheme that involved using AT&T employee passwords and identities to place false 911 calls to emergency dispatch centers.
Stuart Rosoff is facing as much as five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine after pleading guilty to charges of harassing people by tricking 911 operators into dispatching police SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) teams to the homes of their unsuspecting victims. Rosoff was part of a group of about 15 to 20 people who met in chat rooms and telephone party lines to exchange information on how to conduct their attacks, according to court documents.
Rosoff is considered the lead defendant in a federal case against members of the group. Two other members have pled guilty, and two others, Jason Trowbridge and Chad Ward are still facing trial.
Virtually unknown until recently, swatting gained national attention last month when 19-year-old Randall Ellis was arrested after allegedly dispatching a SWAT team to the home of an unsuspecting couple in Orange County, California. That incident cost county officials nearly $20,000. On Friday, Ellis plead not guilty to charges stemming from the March 29 incident. He is not believed to be connected with Rosoff or his group.
The Rosoff group has been connected to about 60 incidents, including one in January 2007, according to Detective Larry Cole with the Snohomish County Sherriff's Office in Washington State. In that case, a Rosoff's co-conspirator named Guadalupe Santana Martinez ended up dispatching 35 county employees, including the SWAT team to a Snohomish County home in the middle of the night.
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(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
Throw the book at them! Max them out! Someone could have easily gotten killed! A-holes!
Story also give further insight to the abuse of swat teams. Raid a house based on an anonymous 911 call?
A great plan, until a 400 lb bubba leans over and asks what he is in for - a few months later, he will have some boobs tattooed onto his back in newspaper ink, and will walk funny. The twerps probably thought high-school was bad.
These fools could get someone killed. Imagine if one of these victims had just returned from the shooting range and was on their back porch cleaning their guns when all this went down.
You're giving the soldier wannabes way too much credit.
I'm imagining if one of these victims "made a sudden movement" reaching for her glasses on the nightstand.
Yes, how does one “call in” the SWAT? Just call 911 and ask for it? Doesn’t dispatch normally send a patrol officer first, then based on circumstances the police hierarchy may escalate?
I hope the SWAT doesn’t come just because some anonymous caller requested it! That is the part I don’t think is a good idea regardless of these idiots calling.
Good point. Reminiscent of poor Donald Scott.
Sounds like the old school 2600 / phreak crowd has found a new way to be a giant PITA!
Hope they learn to love the new accommodations....
Looks like the type of a**hole that lives in his mother's basement and can't get laid (or likes little boys or girls).
Make a big-time example out of him to stop this stupid and dangerous activity.
Agreed. They should get the HARSHEST penalty possible. And it should be HIGHLY publicized.
I'm having a little trouble with the fact that after, say, twenty or thirty fake calls that these fraudsters' techniques, whatever they were, continued to work another thirty or forty times,
Ping
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