Ongoing Threats of Swatting and Indicators for Community Members

This Public Service Announcement (PSA) is an update to Alert Number I-042925-PSA titled, "Threat Actors Use 'Swatting' to Target Victims Nationwide." This PSA contains updated information about the ongoing threat posed by “swatting” incidents targeting a variety of locations across the United States, including educational institutions, government buildings, religious institutions, public transportation centers, hospitals, and other public buildings.

This PSA intends to provide the public with up-to-date indicators of potential swatting activity and common swatting targets. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) takes swatting threats seriously and coordinates with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement partners to respond to and investigate these incidents.

Swatting is the malicious tactic of making hoax calls or reports to emergency services, public locations, or private residences, to falsely report an immediate threat to life or ongoing emergency — such as hoax bomb threats, claims of shootings, or false reports of hostage situations — at a specific location. Swatting is intended to draw a large response from SWAT teams or other law enforcement resources to an unsuspecting victim’s location. This causes fear, panic, disorder and disruption within the community through school or event closures, building evacuations and lockdowns, spreading of misinformation on social media, psychological impacts, and the potential for copycat callers when media coverage of swatting also occurs. Additionally, swatting activity wastes government resources, distracts emergency service personnel from legitimate emergencies, and may result in violence, injuries, or deaths.