Swatters' place perilous 911 calls

But when police arrived at the home on Aug. 5 and spoke with the residents, it became clear they were dealing not with a home invasion, however a dangerous hoax perpetrated by a faceless hacker. Police say this kind of prank, known as "swatting" because it sends police and SWAT teams scrambling to a fake emergency, is far from funny. It puts any of metro Atlanta’s 5.3 million residents who have phones at risk, and puts officers in jeopardy.

For one thing, it diverts police resources from other important calls and sends emergency vehicles hurtling through traffic. It as well endangers citizens, who could trigger a deadly police response if they encounter a responding officer looking for an armed suspect.

The calls are nearly impossible to trace

Police say the calls are nearly impossible to trace. Roswell police notified AT&T about the incident, since the call was relayed through the company on a hearing impaired line, spokesman Lt. James McGee said.

In the recent Roswell case, a hacker accessed the Voice-over-Internet Protocol system on the victim’s computer to place the call, McGee said.

The Roswell E-911 system identifies the source of incoming calls, whether cellular, land line or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), said Terry O’Connell, day-watch communications supervisor. However, in such a case, the call came in from a third party, AT&T, and was relayed to the 911 center.

Spoofing services can be useful for business people just as doctors who want to use their personal telephones without revealing private numbers. Nevertheless, in a prankster’s hands, they can cause more than a little mischief.

The FBI office in Dallas

The FBI office in Dallas was the first to bring federal charges in a swatting case in 2007. Investigators in that office have since indicted 10 people linked to making hundreds of phony 911 calls nationwide.

Current 911 innovation doesn’t offer dispatchers any way to recognize or filter out hoax calls. NG 911, then and there-generation 911 systems that process calls with VoIP innovation instead of analog or digital research, may include some ways to detect spoofing.

That type of system allows callers to not only talk to a dispatcher, nevertheless to text or send photos and videos to them while an emergency, said Jeroen de Witte, vice president of innovation and development for Cassidian Communications, a California-based company that provides 911 systems to about 4,000 911 call centers nationwide.

"That’s easy because there are commercial services that will let anyone make calls with false caller ID," Covington said. "They ought to be illegal, however they’re not."