Inside the Hunt for A Notorious Swatter

Wired reports how a lone private investigator helped authorities catch their man

He went by the name “Torswats” online, a reference to the particular brand of terror he reveled in unleashing: swatting, or placing a hoax call about a shooting that results in an aggressive police response. In fact, in what a deeply reported story at Wired describes as a “months-long reign of terror” in 2023, Torswats “distinguished himself as perhaps the most prolific American school swatter in history.” And schools were not his only target. In the end, he was revealed to be Alan Filion, a 17-year-old at the time of his arrest in Florida’s Seminole County. The story by Andy Greenberg and Dhruv Mehrotra explores all aspects of the case—Filion’s boastful, taunting role in the online swatting community; the impact on 911 dispatchers duped by sounds of fake gunfire; the police raids themselves, etc.—but its focus is on how a lone private investigator helped authorities crack the case.

Source: Inside the Hunt for a Notorious Swatter