Colleges are being overwhelmed with active shooter hoaxes

As students arrive back on college campuses for the fall semester, a nefarious aspect of online anonymity is coming with them: a slew of universities are falling victim to hoaxes involving active shooters. These pranks, in which a fake call is made about a gunman on campus, are becoming increasingly prevalent and often lead to massive police resources being wasted — not to mention the psychological impact they have on students. Researchers also say these types of hoaxes can be difficult to stop.

Victims nationwide

There has been a "rash of hoax calls about active shooters on college campuses — some featuring gunshots sounding in the background — that have sent waves of fear among students," said The Associated Press. These hoaxes, known as swatting calls, prompted universities to initiate active shooter protocols, texting students to "run, hide, fight" while "officers swarmed over campuses, seeking out any threat."

Since universities started resuming classes for the fall semester, more than a dozen campuses have fallen victim to this kind of hoax. Swatting calls at Villanova University in Pennsylvania and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sent students scrambling for cover, and "campuses across the country have received similar hoax calls, including Texas Tech University, Iowa State University, the University of Colorado at Boulder and Northern Arizona University," said CNN.

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It's unclear where all of these hoaxes are originating from, but at least one online group "said that it was behind a number of recent hoax emergency calls that drew a heavy law enforcement response to college campuses," said The New York Times. The group calls itself Purgatory and "highlighted news media coverage of the recent hoaxes in a public-facing channel on Telegram," a social media app "often used by criminals."

Raising the stakes

Even though one group has taken credit for some of these swatting incidents, tracking down the perpetrators is difficult. This is partially because these swatting calls "frequently originate online, overseas or by using AI software," said Axios. The callers often use technology that allows people to "mask their identities, such as using AI-generated voices, caller ID spoofing and masking a user's IP address."

Threats to universities have had "peaks and valleys, and this one may be coming out of the valley as we're starting back to school," said Mo Canady, the executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, to Axios. This type of activity is a "little like bomb threats."

As these threats persist, federal officials are working to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Someone found swatting a university can be federally charged with "false information and hoaxes; which could lead to up to five years in prison with a 'substantial fine;' interstate transmission of threat; which could lead to up to 20 years in jail if there is an injury involved; and wire fraud, which constitutes a 'substantial penalty, incarceration and fines,'" said Robert Boyce, retired NYPD chief of detectives, to ABC News.

This is the "time to prosecute these individuals and put it out there that these people are going to jail, or possibly could go to jail after prosecution," Boyce told ABC. There must be "serious penalties at stake for those placing these swatting calls."