A swatter is said to have been responsible for hundreds of police operations for over a year. He is now said to have been arrested with the help of a private investigator and a Twitch streamer.
What kind of criminal was that? A swatting service was offered on Telegram under the handle “Torswats” for over a year. For a fee, users could trigger a police operation.
Torswats’ “services” included bomb threats at schools, but also police operations against well-known personalities, such as Twitch streamers.
At the end of January 2024, the FBI arrested a 17-year-old who is said to be connected to Torswats. A Twitch streamer is said to have played a crucial role in the arrest.
Swatting has become such a common problem among Twitch streamers that it has even been picked up by games:
Ready or Not shows its streamer level in the trailer
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Private investigator helped the FBI
What role did Twitch play in the arrest? Private investigator Brad “Cafrozed” Dennis works with Twitch streamers who have fallen victim to swatting. He had been working on stopping Torswats since 2022 and is said to have provided the FBI with evidence such as the swatter’s IP address and username in January 2023.
WoW streamer Matt Morse aka StaySafeTV also contacted Dennis. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the streamer reports that he has been regularly swatted for about a year. He was dragged out of his house, where his wife and their small child were, and found himself confronted by a group of armed SWAT officers.
The justice system would not prioritize arresting swatters, StaySafeTV continues. In a stream he explained that he also supported the private investigator with information. He recognized some features of the swatter’s spelling from conversations on a private Discord server 5 years ago.
“If this boy hadn’t swatted me specifically, he wouldn’t be in prison right now,” said StaySafeTV (via X).
It is unclear whether Torswat was an individual perpetrator or a group. There are already messages from a person with the Torswat username in which the person boasts that they will never be caught. In this case, however, a copycat cannot be ruled out.
Swatting has also arrived in Germany: “I stopped counting at 50.” Berlin Twitch streamer reports how often the police are sent past him