US Man Arrested For Swatting Prank; Faces Five Years In Prison

An American prankster has been arrested following a "SWATting" prank he had played on an unidentified Illinois man. The Nevada-based prankster has been identified as 19-year-old Brandon "Famed God" Wilson. He is currently facing extradition to Illinois, where he will he will face charges that could land him in prison for up to five years.

Wilson had reported a murder to Naperville, Ill police in July 2014 according to Chicago Sun-Times. The police found no evidence of the crime. The false report, however, caused police to carry out an armed raid the victim's residence. According to details released by the prosecution, the SWATting prank seems to be premeditated with the intention of causing harm to the unidentified victim.

Authorities have said that Wilson hacked into gaming consoles in order to access and modify personal information belonging to two victims from Napierville and Plainfield. He had also threatened the Napierville resident that he would hack into bank and Social Security accounts with the intention of putting the victim's father "in debt for life."

Upon searching Wilson's Las Vegas residence, Napierville police not only found evidence of implicating him of the prank in the state of Illinois, but also of his involvement in similar pranks across other U.S. states. Apart from the Nappierville police, the Las Vegas police department as well as FBI took interest in the case. Wilson has since been charged with two counts of computer tampering and one count each of intimidation, computer fraud, identity theft and disorderly conduct according to Polygon.

SWATting is an increasingly popular style of prank that's gaining momentum within the gaming community. The practice is generally observed around live streaming services such as Twitch. Pranksters call in fake crime reports, generally of the more serious kind, with the intention of causing armed law enforcement officials to apprehend the victims. The primary motivation for prank involves the voyeuristic pleasure of watching a heavily armed SWAT police team kicking in the victim's door during the live stream.

In most of the cases, pranksters are under the false impression that they won't get caught and that even if they do get caught, the punishment won't be severe. However, SWATTing isn't just a federal crime, but it also has serious implications and can lead to injury or even death during the armed raids. Check out the video below of a similar incident from 2014, where a pro "Counter-Strike: Global Operations" gamer Kootra from The Creatures team was SWATted during a livestream.

The Creatures Get Swatted on Stream (credit: Brenzy YouTube channel)