Fergie's Tech Blog

Guilty Plea: Phone Phreaks Use Caller-ID Spoofing to Get Foes Raided By SWAT

Kevin Poulsen writes on Threat Level:

An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge for being part of a gang of "swatters" -- one them blind -- who used Caller ID spoofing to phone the police with fake hostage crises, sending armed cops bursting into the homes of innocent people.

Stuart Rosoff of Cleveland, Ohio pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy last Friday in federal court in the Northern District of Texas.

The case seems to confirm that swatters are using simple Caller ID spoofing to pull these unfunny hoaxes -- and not "hacking into 911" after all. But the court documents indicate that Rosoff was part of a remarkably sophisticated gang of old-school phone phreaks with serious access to at least one phone company's computers, which they used to get information on their targets.

posted by Fergie @ 11/15/2007 05:06:00 PM