Waves of Fake Threats Shake US Colleges

Around 50 college campuses across the US have been deluged in recent weeks with hoax calls about armed gunmen and other violence, laying bare the challenges of detecting fake threats quickly to prevent mass panic.

- PTI

Students at some schools spent hours hiding under desks, only to find out later it was someone's idea of entertainment. On Thursday, several historically Black colleges locked down or cancelled classes after receiving threats, at a time when the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college had campuses newly on edge.

In other cases, schools figured out early that something was amiss, but even then, it took time and resources. The FBI is investigating, but so far there have been no arrests.

Dispatch call centers often are the last lines of defense to swatters, a burden in an era of mass shootings, including one this week at a suburban Denver high school and another two weeks ago at a Catholic church in Minneapolis that killed two schoolchildren and injured 21 people.

"We have so many mass shootings in this country and so many young people die," said Wendy Via, co-founder and CEO of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. "And so you can't just blow it off because there have been a bunch of hoaxes."

Swatting calls are on the rise The goal of swatting is to get authorities, particularly a SWAT team, to respond to an address and has roots in fake bomb threats that have been around for decades.

Some of the earliest swats stemmed from online gaming disputes. But gradually they became connected to nihilistic groups, which often conduct the calls in mass batches, trading tips in online forums on how to avoid detection.

The FBI said swatting is on the rise. Since a center was created in 2023 to gather details on swatting incidents, hundreds of law enforcement agencies have voluntarily submitted thousands of incidents, the FBI said.