'Swatting for Hire': Extremist Group Offers Fake School Shooting Threats for Just $20 as FBI Scrambles to Respond

An extremist group is offering fake school shooting threats for as little as $20 (£14.79), sparking a frantic response from the FBI.

This disturbing trend, known as 'swatting for hire', involves bad actors making false emergency calls to get a large police response, and it's putting both law enforcement and innocent people at risk.

The Architects of Chaos

Wired magazine has reported that a person using the online name 'Gores' has taken credit for the series of swatting calls targeting universities and colleges over the last few days. According to Wired, Gores is the self-declared head of an online group named Purgatory, which has ties to a dangerous online extremist network called The Com.

Alongside a fellow Purgatory member known as 'tor', Gores started making false emergency calls to campus and local services about active shooters around noon on 21st August, the very day the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Villanova University received similar swatting calls.

By Wednesday afternoon, Inside Higher Ed had documented 19 confirmed swatting calls at universities since 19th August, including Mercer University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Utah, and the University of New Hampshire.

Following the most recent wave of hoaxes, the FBI released a statement encouraging the public 'to remain vigilant and immediately report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.'

From Classrooms to Turmoil

In just four days, Villanova University, a Catholic university in Pennsylvania, has been targeted by two separate threats.

The chaos unfolded while student Ava Petrosky was singing at an orientation Mass on Thursday; people in the audience began to run, prompting her to join the crowd and flee for cover. She later told CNN that in that moment, she honestly thought she was going to die.

This time, a swatting hoax hit the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, causing the campus to go into lockdown. 'In two seconds, the whole classroom evacuated,' senior Luke Robbins told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

'Run outside, there's cops with ARs [assault rifles] in the hallways, and they're like, "Hey, go up this way," so we get out. Run across the street. There's even more cops telling us to go. I mean, it was just hectic. It's crazy.'

The Hoaxes aren't Unstoppable

Purgatory's calls have not always been successful; in some instances, authorities were able to see through the hoaxes. For example, when the group targeted Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, a researcher monitoring the call was able to notify the university, thereby preventing a large-scale police response.

According to The Washington Post, the FBI is looking into the rise in swatting calls and has not yet publicly confirmed that Purgatory is involved. Meanwhile, Gores told Wired that the group's swatting campaign is set to carry on for two more months.

A 'For-Hire' Campaign of Fear

According to Wired, Purgatory's swatting calls are available for a fee, and while they were once offered for as little as $20 (£14.79), the price has now gone up to $95 (£70.27) since the start of this recent campaign.

The FBI on the Hunt

The threats made against a Delaware high school, an Alabama trailer park, Albany International Airport, an Ohio casino, and a private home in Georgia resulted in the arrest of three Purgatory members in 2024, who then pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this year.