Fake emergency calls send armed arrest teams to teenagers’ doors

Public prosecutors and police are warning about the rise of “swatting” in the Netherlands, in which hoax emergency reports are used to send heavily armed arrest teams to an unsuspecting and innocent person’s home.

The phenomenon, which originated in the US, “is now happening more often here too, especially among young people,” public prosecutor Linda van den Oever told broadcaster NOS.

Swatting can be an act of revenge after an online row, a way of shocking people or a means of coercion, the public prosecution service (OM) said. Contact often begins on gaming or chat platforms, where trust is built up before sensitive information, in extreme cases nude photographs, is used to put victims under pressure.

In May, an arrest team turned up at night at the home of a 17-year-old girl after fake reports were made to police when she refused to send nude photos, she told the AD. Her address had been shared in a chat group after she refused to carry out orders.

Threats of swatting are increasingly common in so-called Com groups – short for “community”, online networks in which violence is glorified, the OM said.

The threats are used to coerce victims, while carrying out a swatting can serve as an initiation: “If you send a SWAT team after someone, you are allowed into the group,” Van den Oever said.

Digital community police officer Malek Kariebo told NOS making a false report is a criminal offence and takes police away from real emergencies.

“You know nothing about it,” he said, “and suddenly an arrest team is standing at your door, wrongly.” Police assess whether reports are genuine, but a claim that there is a firearm in a house has to be taken seriously.

There are no exact figures on how often swatting happens, but several cases are under way and a growing number of suspects in the Netherlands have been identified, the OM said.