Torswats uses synthesized voices to pressure law enforcement to specific locations:
"Hello, I just committed a crime and I want to confess," a panicked sounding man said in a call to a police department in February. "I've placed explosives inside a local school,' the man continued.
"You did what?!" the operator responded.
"I've placed explosives inside a local school," the man said again, before specifying Hempstead High School in Dubuque, Iowa, and providing its address. In response to the threat, the school went on lockdown, and police searched the school but found nothing, according to a local media report.
The bombs weren't real. But, crucially, neither was the man's voice. The panicked man's lines sound artificially generated, according to recordings of the swatting calls reviewed by Motherboard. It is unclear how exactly the caller generated the voice, be that some form of artificial intelligence tool or another speech synthesis program. The result, though, is a voice that sounds very consistent across multiple calls.
[...] Known as "Torswats" on the messaging app Telegram, the swatter has been calling in bomb and mass shooting threats against highschools and other locations across the country. Torswat's connection to these wide ranging swatting incidents has not been previously reported. The further automation of swatting techniques threatens to make an already dangerous harassment technique more prevalent.
[...] Torswats carries out these threatening calls as part of a paid service they offer. For $75, Torswats says they will close down a school. For $50, Torswats says customers can buy "extreme swattings," in which authorities will handcuff the victim and search the house. Torswats says they offer discounts to returning customers, and can negotiate prices for "famous people and targets such as Twitch streamers." Torswats says on their Telegram channel that they take payment in cryptocurrency.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Opportunist on Sunday April 16, @06:07PM (17 children)
We will finally get a sensible police force in the US. One that doesn't shoot first and asks later.
I wonder how many have to die before this can happen. I also wonder how many doors need to be replaced.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday April 16, @06:57PM (3 children)
Rule of the Law
If happening in any other country, You The People would label this a dictatorship or totalitarian regime.
I consider You The People just deserve it. No offense, the karma (कर्म) is very hard to evade in long terms. I pity you.
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @09:13PM
Do you know the saying "head in the sand"? You need to study WORLD history, not just Chinese Empire. Go back at least 150 years, preferably 2000 years. When you've actually learned some things about how we got where we are, maybe you won't troll so much.
If you actually learn, but don't like what you learned, then close up your borders and leave the rest of the world ALONE.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday April 17, @04:34AM (1 child)
Right, but...no one cares what you think. Your post history shows at the very least someone with a permanent break from reality. I'm not sure you're outright schizophrenic or sociopathic, but there's a profound, unbridgeable gap between you and reality.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @04:47AM
Extreme fart huffing with an anti-Western bent, and a side of incomprehensible amateur humor.
(Score: 4, Informative) by krishnoid on Sunday April 16, @07:43PM
It's not so much a matter of how many, as it is which ones [youtu.be].
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @07:55PM
I don't think anything's going to change for the better. Police state will not change, swattings will stay frequent or internet freedom will be destroyed in the name of stopping it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @08:20PM
But I'm all geared up and pumped for action now, my adrenaline is peaking and I want to get some pent up aggression out on a random stranger. Are you telling me that I can't go beat the crap out of whoever finds themselves in my field vision? That's a shame of a pump up... Let's get in there regardless and kill everyone and their dog! We have immunity anyway!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RS3 on Monday April 17, @12:01AM (9 children)
Of course Here's another one. [aljazeera.com]
Search for "Robert Dotson" "shot" "cops" "New Mexico" if you don't like the link I grabbed at random.
The homeowner had no idea who's at the door. Cops have blinding lights in his eyes. Cops can back off, hide around / behind corners, make sure the person understands they are cops, give the person TIME to digest their ape-like barking, set his gun down, etc. But nope, they are recruited to be very trigger-happy. Those cops need to spend many years in prison. They need a special prison for cops only, but keep them there, and they're never allowed to own guns or be cops ever again, whenever / if they're ever let out of prison.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RS3 on Monday April 17, @12:08AM (7 children)
BTW, it's also a very strong example of how and why guns can get you shot and maybe killed. I'm not sure why homeowner would open his door, visibly holding a gun. If someone is out there and they're armed, they see you first, they have a huge advantage, and they're going to shoot before you can.
BTW #2- Cops shoot to kill. That's what they train to do, over and over.
(Score: 1, Informative) by khallow on Monday April 17, @02:54AM (3 children)
They aren't getting killed with their own guns. And if you were holding a hand dryer, black glasses case, or cordless drill, you're still in the same tough situation.
They're also trained to evaluate and defuse such situations without killing people. Over and over.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday April 17, @04:41AM (2 children)
I didn't say they were. Why invent something, pin it on me, then refute it? Do you argue with yourself in the mirror? :)
Captain obvious! You know, now that you mention it, are there any safety warnings on such things? There should be!
Yes, you make a very good point. They don't get the credit for how many times they don't shoot first, ask questions later. It's a very sad fact of our news media- they seem to need to be sensational to get reads and advertising $. I think it's one of those things that many of us aren't willing to tolerate a few "collateral damage" cases. Maybe robot cops will solve this. Hopefully that's self-explanatory (that robot cops won't be trigger-happy- by We The People's decree).
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday April 17, @05:46AM
There's a point to this. Here's what you first stated:
And I, the incredible Captain Obvious just pointed out that one merely needs to be holding something that vaguely could look like a gun. Thus, it is not a very strong example of how and why guns can get you shot and maybe killed. After all, you asserted that the door opener was at risk because he was "visibly holding a gun". He'd be in the same danger if he was visibly holding a cucumber and the lighting was poor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 18, @09:03AM
Well I haven't got any credit for how many times I haven't murdered anyone either. 🙄
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Reziac on Monday April 17, @03:14AM (2 children)
I once answered my door holding a gun because I had an idea who was there, and doing so probably saved me a beating at best, dead at worst. (And that was the last trouble I had with that asshole...)
If you know it's a cop, different situation of course. But even then it's clear you can't always tell.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RS3 on Monday April 17, @04:31AM (1 child)
Wow, thanks, glad you came out ahead of the game.
Too often I don't write the thing that seems glaringly obvious, and this is more to the person above, but before you open your front door, holding a gun, you might want to see if you can see who's out there. Maybe a peephole, maybe look out a window, go around the back, very carefully, quietly, very very observingly, or best, maybe a video camera system. The guy who got killed opened the door holding the gun up without first seeing who was there. Cops are super trigger-happy. They bark something unintelligible and then shoot, maybe 0.4 seconds later. There was that 12-year old boy who had a toy gun and the cops drive up very fast near him, bark something and fire split second later. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but knowing that's the rule of the game, I'll play my hand accordingly (look first!)
Right now I have a video system with only one camera outside at the front door. I fixed it for someone and was testing it, but he bought a "Ring" because this one isn't as "app" friendly. The geniuses designed the live video around Adobe "Flash" which is deprecated. You can install and run Flash, but you have to way back-date the machine and don't let it update time and date. The aforementioned camera system will let you look at a single frame that you can refresh as often as you wish, so you could write a simple app that would keep grabbing the frame. It does store video on a 1TB drive, so there's plenty of lookback. Anyway, point is, camera systems are pretty cheap.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Monday April 17, @07:53AM
Yeah, it's wise to know who's at your door, but not everyone reacts well when they get woke up in the middle of the night, or even just when there's an unexpected and scary banging on the door.
No-knock and scare-the-shit-out-of-'em may have their value for the cops, but cops are supposed to provide value to the public, so it's a wrong priority.
I can see my front porch from a couple angles including not near the door, no need for a camera there, tho I've thought about rigging up something in the barn, maybe with a Pi, just for my own convenience. As to the back porch, anyone tripping over all the crap is in enough trouble. :)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @01:39PM
Here's Body cam [nytimes.com] video from this murder.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @06:18PM (18 children)
Anonymous calls about criminals in a particular house, or an active shooter seem easy enough to debunk remotely. Criminal in house? If the caller is anonymous, and the accused has no priors it seems like no warrant should be issued. This is arguable, but the active shooter scenario is a lot easier. Police call the principal of the school. Police: "Is there a shooter?". Principal. "No". Even if, by some bizarre stretch of circumstances the principal is being held by a gunman this is going to come out from one or more non-anonymous sources. In real mass shootings there are multiple frantic calls.
The anonymous bomb threat is the one that has to be taken seriously for now. Anti-swat approaches for that are going to require a bit more thought.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday April 16, @06:47PM (17 children)
A principal in their office might not know about something happening somewhere on campus. However, much better video surveillance systems with at least one person watching video monitors would help a lot.
In hospitals a patient might wear a wireless heart monitor which transmits ECG (and maybe other parameters) and is often called "telemetry". There are rooms with many computer screens where trained people watch for any sign of a problem and sound an alert or alarm if needed. You could do the same in schools with video surveillance systems.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 16, @07:50PM (13 children)
High schools are popular targets at the $75 price point, but I bet there's a market for hospitals, government offices, and crowded sports stadiums at higher price points.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday April 16, @08:58PM (12 children)
For $1000, I'll shut down the U.S.:
"I've planted explosives in the U.S. and will blow it up unless everyone evacuates and goes to live in Russia! MUuuahahahaha!"
Except, i guess it won't work, due to the fact that a similar threat doesn't work: "A lot of people in the U.S. are armed and possibly dangerous. Some are even terrorists! Some are psychos who are going to shoot someone someday because of the lack of real checks against buying these weapons. Some weapons are even automatics and semi-automatics with large magazines in which they could kill a whole lot of people. I will see more deaths in the future unless everyone in the U.S. goes to live in Russia! MUuuahahahaha!"
and every American yawns. :(
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Touché) by RS3 on Sunday April 16, @09:27PM (11 children)
I've got really bad news for you- we'll all go to Canada. You're already seeing the influx.
The good news: we also think the "stupid American" jokes are funny. :)
(Score: 5, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday April 16, @09:49PM (5 children)
Hey, come on up! we got cookies!
and beer. ;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Funny) by RS3 on Sunday April 16, @10:26PM (4 children)
I'm no chef, but I recently worked in a beverage factory and most of the supervisors / operators came from a local brewery. They're all chefs. I'll get with them and we'll make beer cookies! We'll figure out how to solidify the alcohol. :)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @11:36PM (3 children)
> We'll figure out how to solidify the alcohol. :)
Heading way off topic here, but once we went winter camping (NY Fingerlakes region) and the wine froze overnight...
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Monday April 17, @12:17AM (2 children)
Crush it a bit and drink the part that didn't freeze. That's called "winter wine".
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @01:50PM (1 child)
> Crush it a bit ...
Easy to say, but how do you do this when it's in a wine bottle (with very narrow neck)?
There is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine [wikipedia.org] but that's made from grapes that froze on the vine.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday April 18, @02:20AM
Well, I believe it was traditionally set out in barrels. Having it in bottles would make crushing it a lot more difficult.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Monday April 17, @12:55AM (4 children)
"The good news: we also think the "stupid American" jokes are funny. :)"
Rick Mercer had a great "Talking with Americans" segment on his TV show that was usually funny as hell, that displayed that to perfection..
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @01:13AM
You don't need to wait for just a "segment" on someone's TV show for that. You can get three full hours of that *every* day from Washington Journal [c-span.org].
Enjoy!
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday April 17, @10:52AM (2 children)
Now you're really making me think you're Steve Smith!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Monday April 17, @05:32PM (1 child)
Well I have seen every episode of his show, I do believe some of it certainly must have stuck. After all how could it not with constantly seeing the McGyver of the woods and such pearls of wisdom passed along "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.". :)
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday April 18, @04:39PM
"Remember, you may have to grow old, but you don't have to mature." ;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Ox0000 on Sunday April 16, @08:11PM (2 children)
Good point, let me riff on the idea a bit more. Instead of passive, continual surveillance trying to cover everything (because I don't want the adults of tomorrow to become habituated to being under 24/7/365 surveillance), how about passive surveillance based on crowdsourcing (How web2.0 of me):
Give every teacher an device that they (have to) keep on their person anytime they are with students or on school grounds. They already have to carry have ID cards anyway, it can be on the same lanyard. When they aren't on school grounds or with students, they can put it in a Faraday cage for all I care
The device has 2 functions: "alert" (they push a button in some pattern and it alerts some nexus that something is happening which then takes action) and "confirm" (if the nexus receives an alert, it sends out a "confirm everything is ok by mashing the button only once, twice for "yeah, something is going down"). If the nexus gets n confirms, then they assume shit is happening and lock down everything (they can add a third function to the device to let it play an alert sound or vibrate or whatever to inform everyone in addition to the already established protocols for disseminating lockdowns). This would make it so that the nexus does not have to monitor everything or anyone at all, they just wait for the signal. (granted, some kind of perimeter monitoring might still be warranted, but again, that's not 24/7 monitoring or surveilling INSIDE the building. They could still keep their cameras that get activated only when the nexus pushed the button for "we need surveillance _NOW_".
You'd probably need some kind of geolocation for these tags _within the building_ but that should be doable and could be engineered while respecting the liberty and privacy of teachers.
(Score: 2) by Ox0000 on Sunday April 16, @08:13PM
I forgot to add: the request for confirmation could be sent out to the origin of the alert as well as other tags in that vicinity (in some kind of expanding-over-time geo-fenced area or whatever.) to get to the 'crowd' part of the crowd sourcing.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday April 16, @09:05PM
Believe me, I'm with you on eye in the sky / nanny / surveillance state. If you watched any of several of the recent school shootings, the shooters entered the building unknown to anyone until they engaged someone. Point is, you might get some precious seconds head start if a security camera sees someone entering somewhere / sometime that doesn't make sense. I hate the word "suspicious" because it's so obviously subjective, but again, at least some kind of warning based on hard information.
Last time I visited a school was about 10 or so years ago. You _had_ to go to the main entrance, you had to prove you had an appointment with someone, and that someone had to come get you and you had to be escorted at all times. I forget if they had metal detectors, but by now I'd bet they do.
I have much bigger / broader thoughts about the whole thing, but for now, given what we have and what the needs are, I think it's okay to flag public schools, well, private too of course, as being "watched".
Place I was working had many cameras. They sort of bothered me, but not much. I'm not the type to do bad things, and sometimes I was happy for them because they showed how much work I was doing even when nobody was around to see the work.
And the truth is, most video surveillance stuff isn't kept long-term. There were a few incidents where the video system helped with solving problems- where people did dumb things, like putting their hands and fingers in running machines and getting hurt.
I won't drive without my dashcam. I wish there was any kind of mechanism where I could turn in the video and get some horrifically bad drivers off the roads. Hey, we're all human and any of us can make a mistake- I'm talking about seriously bad / negligent / aggressive moves.
Again, I hate the eye in the sky, but it's more and more everywhere. Part of me doesn't want to accept it and acquiesce, but the arguments for versus against are winning. I'm feeling pessimistic and I don't like that feeling... There's certainly hope for the future, there may just be a lot of growing pains.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by EvilSS on Sunday April 16, @06:56PM (15 children)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by istartedi on Sunday April 16, @07:24PM (2 children)
How about going after the crypto too? Law enforcement could pose as clients. They wouldn't actually have to complete the transaction, they just need to get the wallet address. Then, you place similar fines on any party that exchanges crypto with wallets on the list they build. There will be "dark exchanges", but you can get on those too and blacklist any wallet that participates in such an exchange. There are probably holes you can poke in this plan since I just thought it up off the cuff, but the general idea of following the money seems worthwhile.
Wallet creation is generally cheap, so that's an obvious flaw. They might create a new wallet for each transaction. We probably need to put new wallets on some kind of probation, or find a way to make wallet creation expensive enough to discourage burners.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @08:16PM (1 child)
(I know I know, it's pseudonymous and all transaction are available on the blockchain, it's far from anonymous and in fact one of the dumbest mechanisms to try to hide criminal activity because you're literally putting your transactions on a public ledger)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @01:24AM
Monero [wikipedia.org] is anonymous.
Bitcoin is not.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 16, @08:13PM (9 children)
And put an end to cash purchase of burner phones?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @11:20PM (7 children)
Australia doesn't have burner phones. ID or "No phone for You!".
Is there actually a legitimate case for ever having a truly anonymous phone?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 17, @12:49AM (5 children)
I want to crank call my neighbors every time they leave their dogs outside, on their tiny patio, barking at everything that moves. Does that count?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @02:05AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday April 17, @03:21AM (1 child)
Reverse directory. Dunno if they're still printed but it used to be trivial to match phone number with address.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @07:17AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ChrisMaple on Wednesday April 19, @01:43AM (1 child)
Bark detector coupled to ultrasonic siren. Manual control of the siren would be better; no false positives.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 19, @02:46AM
Made two, Pi Pico based with web server control from any smartphone or computer on the local network.
Results are... varied. Over half the dogs trained to not bark much at all anymore. Two or three of them became desensitized and don't react anymore, and the old deaf one never heard it at all and just barks endlessly out of boredom. It was worth doing, but not a total solution.
Next generation will be upping the piezo driver voltage from 5 to 50, with bigger emitters.
Surprised how well the solar powered one works, continuously operating since last September.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @01:14AM
It's your God given right to facilitate illegal narcotics deals, or having a mistress, or saying wrongthing over the EM spectrum without it impacting your social credit.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Monday April 17, @12:40PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16, @08:23PM (1 child)
Fine, I'll just terminate my current legal entity and start a new one. Good luck catching your own tail!
It's a laudable attempt, but one that ignores the reality of things: you're assuming these providers are good people. They aren't.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Monday April 17, @12:35PM
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Sunday April 16, @08:00PM (4 children)
Suckering the cops has been going on for decades. Bloody Sunday (the March 7th, 1965 one in Alabama) came about by the protestors making themselves the bait in a district they knew very well had stupid, thuggish, and bigoted law enforcers. And like the idiots they were, the cops took the bait. Tear gassed and beat peaceful, unarmed protestors who weren't doing anything wrong.
I've not heard of swatting being employed for such good, but it does achieve a bit of good when it shows how dangerous law enforcers' policies can be. An example of a dangerous and stupid policy was "hot pursuit" as applied to automobile travel. For the suspect who is willing to endanger lives with reckless, high speed driving, perhaps giving into panic over the prospect of a long stay in prison, should the cops be equipped with special "pursuit" vehicles, basically a combo police cruiser/race car, to chase them? Uh, no. Too many bystanders have been hurt in such chases. You radio ahead, you use helicopters or perhaps now, drones, to track the vehicle, and simply wait until the fleeing suspect cannot flee any further. As a last resort, if not stopped by a barricade, tacks in the road, or some other method of blocking or disabling the vehicle, they will eventually run out of gas.
Another way cops have been played is "suicide by cop". A suicidal person gets police attention, points something at them that could be a weapon, and is promptly shot to death. Police are beginning to see that being less confrontational could avoid such tragic outcomes.
Often enough, however, the cops all by themselves stupidly escalate something trivial into a fatality, no need to tempt them with bait. Police work is entirely too attractive to several kinds of sick personalities-- the sadist, the control freak, the brownshirt wannabe, the ghostskin, and other such ilk. No quality police force wants that kind of person on the force, but screening them out or at least keeping them on a short leash is tough.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 16, @08:18PM
>protestors making themselves the bait in a district they knew very well had stupid, thuggish, and bigoted law enforcers. And like the idiots they were, the cops took the bait.
So, pretty much anywhere in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, or most of Texas at that time?
I mean, it does take a special kind of stupid to do that for the media to report, but that's not unusual when law enforcement thinks they are untouchable, which much of them still do today.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 16, @08:25PM (2 children)
>No quality police force wants that kind of person on the force, but screening them out or at least keeping them on a short leash is tough.
The Miami River Cops, aka basis of most Miami Vice plots, are a classic case study in lowering standards to boost enlistment numbers.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/archive/copsgobad.html#:~:text=The%20case%20of%20the%20Miami,The%20FBI%20entered%20the%20case. [pbs.org]
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @01:30AM (1 child)
They also have standards that reduce enlistment numbers: https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836 [go.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 17, @03:03AM
Shhh - they said the quiet part out loud: there's no thinking in "good" police work.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MIRV888 on Monday April 17, @03:10AM (3 children)
This is just the beginning of the really awful abuse of ai/ voice models.
The tech is way, way, way ahead of the ethics of using this stuff.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @04:51AM (1 child)
If they can't use supercomputers to conjure me up an immortality pill, then I welcome the destruction of all societies by rogue and synthetic actors. I Am Absolutely Serious.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 17, @07:20AM
(Score: 3, Funny) by GloomMower on Monday April 17, @01:33PM
> The tech is way, way, way ahead of the ethics of using this stuff.
I think everyone knows swatting other people is not ethical by now.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Monday April 17, @02:43PM
So, why exactly is this a problem?
Somebody is selling the service, and they have to buy phone service to deliver it. So it shouldn't be terribly difficult to track them down.
Then just charge them with many, many counts of attempted murder for hire - because that's exactly what SWATTing is.
And charge the customers with soliciting murder for hire.
Not sure about bomb threats - I'm willing to bet they are a crime of their own. At the least, placing fraudulent calls to emergency services generally are.
And I imagining soliciting those crimes is also a crime in its own right.