Feb 1, 2013

Celebrity ‘Swatting’ the Latest Craze for Kids

Parents now have another thing to worry about with their kids and technology — celebrity “swatting” calls. When Punk’d premiered on MTV in 2003, the collective celebrity community held its breath, wondering who would be the next victim to be humiliated on national television in the name of harmless fun. Recent tricksters have taken this same form of star-centered pranking in a more sinister direction by reporting fabricated emergencies in celebrity homes. The recent “swatting” trend, whereby pranksters place 911 calls to alert authorities about fake home invasions, robberies and potential hostage situations, have placed victims like Ashton Kutcher, Justin Bieber, Tom Cruise, Simon Cowell and Chris Brown at the center of full-blown emergency response protocols.

Read more on Huffington Post

 

Hemanshu (Hemu) Nigam is an online safety, security, and privacy expert and CEO of SSP Blue, an online security consultancy. He is also a frequent contributor to CNN, HLN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, CBS, HLNTV.com, and abcnews.com.  To sign up for SSP Blue’s Weekly News & Info, please click here, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.  See also Hemu’s personal site.