Las Vegas resident Brian “Framed God” Wilson has been arrested on charges of hacking and swatting.
One of the ugliest new trends to come out of the gaming community last year was swatting. The act of reporting a fictional murder to try and get a SWAT team sent to the home of somebody you dislike, its occurrence has become an epidemic in recent months as streamers and even game development executives have found themselves face-to-face with loaded guns as a result of cruel pranks. One of the most frustrating things about swatting however, has been the seemingly impervious nature of the people doing it. Faced with the vastness of the internet, law enforcement personnel have often been unable to bring the perpetrators of these dangerous crimes to justice.
There are exceptions, of course. Take the case of Brandon “Framed God” Wilson, a 19-year old man who was arrested last Thursday after police searched his home following an investigation that led them to suspect he might be involved in an Illinois swatting incident that took place in July 2014. In that incident, Wilson used a computer to contact the police department of Naperville, Illinois and report a supposed murder at a residence in the town. The Naperville Special Response Team moved in on the reported home in force but found no evidence of any crime.
Police authorities claim that Wilson was also involved in a hacking incident targeting two individuals from Illinois, one from Napervlle and another from the town of Plainfield. In those cases he apparently accessed their gaming consoles to obtain personal information belonging to their owners. He reportedly also contacted the Naperville victim and threatened to break into their bank account, steal their Social Security information and ruin their father’s finances. Computers seized by police during their Thursday search of Wilson’s home apparently contained evidence of his activities, including other swatting and hacking incidents in other places around the country.
Wilson is currently awaiting extradition to Illinois, after which he’ll be tried for a variety of charges including computer tampering, computer fraud, identity theft, disorderly conduct and intimidation. If found guilty of these crimes he could face up to five years in prison. Other states including California, South Carolina, Texas and Nevada are also investigating Wilson, suspecting that he me might be connected to similar crimes within their own borders.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
