Support NeoGAF

[DiipuSurotu]

French authorities took a teenager in for questioning on Monday over a false terror alert that mobilised dozens of police officers in Paris on Saturday. Two adolescents had been brazenly bragging about the hoax online.

On Saturday, French police received a call from a certain “Father Mathis” claiming ten armed men had entered Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles church in central Paris and taken about twenty people hostage. Not only are the pranksters good impersonators, they also reportedly hacked the church’s phone number to make it look as if the call was coming from inside the church itself.

According to journalists at the French news magazine L’Obs, police had a long conversation with the caller, trying to determine if it was a hoax or not, before finally launching the emergency response. But when they did, it was full steam ahead. Dozens of police as well as members of an elite counter-terrorism unit descended on the busy Chatelet and Les Halles shopping area in Paris's first district, while a helicopter buzzed overhead.

Only after investigating the scene did they realize that the call was a hoax.

For the two teenagers, age 16 and 17, who claim to be behind the call, the response surpassed their wildest dreams. They didn’t shy from bragging about the success online under the user names “Tylers Swatting” and “Zakhaev Yamaha”.

“I did the worst SWATT, I got them to send out helicopters, the government and fifty police cars!” one wrote using the Facebook account “Tylers Swatting.”

“We aren’t traceable”, they wrote. “We use encrypted servers. We are at least two hours away from Paris and we aren’t afraid of the police.”

A police source told the French news agency AFP that the investigation to find the two hoaxers who orchestrated the call on Saturday could take time. However, the source restated the police's commitment to finding the perpetrators. Tolerance for this kind of prank is low, considering a total of 238 people in France have been killed and hundreds wounded since January 2015 in a string of attacks attributed to, or fomented by, the Islamic State jihadist group.

http://www.france24.com/en/20160919-france-paris-terror-alert-hoax-teenagers

Prank call me if old

 

[LostCaress]

Sentence them to 100 years of community service helping those that are coping with the physical and mental effects of being a victim of a real terrorist attack.

 

[munroe]

Is the arrested teenager one of the hoaxers or just someone of interest? The article at the end says finding the two hoaxers would take time

 

[Diancecht]

Fucking idiots.

 

[Nere]

You don't joke with these things when so many people lost their lives recently.

 

[Mr. Giggles]

Douchebags

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Is the arrested teenager one of the hoaxers or just someone of interest? The article at the end says finding the two hoaxers would take time

He is presumably one of the two hoaxers, "Tylers Swatting". According to French news articles his real name is Dylan and apparently they managed to catch him because not all of his posts online were made behind "encrypted servers".

 

[Palette Swap]

Fuck these guys. This shit makes my blood boil.

Is the arrested teenager one of the hoaxers or just someone of interest? The article at the end says finding the two hoaxers would take time

Shitty editing of an existing article. They have someone who they suspect is one of the two guys.

 

[Mr. Giggles]

He is presumably one of the two hoaxers, "Tylers Swatting". According to French news articles his real name is Dylan and apparently they managed to catch him because not all of his posts online were made behind "encrypted servers".

Good, I hope they hit him with the full extent of the law.

There's a limit for teh lulz

 

[Alx]

Is the arrested teenager one of the hoaxers or just someone of interest? The article at the end says finding the two hoaxers would take time

Supposedly one of the hoaxers, the one with the nickname "Tylers Swatting". I guess the police didn't count on the idiots bragging about their hoax on Facebook to find them... Also a different "hoaxer" apparently gave away his name and phone number on Twitter.

 

[Boney]

Man what pieces of shit. At the very least they're morons enough to publicly announce it and get arrested.

The amount of money it cost, terror it might've caused and how future responses to threats might play out... Fuck those guys swatting is the worst and I hope they get made an example, especially since it was made in France.

 

[Vic]

Ah teenagers...

 

[Sesuadra]

I hope they get mandatory psychotherapy for the next 10 years.

 

[Usobuko]

just a prank, bro.

 

[mcz117chief]

I hope they find them and punish them severely and by that I don't mean prison time but a hefty fine for their parents at least.

and how future responses to threats might play out

That is luckily not affected. Police has to treat every call, including hoaxes, as if they were the real thing, even if there were 5 hoaxes during a single day the responses wouldn't be any less serious.

 

[Tecnniqe]

It's a great way to "ruin your life fast lane"

 

[Jacksinthe]

This shit takes a special kind of jag.

Fuck these cunts.

 

[Busty]

There's no way this kid will come to regret these actions when he's 26 yo.

 

[Violet_0]

“We aren’t traceable”, they wrote. “We use encrypted servers. We are at least two hours away from Paris and we aren’t afraid of the police.”

I love this quote

 

[DiipuSurotu]

I love this quote

They also said "On a fait ça pour le buzz. Si les gens ont eu peur, c'est leur problème..." ("We did it for the buzz. If people got scared it's their problem..."). Classy.

Apparently now that one of them got caught, the other guy has started distancing himself from the whole thing, claiming that he didn't actually participate and that the guy who got caught is the one who did everything.

 

[Tecnniqe]

They also said "On a fait ça pour le buzz. Si les gens ont eu peur, c'est leur problème..." ("We did it for the buzz. If people got scared it's their problem..."). Classy.

Apparently now that one of them got caught, the other guy has started distancing himself from the whole thing, claiming that he didn't actually participate and that the guy who got caught is the one who did everything.

Of course.
Put em all in the jail.

 

[Netherscourge]

Assholes.

They should be thrown in jail for a couple weeks.

See how funny they think that is.

 

[FDC1]

You can immedialy see from his facebook posts this kid is far from a "hacking genius" lol, in 20 words there are at least 10 grammar and spelling errors. This idiot tought he was untraceable.

 

[NEO0MJ]

He is presumably one of the two hoaxers, "Tylers Swatting". According to French news articles his real name is Dylan and apparently they managed to catch him because not all of his posts online were made behind "encrypted servers".

Who were the three greatest hackers of all time?

 

[Mupod]

they also reportedly hacked the church’s phone number to make it look as if the call was coming from inside the church itself.

This one made me laugh considering how easy it is to change caller ID to anything you want. 1337 haxors

 

[RoadHazard]

What fucking idiots. And no, "they're just kids" is not applicable to this assholery. I guess they can't be tried as adults, but they should get the harshest punishment possible for this.

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Fucking idiots.

Douchebags

Sounds about right..

 

[Sgt. Kabukiman]

Good, make an example out of these dumb little shits.

 

[backflip10019]

“We aren’t traceable”, they wrote. “We use encrypted servers. We are at least two hours away from Paris and we aren’t afraid of the police.”

Haha, fuck you, idiots. Enjoy jail.

 

[Luschient]

“We aren’t traceable”, they wrote. “We use encrypted servers. We are at least two hours away from Paris and we aren’t afraid of the police.”

 

[TheGameshark]

"We aren't traceable" lol
Sound like your typical edge lords. Fuck these idiots.

 

[Palette Swap]

Le Monde says two other teenagers have been arrested today in relation to this case.

Considering how much this story pissed everyone off, they're all going to get the book thrown at them. We're in a legislative context where the definition of terrorism and related activities has been widened, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they got some kind of terror charges. That wouldn't be undeserved, considering they effectively contributed to terror.

 

[Condom]

16 years old

'Not afraid of police'

 

[BronsonLee]

“We aren’t traceable”

So about that

"we aren’t afraid of the police.”

You're about to be!

 

[Kibbles]

How very reassuring that they had a long conversation before determining to send a response team. What if they was real?

 

[Slayven]

Swatters should face attempt of manslaughter charges

 

[Randomizer]

Ahahahahahaha

 

[Plum]

“We aren’t traceable”, they wrote. “We use encrypted servers. We are at least two hours away from Paris and we aren’t afraid of the police.”

"But we were behind 5 proxies and two VPNs!"

Fucking idiots. They threw their life away for nothing.

 

[Psychoward]

Social Experiment GONE WRONG!!!

 

[frontovik]

It's evident they underestimated the severity of their "prank".. what a bunch of imbeciles.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

How very reassuring that they had a long conversation before determining to send a response team. What if they was real?

The police asked questions like how many terrorists were there, how many hostages, what weapons did the terrorists have, etc. They weren't chit-chating, they were asking questions that would have been important for the proper police/special force's response.