In January 2024, an 18-year-old teenager from Lancaster, Calif. found himself in serious trouble. Alan Filion would spend four years behind bars as punishment. He had made hundreds of toxic swatting calls. Swatting is a dangerous prank where a person makes a false call about a violent crime to a location, usually a school, police station, or a place of worship. Alan's prank calls would bring armed police forces to certain locations.

He had picked an upscale area to start. On August 2022, Alan started making up to 375 hoax calls and threats to randomly chosen places. One of his calls was targeted at a mosque in the state of Florida, and the police had to call in the military. He pretended to be armed with various weapons and said he planned to kill anybody he saw at a religious site. Everyone knew Alan was very young when he began his threats. To make things complicated, Alan would use many internet accounts and voice software to hide his real identity.

At one stage of the case, Alan confessed to making threats to locations in different parts of the U. S. This was his first mistake. He had threatened a high school, a university, and a police station. Do you think he knew the implications of what happened?

He did confess that he was behind four federal crimes. Federal authorities in Florida had heard Alan's story and gave him 48 months to reflect on his actions. Filion was sentenced to four years in federal prison.

Some people say making those kinds of prank calls is harmless.  Why are people saying that?

According to a Muslim rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, there was a rise in bias incidents against minorities in the US. They were happy that law enforcement had identified and caught Alan for his crimes but reminded everyone that the problem isn't going away.

Teen's Prank Turns to Prison: The Consequences of Swatting.

Actions