Serial “swatter” behind 375 violent hoaxes targeted his own home to look like a victim

A teacher in high school once quoted an old proverb to me: "Do something you love, and you'll never work a day in your life!"

Perhaps 18-year-old Alan Filion encountered a similar teacher during his school years in California, because once Filion learned that he truly loved making fake "swatting" calls to law enforcement—well, he turned the crime into a job, using handles like "Nazgul Swattings" and "Third Reich of Kiwiswats." Originally it was all about the "power trip," but it soon became about "money and the power trip."

"Prices: $40-Gas leak/Fire for EMS/Fire/Gas Leak [$35 for returning customers]," Filion wrote in a 2023 advertisement that ran on various social media channels. "$50 for a major police response to the house [$40 for returning customers]; $75 for a bomb threat/mass shooting threat (they will shut down the school or public location for a day) [$60 for returning customers]. All swats will be done ASAP or present time."

He worked hard at the job. Between August 2022 and January 2024, for instance, when Filion offered his swatting service to others for money, he made 375 calls. That's an average of 21 a month, which means that every day and a half, Filion was firing up his many VoIP services, turning on his VPNs, and activating his text-to-speech apps in order to cause mayhem across the US, UK, and Canada.

To make sure everything worked smoothly—and by smoothly, I mean "cause maximum chaos"—Filion even tested his methods against his own home address in late 2022. He made numerous "self-swatting" calls, which he later wrote about. "I swatted myself like 3 times to test my methods," he said. "It was hard keeping a straight face... When I swatted myself the cops' extreme reaction was due to my special scenario."

Filion would purposely create extreme scenarios to ensure that police reactions were themselves extreme. The goal, he wrote in 2023, was to "get the cops to drag the victim and their families out of the house, cuff them, and search the house for dead bodies."

Repeat offender

Filion was willing to harass just about anyone—and more than once. He targeted public schools in Skagit County, Washington, on October 10, 2022, for instance, leaving a voicemail that said, "I am going to commit a school shooting with my AR-15 and Glock. I will kill as many kids as I can and then I will shoot myself. I have pipe bombs that I have placed in the bathrooms..." He also identified an actual 17-year-old student at the school as the perpetrator of this threat. A bomb squad responded to the school.

On October 12, he called back, again threatening pipe bomb explosions in various cars in the school parking lot. Cops were deployed to search the vehicles and the entire school building.

On October 13, he posted on social media that he had "called in a fake shooting threat" just so that "I could get you pigs to search the school and declare an 'all clear' so you would not be prepared for when the real school shooting comes. Now, it is too late for you to stop me."

On October 14, he called a crisis hotline and told them that he had stolen his father's Glock, was in the bathroom of the high school, and was going to take revenge on those who had mocked him. Law enforcement cleared the whole school this time.