An American woman allegedly lured armed police to the homes of Asian families in Greater Manchester by claiming they were abusing children.

In a campaign that lasted for more than a year, the woman allegedly created fake profiles to stalk the families online and falsely accused them of being paedophiles and child killers.

A suspect has been charged with cyber harassment in the US. Nibah Gazi, 40, from New Jersey, is accused of “swatting” – where internet trolls make false reports to the police in the hope of getting armed officers sent to victims’ homes.

Quick Guide What is swatting? Show Swatting is an extreme 21st century successor to prank calling. Many of the “swat” calls come from online gamers, who watch the reactions of their victims in real time, via live streaming software. In 2009, Mathew Weigman, then 19, was sentenced for more than 11 years over a swatting conspiracy. His first swatting offense was in 2004 when, aged 14, he convinced a police unit to descend onto the home of a girl who refused to have phone sex with him, claiming people were being held hostage. There was also a brief craze in 2007 of swatting celebrities. Victims included Tom Cruise, Miley Cyrus, Simon Cowell and Charlie Sheen. The most high profile case involved Californian man Tyler Barriss. He is accused of making a hoax emergency call that resulted in a fatal police shooting in Kansas in December 2017. In April 2017 Robert McDaid, became the first Briton to be charged by police over the craze. He is alleged to have called a terrorism hotline in the US state of Maryland posing as a man called Tyran Dobbs. Dobbs’ home was raided and police shot him with rubber bullets causing significant injuries to his face and chest.

One couple, their children and parents in Manchester were woken in the middle of the night by officers with guns after false accusations were allegedly made in calls to police.

Rangzib Nazir, 51, a music promoter from Oldham, told the Manchester Evening News he had been subjected to months of abuse. He said he was first contacted in December last year by someone who said they were interested in booking some acts for an event in the US.

He said the woman suggested it would be “fun” to put cameras in the room to secretly record the young acts. When Nazir told her he wanted nothing more to do with the booking, she is said to have vowed to “destroy” him.

“She started putting messages up on social media that I’m a paedophile and my associates are paedophiles and that my colleagues are all part of a grooming group,” he said. Nazir reported the incident to British police and informed the woman of his actions.

“She was telling people I had been arrested,” he said. “She was ringing up promoters and artists and telling them not to work with me.”

Three months after the initial contact the woman allegedly told police Nazir was holding his family hostage at gunpoint. In the early hours of the morning Nazir was woken by a message from the woman, part of which read: “Don’t worry, armed police are outside.”

“I’ve looked outside and seen blue lights and about 17 police cars. Some of them were armed,” Nazir said. He woke his children and elderly parents to show the officers they were not being harmed. But a week later armed police visited his home in the early hours again.

He said police visited him another four times and phoned him on 15 occasions, each time investigating false reports he was abusing children. “They came into my house and wanted to search the rooms, which I didn’t let them do. I just told the children to come downstairs. I invited them in but if I didn’t I’m sure they would knock the door down. They say they want to speak to the children.”

All the other alleged victims had online connections with Nazir. In September Rizwan Mahmood, a DJ, came home to find his front door smashed and police inside after a false report that a child was in danger. He said it was the third police visit, after previous bogus reports when he had to show officers his wife and children had come to no harm.

Another associate of Nazir, Sangeetha Singh, 55, from Gorton in Manchester, said she received multiple calls from a woman. “At one point she used to call me 15 to 20 times a day,” she said. “She had been sitting on my Facebook page for three years and she had picked up on little points about my life. She learned about my girls’ movements and about my husband and who my son was.”

The woman allegedly posted pictures of one of Singh’s daughters into a chatroom, suggesting she was a prostitute, and published the family’s address in Gorton. Singh said: “For six months I was scared of posting anything. If I did post a flyer she would phone people up and tell them lies about my daughters. For a mother, it’s very upsetting.”

Other alleged victims included Gee Hussain, 43, a music promoter from Derby, whose home was raided after false reports he had raped a child.

Gazi denied the allegations against her in a call to the Evening News.

A Greater Manchester police spokesperson said they were investigating a number of hoax calls spanning the past 12 months, believed to have been made by one individual from the US.