An online gamer falsely reported a serious crime using a rival gamers home address, resulting in a SWAT team raid being caught on his web cam.

HE went by the name Obnoxious and his signature move was “swatting” — calling armed SWAT teams to the homes of the young women he harassed.

The Canadian teenager is one of the most threatening internet trolls of all time. Now in juvenile detention, his abusive games started around August 2013. He spent more than a year waging an increasingly dangerous war on his traumatised victims.

Obnoxious, whose identity cannot be revealed because he is only 17, found the women through Twitch, the popular website where users chat while watching others playing computer games.

He’d start by slowing down their internet connection, cutting off the one source of income for those who made money from streaming their games. He would send private messages telling the women to add him on Skype if they wanted him to stop, creating multiple accounts to intimidate them under different names.

“Im gona drive to your house (sic),” one message read. “[A friend] gave me money for the gas ... and im gona pour it all over the side of your house ... and pull out some matches and just throw em on your house.”

The teenager, who occasionally shared personal stories with the girls about his depression and history of parental abuse, made them take selfies holding “fan signs” — pieces of paper with “Obnoxious” written on them. He demanded nude photos from his victims and ordered them to talk dirty. He shared their personal information on the internet, and posted their photos to Twitter, including a naked picture of a 14-year-old girl, later claiming he was a paedophile.

Five things you didn't know could get hacked Hackers aren't always after personal information. As more devices get connected, there's more risk to what can be taken over by hackers. Photo: TrackingPoint.

He told a transgender woman named Alexa Walk he had her medical records and posted her birth name on Twitter. When Twitter banned him, he would create a new account.

The way he found private information to blackmail or abuse the women was terrifyingly simple. He called companies and tricked customer-­service reps, often using small pieces of information the women had shared — the name of a pet or a birthday.

“The Amazon people, they just give it,” a victim called Janet told The New York Times.

“And if they wouldn’t, he would just call again.’’

When Janet wouldn’t respond to his texts, he sent a message to one of her friends: “If she isnt willing to speak to [me] ... she is going to get a swat team in her parents house ... holding them at gun point ... with all their ssns [social security numbers] on [a darknet site for publishing personal information] and her credit ruined.

“This is last chance im giving her ... be friends with me secretly or get wrecked.”

That’s when his sick games moved into the real world. He began sending huge orders of weird pizzas to their homes — deep-dish with no cheese or anchovies and jalapeño. He bombarded their phones with calls and hundreds of messages at once.

His final, most terrifying, move was calling SWAT teams to their homes, their parents’ houses or their colleges by phoning the police with bomb threats, or claiming he had a gun and hostages and would shoot officers on sight. He did this more than 40 times, often more than once to the same target.

Special forces would arrive at the homes of innocent families armed to the teeth, with dogs, helicopters and armed cars. It was a risky game. In a 2011 drugs raid unrelated to this case, a former Marine was killed in Arizona by a SWAT team because he had pulled out his gun when he heard the commotion.

Allison Henderson, a 26-year-old victim of Obnoxious from California, said opening the door to “rifles pointed at me from every direction”, was “the most terrifying experience of my life”.

A university student who he swatted in Arizona, as well as hacking into her Twitter feed and posting abusive messages, ending up becoming an insomniac and dropping out of college, too anxious to study. ‘‘He just ripped her life apart,’’ said her mother. ‘‘And ours, too.’’

The police, however, were mostly just frustrated at the waste of resources, telling the girls to quit the game streaming website and “pick up a book” instead. In one case, a department in Ontario, California, sent 32 units to a home, 90 per cent of its available resources, spending $9030.

Obnoxious’s victims decided they wouldn’t be crushed. They formed an online group to document the attacks, collecting screen shots, chat logs and a zip file that appeared to be his hit list — a dossier of private information on 99 young women.

In August 2014, a determined detective named BA Finley, who had been investigating the case sine January, persuaded the FBI to get involved to stop the “destructive” troll.

By December 1, Obnoxious knew the police were on to him. Just after midnight, he made a final, dramatic bid for attention, live streaming his crimes on multiple sites as he made hoax emergency calls for almost nine hours.

On December 5, the teenager was arrested, and later charged with 46 counts, including criminal harassment, public mischief and extortion. He pleaded guilty to 23.

A psychiatric report said he showed virtually no remorse: ‘‘His description of the pleasure he gets from causing humiliation and harm ... is suggestive of quite significant emerging psychopathic traits.’’

In July, he was given 16 months in youth jail. He is scheduled to be released in March.

Obnoxious isn’t the first troll to torment people who cruel hoaxes. Swatting has been in use since the early 2000s, and Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Rihanna have all been victims. Activists, gamers and politicians have faced online harassment, posting of their personal information online and distressing, real-life pranks that have a deep psychological impact.

But the teenager from Vancouver has showed just how much damage can be done with just a computer and a desire to hurt people. It’s a scary thought.