CASTRO VALLEY — A 911 caller using a disguised voice “swatted” a Castro Valley home Thursday night likely over a lingering “Call of Duty” video game dispute, sending a heavy police response to a bogus hostage situation, an Alameda County sheriff’s official said Friday.

The popular first-person shooter video game was also at the heart of a deadly swatting incident in Kansas last week when a bet over the online game led to a fake 911 call where an innocent man was shot to death by responding police officers. Swatting is a dangerous trend where people place fake 911 calls to send a heavy police response to someone’s house.

In the Castro Valley call, the Alameda County sheriff’s dispatch received an anonymous 911 call around 8:47 p.m. Thursday from someone disguising his or her voice with a computerized British accent, spokesman Ray Kelly said. The caller said a suspect had three hostages and was in possession of an AR15 assault rifle at a home in the 400 block of Grove Way in Castro Valley. The caller demanded paramedics deliver $15,000 to the address or the hostages would be killed, Kelly said.

“Based on the suspicious nature of the call, deputies believed it was likely a swatting call and we were able to deem the scene safe without high risk tactics,” Kelly said.

Similar demands and threats were made to the same address on May 11. At that time, it was determined that a resident of the house was targeted after a dispute with others while playing Call of Duty, Kelly said. The same caller is believed to have made both calls at the Castro Valley house, he said.

On Thursday, deputies determined that the intended victim of the false reports no longer lived at the East Bay address, Kelly said.

No arrest has been made, Kelly said, because the number used was a fake “spoof” number and hard to track. Apps are available to hide your real phone number when calling people.

Kelly said his department gets a lot of fake 911 calls that create problems, but swatting calls are unusual and designed to get an active shooter type response.

On Dec. 27, a Hercules family was brought out of their home at gunpoint by police after a detailed swatting call from an unknown caller, identified as having a male teenager voice. He told dispatchers that gunmen were inside the house shooting at his mother and he was hiding in the closet. Police are investigating the case and searching for the suspect.

The next day, Dec. 28, a stunningly similar swatting call led to the death of the innocent Kansas man, Andrew Finch.