You may write a political blog or have gotten into an online spat on Twitter. Whatever the reasons for being targeted, you’ll only know you’ve become a victim of “swatting” when masked police officers with assault rifles break down your front door.

It’s a traumatic prank that appears to have befallen a Richmond Hill family on Sunday, when York Region police responded to a chillingly realistic 911 call that led them to believe a schizophrenic man had shot and killed his wife and was hunting down his son.

It seems to have occurred again Monday, when a call to Peel police that armed individuals were on a Brampton street looking to harm people caused five schools to be put on lockdown.

And while it appears that swatting has been around for many years, police services are being very tight-lipped about the phenomenon, not wanting to reveal investigative techniques nor provide a how-to guide for copycats.

“These types of calls, when they’re done by professional hackers, can be very challenging to trace and track down,” said York Regional Police spokesperson Const. Andy Pattenden. “They’re using sophisticated technology to mask their identity when they make these calls (and) sound effects are included (to make them) very believable.”

The callers use “spoofed” phone lines over the Internet to make it appear to 911 operators that the call is coming from a particular location — sometimes inside the targeted house. This can lead police to believe there is a hostage-taking or a shooting going on, when really a family could just be sitting down to dinner.

Swatters have targeted celebrities both big and small, prompting police raids at the L.A. mansions of Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Miley Cyrus. The prank has also been linked to online gaming culture after it was used in a campaign to harass feminist video game critics last year, in what’s come to be known as “Gamergate.”

Swatters have targeted online gamers who are livestreaming themselves playing through the site Twitch. They research the gamer’s identity, find the person’s physical location, and call in the threat so that the police swat raid can be seen live by thousands of people around the world, said Owen Livermore, a recent PhD graduate who specializes in the intersection of online gaming and culture.

“The thrill of it has come from using the Internet to create a media spectacle,” he said. “(Swatters) are not only exploiting the victim, they’re exploiting the police.”

Publicity from these pranks earns perpetrators bragging rights on social media — where police turn to track down the “hackers,” who as often as not end up being teenage boys.

This month, a 17-year-old boy from B.C. who went by the handle “obnoxious” pleaded guilty to 29 counts of extortion, public mischief, false police reports and criminal harassment, after having taunted his targets on Twitter and even dared the RCMP to barge through his door.

Last year, a 16-year-old Ottawa boy was arrested and charged 60 times for having perpetrated dozens of swattings across North America.

Ottawa police declined to comment on the case, as it is now before the courts. The Toronto Police Service declined an interview request for this article, as did the RCMP, both saying they did not want to encourage or draw additional attention to the practice.

“We also don't want to see others inspired to do the same thing. These are false police reports which tie up resources that could be better used responding to where they are truly needed,” wrote RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Harold Pfleiderer in an email.

Const. Lily Fitzpatrick told The Canadian Press that anyone charged and convicted in Tuesday’s swatting incident could face significant fines and/or incarceration.

“There’s so many people that are profoundly affected by something like this,” she said. “Every student, every parent of every student, every staff member and every family member of those staff members have been victimized by this. And that’s in addition to the huge waste of resources that should be there to legitimately protect the public.”

The FBI, which appears to have first publicly identified swatting in 2008, also declined comment, but pointed to several online articles the bureau has published for public information.

“Sometimes swatting is done for revenge, sometimes as a prank. Either way, it is a serious crime, and one that has potentially dangerous consequences,” according to the American law enforcement agency.

“These calls are dangerous to first responders and to the victims. The callers often tell tales of hostages about to be executed or bombs about to go off. The community is placed in danger as responders rush to the scene, taking them away from real emergencies. And the officers are placed in danger as unsuspecting residents may try to defend themselves.”

Victims of swatting have suffered heart attacks; officers have gotten into car accidents rushing to the scene of a hoax.

“They believe they have a violent subject to apprehend or an innocent victim to rescue,” Special Agent Kevin Kolbye explained in the FBI article. “It’s a dangerous situation any way you look at it.”

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Individuals do it for bragging rights more than monetary gain, he said. “Basically, they did it because they could.”

There are few statistics on swatting. The FBI reports that between 2002 and 2006, five swatters called 911 lines in more than 60 cities, causing incidents that resulted in $250,000 in losses.

While no one has yet been mistakenly shot, “the bottom line,” Kolbye said, “is that swatting puts innocent people at risk.”