Cyber-Crime
Hungarian cops cuff suspected swatter after two-year FBI probe
20-year-old fessed up after investigators found video of crime in progress
Hungarian cops have arrested a 20-year-old man in Nógrád County over an alleged swatting call that sent armed officers to a US residence nearly two years ago.
Hungary's National Bureau of Investigation (NNI) said the call was made to police in Tiverton, Rhode Island, on April 24, 2024, claiming a man had killed his family and was going to shoot his dog and himself.
The call prompted an armed response to the exact address given over the phone. However, the police realized the report was false and pertained to a fictional person after they arrived.
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Swatting is sometimes dismissed as a prank, especially by those who do it. Common targets of these dangerous hoaxes are people who broadcast themselves on livestreaming platforms, although US government officials have also been targeted in the past.
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People call in fake threats, along similar lines to the one described in the case involving the Hungarian national, and watch the events that unfold in real time via the unsuspecting victim's livestream.
According to the NNI's account, the FBI had been hunting the man for two years, and made a breakthrough after infiltrating the alleged swatter's Discord server, where they found a recording of him livestreaming the swatting call.
From that recording, the FBI suspected the man to be Hungarian, despite police describing him as a native English speaker. Investigators then began international cooperation in March 2026.
The FBI and NNI jointly identified the alleged swatter "through digital traces," according to a Wednesday statement.
The man admitted to the offense after police detained him last week, and the investigation remains ongoing as authorities try to determine whether he was working with anyone else.
The NNI did not mention whether the US is looking to extradite the man, but the Justice Department historically has previously pursued domestic charges in overseas swatting cases. ®