Prosecutors Claim Swatters Compromise Ring Home Cameras to Livestream Police Operations in Social Media

Joseph Henry, Tech Times 20 December 2022, 10:12 am

Swatting incidents are becoming more rampant at present than in previous years.

According to the prosecutors, two men have allegedly swatted several owners who have Ring doorbell systems at their homes.

The involved people are said to be live streaming the police responses after compromising the security cameras.

Swatters Compromise Ring Home Cameras

(Photo : Sebastian Scholz (Nuki) from Unsplash)
The two men will first access the login credentials of the homeowners to control the Ring camera.

As the grand jury mentioned in a press release on Monday, Dec. 19, two individuals have allegedly conducted a swatting scheme in the US. The operations started two years ago.

James Thomas Andrew McCarty, a 20-year-old resident of Charlotte, North Carolina was discovered to be hijacking the accounts of the homeowners to carry out the operation. He was operating with the 21-year-old Kya Christian Nelson who lives in Racine, Wisconsin.

According to the filing, the prosecutors indicted the alleged involved people in the crime that they committed starting on November 7, 2020.

The authorities mentioned that the duo used to pull out prank calls to the police and livestream how they respond on social media.

Just last month, the California local police found out that someone was making an emergency call regarding a drinking and shooting incident in a house.

The said call was said to allegedly come from a minor child who reported the happening inside the house. When the authorities came to the area, Nelson hacked the Ring Home security camera to threaten the policemen.

The case also includes 11 various cases of swatting which took place in the same week. The incidents happened across Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, California, and Illinois.

The Third Unnamed Suspect

In another report by Ars Technica, the prosecutors claimed that there was another man who was helping Nelson and McCary on their swatting scheme.

The authorities said that the unnamed accomplice was the one who stole the sensitive information saved on the Ring account of the users who have access to the doorbell camera.

After collecting the needed information from the owners, the person will use the data to access the other doorbell cameras. Later, they will conduct false calls until the authorities arrive at the scene.

"Defendants Nelson and McCarty would access without authorization the victims' Ring devices and thereafter transmit the audio and video from those devices on social media during the police response," the prosecutors noted in the filing.

At the time, the filing did not mention how the alleged suspects managed to get the Yahoo account information from the victims.

In the District of Arizona alone, McCarty was accused of having an involvement in at least 18 incidents of swatting.

Meanwhile, Nelson has another business in Kentucky after the authorities found out that he used to hide under his Chumlul nickname.

The prosecutors charged the involved people with a single count of conspiracy after they accessed the systems without any permission. Nelson is set to face two counts of unauthorized access to the computer and another two counts of identity theft.

If they will be proven to be guilty of the scheme, the suspects will be imprisoned for five years. Nelson will serve two extra years in prison to compensate for the remaining charges.