Intellectual Property Law

A New York man was sentenced today to a five years in prison for being part of a gang of "SWATters" who specialized in phoning the police with fake hostage situations, sending armed cops bursting in to the homes of their party line enemies. 

Chad Ward, 32, got the maximum possible sentence from U.S. District Court judge Jane Boyle in Dallas.  Boyle also ordered Ward to pay $24,706.73 in restitution to police departments that responded to the hoax calls, and to serve three years of supervised release following the prison stretch.

Ward will get credit for the time he's spent held without bail, since his arrest in June 2007.

Five people have pleaded guilty in the first, and so-far only, federal prosecution for SWATting, and Ward is the second to be sentenced. In March, 31-year-old Guadalupe Santana Martinez received 30 months in prison for his role in the hoaxes. Martinez admitted to the FBI to placing a dozen calls to police. In some, Martinez told dispatchers that he had killed hostages, and was using hallucinogenic drugs, then demanded $50,000 and transportation across the border to Mexico.

According to his plea agreement, Ward paid for accounts on the Caller ID spoofing service Spoofcard, which the gang used to make their emergency calls appear to come from the victims' phones.

The group, though, was not close-knit, and Ward himself was sometimes the victim of SWATting attacks by his cohorts.

See Also:

• Teenage Hacker Is Blind, Brash and in the Crosshairs of the FBI
• 'Swatter' Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Hostage Hoaxes
• Poll: How Good Is the Blind Hacker? Mitnick Weighs In
• Swatter Gang Hounded White Hat Phreaker
• Guilty Plea: Phone Phreaks Use Caller-ID Spoofing to Get Foes Raided by SWAT