The United States has experienced what experts call “an epidemic of AI-driven swatting”. More than 300 colleges and universities have been targeted in false active-shooter calls, according to ABC News.
Groups such as Purgatory have turned these tactics into profit, reportedly charging $95 per call for custom hoaxes while chasing online notoriety. Each event triggers mass lockdowns, disrupts operations, and inflicts psychological and financial damage.
This trend is a warning for managed service providers (MSPs) and IT departments: cyber and physical security are no longer separate domains. The same AI that generates phishing emails can now manufacture panic in the physical world.
In this blog, we’ll examine how AI swatting works, why it matters for IT providers, and how to strengthen detection and response to defend both digital and physical trust.
Key takeaways
- AI swatting calls uses synthetic media, such as voice cloning and simulated background sounds, to trigger real-world emergency responses.
- Threat actors are monetizing “swatting-as-a-service” models, selling convincing fake calls for as little as $95.
- These incidents expose how digital deception can now cause physical disruption, requiring MSPs to rethink the boundaries of incident response.
- Awareness, verification protocols, and integrated incident response planning are essential to protect operational uptime and client trust.
- ConnectWise solutions, such as SIEM, MDR, and BCDR, help MSPs detect early warning signals, coordinate cross-team response, and maintain continuity during hybrid crises.
What is AI swatting?
Swatting refers to false emergency reports made to provoke an armed law enforcement response, often targeting schools, businesses, or individuals. These hoaxes can involve fake claims of active shooters, hostage situations, or bomb threats. According to an April 2025 public service announcement from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), law enforcement continues to see a rise in coordinated swatting incidents across the United States.
While earlier swatting cases relied on human callers, AI tools are now being used to amplify deception. Attackers use generative AI to synthesize audio that mimics live gunfire, screams, or distressed voices, then pair it with caller-ID spoofing or anonymized VoIP routes, making their fake emergencies sound authentic enough to pass initial verification checks.
How it evolved
- Automation and realism: Voice-cloning models can mirror accents, tone, and emotional inflection.
- Low barrier to entry: Free or inexpensive AI tools allow even unskilled threat actors to create “evidence” that sounds authentic.
- Monetization: Criminal groups sell ready-made scripts or AI audio packages, enabling a swatting-as-a-service marketplace.
- Psychological manipulation: Attackers exploit public fear and institutional liability, ensuring rapid emergency response before verification occurs.
Why it matters to MSPs and IT teams
These AI-fabricated crises bypass traditional cybersecurity controls yet disrupt the same infrastructure of VoIP networks, emergency-alert systems, and digital communications that IT providers manage daily. A fabricated threat can lock down campuses, hospitals, or municipal offices as effectively as a ransomware infection, halting business operations and eroding public trust.
The anatomy of an AI swatting crisis
AI swatting combines automation, deception, and speed to create false emergencies that feel authentic enough to bypass skepticism and trigger a full-scale crisis response. Understanding how these incidents are built and executed is the first step toward defending against them.
The process typically unfolds in four coordinated stages:
1. Pre-attack preparation
Threat actors begin by scripting and generating synthetic audio using generative AI tools. These recordings may include convincing elements such as:
- Gunfire or shouting recorded from actual incident footage.
- AI-cloned voices that sound panicked or distressed.
- Background noise calibrated to simulate specific environments, such as classrooms or hallways.
Attackers may also spoof caller IDs or use anonymized VoIP routes to disguise origin and avoid traceability. Some even layer fake metadata into recordings to strengthen credibility when shared with dispatchers or journalists.
2. Execution and amplification
Once the audio is ready, attackers place AI-assisted 911 calls routed through anonymizers or virtual numbers, reporting active threats at targeted campuses or facilities. Within seconds, police dispatchers hear what sounds like live chaos: gunfire, screaming, voices begging for help. In some cases, recordings are played on repeat to simulate ongoing violence.
As emergency responders mobilize, attackers amplify the chaos by:
- Circulating fake “witness” footage, known as deepfakes, or screenshots online.
- Triggering automated alerts through compromised or impersonated social accounts.
- Sharing real campus or facility details to heighten perceived authenticity.
The speed and coordination make verification nearly impossible before the damage is done.
3. Systemic disruption
A single false report can force lockdowns, evacuations, and communication blackouts, effectively paralyzing normal operations. For MSPs and IT departments, these events trigger the same kind of downtime and continuity challenges seen in ransomware or disaster recovery scenarios.
When facilities lock down or networks flood with emergency traffic, IT systems can experience:
- Network interruptions as communication tools and VoIP services become saturated.
- Remote access failures as systems are isolated or taken offline for safety.
- Data integrity risks if emergency protocols override normal authentication and access controls.
Each false event compounds the cost of downtime, including lost productivity, delayed services, and strained recovery efforts. According to industry research, small and midsized business (SMB) downtime ranges from $8,000 to $100,000 per hour, with additional losses tied to operational slowdowns and reputational damage.
Unlike traditional outages, AI swatting incidents test both digital and physical continuity at once. Maintaining uptime during these events depends on having tested recovery workflows and reliable failover systems that ensure command and control remain intact, even when operations are disrupted.
BCDR solutions from ConnectWise help organizations maintain business continuity during unexpected interruptions, allowing IT teams to restore access quickly and minimize the cascading impact of synthetic crises.
AI-enhanced hoaxes may begin as digital fabrications, but their consequences are measured in real downtime. Protecting uptime now requires uniting cybersecurity defense with operational resilience, keeping critical systems running even when false alarms strike the physical world.
4. Aftermath and exploitation
Once responders confirm the hoax, the attackers often post edited recordings online to gloat, build credibility, or sell their tactics. These recordings can later be used in phishing or extortion campaigns targeting the same institutions. The cumulative effect is psychological fatigue, eroded trust in digital communications, and operational instability—conditions that adversaries can exploit for further disruption.
Why this matters for IT providers
For MSPs and IT teams, the fallout extends far beyond the immediate crisis. When emergency communications are overwhelmed or systems go offline, recovery, verification, and trust restoration fall squarely on IT’s shoulders.
Defense strategies for MSPs and IT teams
AI swatting represents a new kind of hybrid threat that exploits digital infrastructure and human reaction. The solution lies not in more tools, but in better coordination and informed response. Resilience depends on three core disciplines: awareness, verification, and integrated response.
1. Awareness: Training for a new class of crossover threats
AI-generated deception is evolving faster than many organizations’ security playbooks. The first line of defense is awareness at every level of the organization.
- Educate teams on synthetic media risks: Incorporate examples of how threat actors are using AI-generated media and deepfakes into regular cybersecurity training. Leverage training resources such as Spot the Deepfake.
- Expand tabletop exercises: Blend digital and physical scenarios to simulate hybrid crises. A swatting simulation should test IT recovery, communications continuity, and coordination with physical security.
- Share intelligence across departments: Collaboration between IT, security, and communications teams ensures anomalies, such as spoofed calls or sudden social spikes, aren’t dismissed as noise.
The goal is not to train every employee to spot a cloned voice or deepfake, but to build collective awareness and verification discipline so that when something sounds real but feels wrong, teams know how to pause, validate, and escalate appropriately.
2. Verification protocols: Slowing down false signals before they scale
In an AI swatting event, response speed without validation can amplify damage. Verification protocols ensure that emergency communications are authenticated before a mass response is triggered.
- Implement multi-factor verification for alerts: Require a secondary confirmation step before emergency notifications propagate across systems.
- Authenticate communication channels: Use digital signatures or caller authentication within VoIP systems to verify the legitimacy of emergency calls.
- Centralize escalation authority: Designate a verified response chain so only authorized personnel can confirm and trigger physical safety actions.
- Monitor for abnormal patterns: SIEM solutions such as ConnectWise SIEM™ can flag call patterns or network behavior inconsistent with genuine emergencies, supporting faster triage.
Verification protocols shift the mindset from reacting fast to responding correctly. That difference determines whether IT systems contain a hoax or unintentionally amplify it.
3. Integrated incident response planning: Bridging cyber and physical continuity
AI swatting underscores the need for a unified crisis response, where digital recovery, communications control, and physical coordination operate in lockstep.
- Coordinate with SOC-backed monitoring: ConnectWise MDR™ provides real-time visibility into security anomalies, linking 24/7 threat detection with actionable incident playbooks.
- Unify escalation and reporting: Tools across the ConnectWise Asio® platform, from RMM and SIEM to PSA, enable consistent logging, communication, and accountability across IT and security teams.
- Integrate continuity workflows: Use BCDR solutions such as x360Recover from Axcient™, a ConnectWise company, to maintain uptime during facility lockdowns or access disruptions, ensuring command and control remain intact.
- Automate repeatable recovery actions: Runbooks within x360Recover standardize system restoration, helping technicians follow pre-tested procedures under pressure.
An integrated response plan connects every layer—people, process, and technology—so that even when false alarms spread, operations stay resilient, communication remains trusted, and recovery is immediate.
Conclusion
AI swatting calls represent an evolution in cyber risk where AI can fabricate crises that cause real-world harm. For MSPs and IT departments, these incidents are more than a law enforcement challenge; they’re a business continuity issue.
The key to resilience lies in anticipation, not reaction. IT teams must recognize how AI-driven deception crosses into the physical realm, verify the authenticity of emergency communications, and align cybersecurity and operational response into a single, coordinated framework.
Organizations that invest in awareness, verification, and integrated response will be best positioned to maintain trust and preserve both uptime and confidence when the next AI-fueled crisis unfolds.
