What I find strange is that the original person who was threatened with swatting who gave the 'fake' address was convicted of wire fraud.
I do understand why he was convicted:
> Viner threatened to swat Gaskill over the loss. Gaskill intentionally gave Viner the wrong address, a location in Wichita where he previously resided with his family, and where he said he would "be waiting". Gaskill's family had been evicted from the address in 2016
So there is probable cause to believe that he intended harm to come to the new residents of that address.
As I understand it, the US system is pretty poorly set up to deal with things related to the internet, so wire fraud is often the go to. Happens often with hacking as well.
It makes me wonder if Gaskill would've gotten away with no legal consequences if he had given some made-up address that coincidentally happened to be a real one. Something like “420 Weed Avenue.” Instead, he got convicted for revenge on the current tenant.
