A self-proclaimed leader of an online group linked to the violent extremist network The Com tells WIRED he is responsible for the flurry of hoax active-shooter alerts at universities across the US in recent days as students return to school.
Known online as Gores, the person says he coleads a group called Purgatory, which is offering its followers a menu of services, including hoax threats against schools—known as swatting—for just $20, while faked threats against hospitals, businesses, and airports can cost up to $50. The group also offered “slashings” and “brickings” for as little as $10, according to a review of the group’s Telegram channel by WIRED, apparently referencing real-world violence.
In recent days, however, as the incidents were reported in the media, the prices have skyrocketed, with a school swatting now costing $95 and brickings costing $35.
The group has been linked to 764, a nihilistic subgroup of The Com that conducts targeted campaigns against children using extortion, doxing, swatting, and harassment. Members of 764 have been accused of everything from robbery to sexual abuse of minors, kidnapping, and murder.
Since the swatting spree kicked off on August 21, around a dozen different universities have been targeted with 911 emergency calls, some having to issue alerts on multiple occasions after receiving multiple hoax calls. Gores tells WIRED that the group had earned around $100,000 since the swatting spree began. WIRED has not independently confirmed that figure.
As well as the confirmation from Gores, two researchers who spoke to WIRED confirmed that they had both listened to the group conducting swatting calls on audio livestreams as they happened in recent days. In at least one case, a researcher was able to intercede and call the targeted institution to inform them that the call was a hoax.
WIRED reviewed recordings of the swatting calls provided by the researchers and has been reviewing the Telegram channel run by Purgatory, where members of the group have been celebrating media coverage of their calls in recent days, including the swatting attempt on the University of Colorado Boulder on Monday afternoon.
Nicole Mueksch, a spokesperson for the University of Colorado Boulder, tells WIRED that the incident remains under investigation, adding that university police are working with “state and federal partners, including the FBI, to explore any potential leads or patterns that may be connected to other recent swatting cases across the country.”
The FBI told The Washington Post that it’s investigating and, in a statement to The New York Times, said it is “seeing an increase in swatting events across the country, and we take potential hoax threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk.” The agency did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
“Knowingly providing false information to emergency service agencies about a possible threat to life drains law enforcement resources, costs thousands of dollars and, most importantly, puts innocent people at risk,” the FBI added.
The recent swatting spree began on August 21, the same day the current Purgatory Telegram channel was launched. At around 12:30 pm local time that day, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga received a call claiming an active shooter was on campus. The school was locked down for over an hour before campus police issued an all-clear at 1:51 pm after no threat was found. Hours later, at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, a hoax call forced the school into lockdown as students and faculty took part in the university’s orientation mass to welcome new students.
While students and faculty members in Tennessee and Pennsylvania ran in terror and locked themselves in classrooms, five members of the Purgatory group hosted a livestream on Discord for an audience of around 41 people.
They “were streaming their successful attempts at swatting Villanova University and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, but also their attempts at swatting individual victims of the Com Network,” Marc André Argentino, an extremism researcher who is among those who have closely chronicled the evolution of The Com network, wrote in a note published on his website earlier this week.
At the same time, another researcher who works for the nonprofit advocacy group Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), who requested anonymity over fears of retribution, tells WIRED he too listened to swatting calls by Purgatory members on August 21, sharing recordings of some of the calls being made by the group, which WIRED reviewed.
While some of the swatting calls were successful, in other cases emergency responders correctly identified the calls as hoaxes. In one instance, while the group was attempting to make a hoax call to Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, the GPAHE researcher was able to call the university's security office and alert them to the fact the call was a hoax.
Gores, who claims to colead Purgatory, continued to place hoax calls into the early hours of August 22, according to the GPAHE researcher who observed the activity. Gores was seeking to provoke an armed police response at locations in Michigan. In a bid to convince emergency responders, Gores at times included the sound of a shotgun blast in the background, the GPAHE researcher said.
Gores, whose identity is unknown, told WIRED in a message on Telegram that he was responsible for “a lot” of hoax calls to universities, claiming that he and another member named “tor” were the ones who placed the calls, some of which they were paid to place.
Argentino, who has been tracking the Purgatory group for more than a year, describes it as “a swatting and doxxing group that formed on Telegram and Discord, using shared scripts and VOIP tools to mask identities and make coordinated false emergency calls to provoke armed police responses.”
In 2024, three members of the group were arrested and charged in relation to threats against a trailer park in Alabama, a Delaware high school, Albany International Airport, an Ohio casino, and a private residence in Georgia.
Earlier this year, Owen Jarboe, Brayden Grace, and Evan Strauss all pleaded guilty to conspiracy, cyberstalking, interstate threats, and threatening to damage property with fire or explosives.
Gores tells WIRED that has been part of the Purgatory group for years, and when asked if he is concerned about the FBI investigating the swatting spree, he said: ”Shit don’t put fear into me. Just another day in our life yk?”
Asked if the swatting spree will continue, Gores simply replied: “Yes. 2 months.”
