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  Department of Justice
  U.S. Attorney's Office
  Central District of California
    __________________________________________________________________

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  Monday, December 19, 2022

Grand Jury Indicts 2 in `Swatting' Scheme that Took Over Ring Doorbells
Across U.S. to Livestream Police Response to Fake Calls

            LOS ANGELES - Two men - one from Wisconsin, the other from
  North Carolina - have been charged with participating in a "swatting"
  spree that, over a one-week span, gained access to a dozen Ring home
  security door cameras nationwide, placed bogus emergency phone calls
  designed to elicit an armed police response, then livestreamed the
  events on social media, sometimes while taunting responding police
  officers, the Justice Department announced today.

            Kya Christian Nelson, a.k.a. "ChumLul," 21, of Racine,
  Wisconsin, who is currently incarcerated in Kentucky in an unrelated
  case; and James Thomas Andrew McCarty, a.k.a. "Aspertaine," 20, of
  Charlotte, North Carolina (who at the time of the alleged criminal
  conduct lived in Kayenta, Arizona), who was arrested last week on
  federal charges filed in the District of Arizona, are charged with one
  count of conspiracy to intentionally access computers without
  authorization. Nelson also was charged with two counts of intentionally
  accessing without authorization a computer and two counts of aggravated
  identity theft.

            According to the indictment returned Friday afternoon by a
  federal grand jury in Los Angeles, from November 7, 2020, to November
  13, 2020, Nelson and McCarty gained access to home security door
  cameras sold by Ring LLC, a home security technology company. Nelson
  and McCarty allegedly acquired without authorization the username and
  password information for Yahoo email accounts belonging to victims
  throughout the United States.

            Then, they allegedly determined whether the owner of each
  compromised Yahoo account also had a Ring account using the same email
  address and password that could control associated internet-connected
  Ring doorbell camera devices. Using that information, they identified
  and gathered additional information about their victims, according to
  the indictment.

            Nelson and McCarty allegedly placed false emergency reports
  or telephone calls to local law enforcement in the areas where the
  victims lived. These reports or calls were intended to elicit an
  emergency police response to the victim's residence, the indictment
  alleges.

            The defendants then allegedly accessed without authorization
  the victims' Ring devices and transmitted the audio and video from
  those devices on social media during the police response. They also
  allegedly verbally taunted responding police officers and victims
  through the Ring devices during several of the incidents.

            For example, on November 8, 2020, Nelson and an accomplice
  accessed without authorization Yahoo and Ring accounts belonging to a
  victim in West Covina. A hoax telephone call was placed to the West
  Covina Police Department purporting to originate from the victim's
  residence and posing as a minor child reporting her parents drinking
  and shooting guns inside the residence of the victim's parents.

            Nelson allegedly accessed without authorization a Ring
  doorbell camera, located at the residence of the victim's parents and
  linked to the victim's Ring account, and used it to verbally threaten
  and taunt West Covina Police officers who responded to the reported
  incident.

            The indictment alleges other similar Ring-related swatting
  incidents occurred in Flat Rock, Michigan; Redding, California;
  Billings, Montana; Decatur, Georgia; Chesapeake, Virginia; Rosenberg,
  Texas; Oxnard, California; Darien, Illinois; Huntsville, Alabama; North
  Port, Florida; and Katy, Texas.

            This series of swatting incidents prompted the FBI in late
  2020 to issue a [40]public service announcement urging users of smart
  home devices with cameras and voice capabilities to use complex, unique
  passwords and enable two-factor authentication to help protect against
  swatting attacks.

            An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has
  committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and
  unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

            If they were to be convicted of the conspiracy charge in the
  indictment, each defendant would face a statutory maximum penalty of
  five years in federal prison. The charge of intentionally accessing
  without authorization a computer carries a maximum possible sentence of
  five years, and the charge of aggravated identity theft carries a
  mandatory two-year consecutive sentence.

            The FBI is investigating this matter.

            Assistant United States Attorney Khaldoun Shobaki of the
  Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section is prosecuting this
  case.
  Topic(s):
  Cybercrime
  Component(s):
  [41]USAO - California, Central
  Contact:
  Ciaran McEvoy Public Information Officer [email protected] (213)
  894-4465
  Press Release Number:
  22-273
  Updated December 19, 2022
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References

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 77. https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/employment

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