An online group said that it was behind a number of recent hoax emergency calls that drew a heavy law enforcement response to college campuses across the United States and were timed to coincide with the start of the school year.
The group, which calls itself Purgatory, highlighted news media coverage of the recent hoaxes in a public-facing channel on Telegram, an encrypted messaging service often used by criminals.
The online group is suspected of being connected to several of the episodes, including reports of shootings, according to cybersecurity experts, law enforcement agencies and the group members’ own posts in a social media chat. The group’s claims could not be independently verified.
Federal authorities previously connected the same network to a series of bomb scares and bogus shooting reports in early 2024, for which three men pleaded guilty this year.
The spreading of false reports — a practice known as swatting — is intended to sow fear and chaos at educational and governmental institutions, as well as commercial places. Some swatting episodes have focused on the homes of politicians and other famous people.
Bragging about its recent activities, Purgatory said that it could arrange more swatting episodes for a fee.
For $95, it could have a school swatted, a menu of offerings posted by the group said. It was commanding $120 to target a mall, $140 for an airport and $150 for a hospital.
“If anyone is looking to purchase a swat right now we are available,” a group member wrote recently on Telegram.
Members of Purgatory could not be reached for comment, partly because the group’s hierarchy is unclear and also because its members appear to conceal their identities in online forums.
The group’s bid to take credit for the recent swatting episodes came after officers in tactical gear swarmed several college campuses as students and faculty members received alarming alerts advising them to shelter in place. Some barricaded themselves in buildings while the authorities combed campuses for attackers who did not exist.
Twice in the final weeks of August, Villanova University responded to reports of a gunman on campus, which later the authorities determined to be false. On Aug. 25, at least six colleges, including the University of Arkansas, experienced lockdowns for similar threats that turned out to be bogus. And on Wednesday, the false alarms continued at Auburn University in Alabama and Texas Tech University.
The F.B.I. declined to comment about Purgatory’s claims that it was responsible for the fake threats.
Purgatory did not specify which hoaxes it was responsible for. The group’s discussions about playing a role in recent swatting episodes were reported earlier by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a nonprofit that tracks hate speech and extremism, and Wired.com.
On Telegram, some of the group’s members moved their discussions this week to a private chat.
Keven Hendricks, a cybercrime expert who teaches law enforcement officers how to investigate swatting, said in an interview that Purgatory seemingly shares ideology aligned with nihilistic, and sometimes violent, extremist groups like the Com, which has been involved in extortion and other criminal activities, according to the F.B.I.
Mr. Hendricks said that some of the people behind the fake reports were young men in their teens and early 20s who had streamed their activities online.
“A lot of them do it simply because they can get away with it,” Mr. Hendricks said. “I like to call it disorganized chaos. They try to one-up each other.”
At the University of Arkansas, a dispatcher received a call around 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 25 from someone saying that they were on the second floor of the Mullins Library as what sounded like gunfire erupted in the background, the authorities said.
The university sent an alert to people on campus, instructing them to avoid the library “due to an active shooter reported.” The campus was placed in a lockdown that lasted for two and a half hours as officers in tactical gear checked several buildings.
Matt Mills, the assistant chief of the University of Arkansas Police Department, said in an interview that the agency was aware that a group had taken credit for the rise in swatting episodes and that it was investigating.
“It’s frustrating to see stuff like that online from a law enforcement perspective,” Chief Mills said. “It’s not something that makes a lot of sense to me. I don’t know if they don’t understand the gravity and don’t care.”
While officers checked the buildings on campus, a group of people barricaded themselves in the basement of one of them.
“Having to check room by room that everybody is out and everybody is safe is very time consuming,” Chief Mills said.
A Villanova University spokeswoman declined to comment about the two shooting reports that law enforcement officers responded to on campus, saying that the investigation was continuing. She referred questions to the Radnor Township Police Department, which was handling the investigation.
The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, which said earlier that it would pursue those responsible for swatting the campus.
The recent hoaxes shared similarities with a half-dozen fake emergencies in January 2024 that the federal authorities said they had linked to Purgatory.
In one instance, a caller had threatened to burn down a trailer park in Alabama, telling a sheriff’s office that he had shot his son and would kill any law enforcement officers who attempted to respond, according to the Justice Department.
Two days later, the authorities said, members of the group placed two calls to the police in Newark, Del., telling the police that they had overheard gunfire in a hallway at a high school and threats to kill a teacher and students.
Investigators said that they had also connected the group to bogus threats, received three days apart, to bomb a casino in Columbus, Ohio, and Albany International Airport in New York.
In May 2024, federal authorities announced the indictment of three men on a variety of charges in connection with the series of threats, including conspiracy, cyberstalking, interstate threatening communications and threats to damage or destroy by means of fire and explosives.
All three of the men — Owen Jarboe, 19 of Hagerstown, Md.; Evan Strauss, 27, of Moneta, Va.; and Brayden Grace, 19, of Columbus, Ohio — pleaded guilty this year for their role in the calls.
On Aug. 15, a federal judge in Maryland sentenced Mr. Grace to nearly three years in prison. His lawyer, David Walsh-Little, said that Mr. Grace was in custody.
“He has no connection to any recent swatting incidences and he is extremely remorseful for his previous criminal conduct,” Mr. Walsh-Little said in an email on Wednesday.
Mr. Jarboe and Mr. Strauss are awaiting sentencing.
A lawyer for Mr. Jarboe said that he had been detained continuously since April 2024 and had no involvement in the recent swatting episodes. A lawyer for Mr. Strauss declined to comment.
Mr. Hendricks, the cybercrime expert, described swatting as a gateway crime, one that he said often involves the brazen online taunting of investigators.
He said the swatters operate under the premise that “they’re never going to get caught.”
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