A juvenile is facing charges in connection with a rash of swatting calls last summer, including the one that targeted Villanova University in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
United States Attorney David Metcalf filed the charges against the suspect for swatting calls in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in August 2025, according to an announcement from his office.
The suspect in this case self-identifies as a member of the cybercriminal group called Purgatory, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The suspect randomly selected institutions to target and is not affiliated with any of them, officials said. A swatting call is a hoax call to law enforcement reporting a threat to human life, such as an active shooter, in an attempt to draw a large response from police and special weapons and tactics teams…