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Members of the group offered on Telegram to draw armed officers to schools, malls and airports, though their claims are unverified. Such false emergency calls have disrupted campus life in recent days.
Aug. 30, 2025, 12:19 p.m. ET
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.
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