IRL Com recruits teens for real-life stabbings, shootings • The Register
A subset of an online group that recruits children and teens for contract shootings, kidnappings, and other real-life violent crimes poses a growing threat to youth, according to the FBI.
In a Wednesday alert, the federal cops warned that In Real Life (IRL) Com, a subset of the underground cybercrime crew The Com offering swat-for-hire and violence-as-a-service, has become increasingly brazen in its real-life violent crime.
The FBI’s alert follows a similar warning from the UK National Crime Agency about a “deeply concerning” trend of The Com recruiting teenage boys to commit a range of criminal acts, from cyber fraud and ransomware to child sexual abuse.
The Com is a loosely knit band of primarily English-speaking miscreants whose members span the globe. It’s made up of several interconnected networks of hackers, SIM swappers, and extortionists including Scattered Spider, which security researchers and law enforcement count as one of The Com’s subgroups.
Many of The Com’s members are minors, primarily teenage boys. The members of the IRL Com subset “typically have a shared interest, ideology, or goal and work together, adding others to the group and splintering when necessary, to achieve their mission,” the FBI noted.
Their criminal acts extend beyond the digital realm, and they post prices online to conduct real-world criminal services including shootings, kidnappings, armed robbery, stabbings, physical assault, and bricking. Groups offering violence-as-a-service solicit individuals via social media and messaging apps, in some cases recruiting very young members and then blackmailing them into committing serious crimes.
Finnish police in May warned people about The Com luring and manipulating children and young people into using “extreme violence against themselves and others.”
Last month, seven people, including a 14-year-old, were arrested or surrendered to Danish authorities after allegedly using encrypted messaging apps to hire other teenagers for contract killings in one of these violence-as-a-service operations.
The FBI’s security bulletin specifically calls out IRL Com subgroups that offer swat-for-hire services. Swatting involves hoaxers falsely reporting shootings at someone’s residence or calling in bomb threats to trigger massive armed police responses at the victims’ homes.
While various subgroups of The Com use swatting to achieve different goals — sometimes it’s the result of infighting among members — IRL Com groups use swatting to earn money, gain credibility, and keep members in line, according to the feds.
“The more attention a swatting incident gets, the more attention the member receives from the group,” the FBI says. “Additionally, leaders from IRL Com groups may use swatting to ensure members of the group remain obedient. When members of the IRL Com group disobey orders or refuse to comply with demands, the member or the member’s family may become the target of swatting.”
The FBI alert also follows a joint investigation conducted alongside UK cops that resulted in arrests of three young Brits accused of active-shooter-threat swatting calls in the US and Canada between October 2022 and April 2023. ®
