Swatting is one of the most horrible forms of bullying and harassment techniques on the Internet. It's hazardous and shouldn't be used by anyone under any circumstances because it can lead to death. Ned Luke, aka Michael De Santa from Grand Theft Auto 5, got swatted recently, but thankfully, he's completely fine. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time this has happened to him.
Swatting involves illegally calling the authorities under false, horrible pretenses, forcing SWAT teams to be sent and deployed to assess and deal with the situation. Some cases are dealt with peacefully, while others end in death for the people who have been "swatted."
Ten years ago, in 2013, many celebrities found themselves in Ned Luke's situation. A-list names like Tom Cruise, Justin Bieber, the Kardashians, Chris Brown, Ashton Kutcher, Miley Cyrus, and even Clint Eastwood have been swatted, according to NBC News.
The day after it happened to the GTA 5 actor on November 23, 2023, during a live stream where he was actually playing Grand Theft Auto V, he took to X/Twitter to share that he is completely fine.
However, the most concerning thing about what he wrote was that this wasn't the first time this had happened to him and his family. It's actually the sixth. Only in this case, the people responsible for the swatting sent over the fire department.
The big head-scratcher in all this comes from part of the comment section blaming Rockstar for the event due to lack of proper security measures. Ned Luke completely disagreed: "My private information was NOT attained from my livestream or GTA Online. It was leaked years ago... RockstarGames is NOT to blame."
Photo: Ned Luke
He then continues to say that if this was the case, Rockstar would have heard from him and vice versa, while the gaming publisher's "army of lawyers" would be on top of things.
There's still a conflict of opinion here that seemingly won't go away very soon. Some X users have posted images about how allegedly easy it is to find out people's information from GTA servers in a mod menu.
According to the image, this would provide information about where you live, like your country, city, and ZIP code, but also your exact geographical location and ISP (Internet Service Provider).
Aside from this regrettable and reprehensible incident, Ned Luke said, "Get ready for six" because when the time is right and it hits, "it's gonna be epic."
He and Franklin actor Shawn Fonteno have recently been unusually active with their Internet presence on podcasts and other sketch shows. If they know anything at all about the upcoming Grand Theft Auto, they didn't let one clue slip by.
The truth is that they don't need to tell us anything at all. In two or three weeks, we will witness history being made with the first trailer for GTA "6."
Codrin just loves American classics, from the 1940s and ‘50s, all the way to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. In his perfect world, we'll still see Hudsons and Road Runners roaming the streets for years to come (even in EV form, if that's what it takes to keep the aesthetic alive). Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News