• An 18-year-old from California was sentenced to four years in prison for making over 375 swatting calls across the US
• Alan W. Filion, operating under the name "Torswats," targeted religious institutions, schools and individuals, often charging a fee for his services
• Swatting, the act of making false emergency calls to elicit a large police response, has become a growing concern nationwide, particularly in Florida

A California teenager who pleaded guilty to four federal charges of making interstate threats to injure the person of another — also called "swatting" — which included making a false police report about committing a mass shooting at a Seminole County mosque and calling in a bomb threat to a Florida university last year was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.

Alan W. Filion, 18, of Lancaster, California, made more than 375 swatting and threat calls around the country, according to a Justice Department release. Filion was 16 when he made most of the calls, the report said, and while he started for fun he turned it into a business, swatting for hire.

"Filion intended his calls to cause large-scale deployment of police and emergency services units to the targeted locations," the Justice Department said, pointing out that he targeted religious institutions, high schools, colleges and universities, government officials, and numerous individuals.

"During these calls, he provided information to law enforcement and emergency services agencies that he knew to be...

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