Rainbow Six Siege Gamer Who Was Banned 80 Times Gets Off Easy For Swatting Ubisoft
On November 13th, 2020, Yanni Ouahioune, otherwise known as Y4nnOXX, called in a hoax hostage situation at the Ubisoft Montreal offices. He claimed that there were 40 Ubisoft employee hostages held by five captors demanding a ransom of 2 million, and if authorities did not meet this demand, the building would be blown up. This call seemingly came from Ubisoft’s general number thanks to a technique called spoofing used by Ouahioune. Therefore, this led to a response from armed police, who had to clear the entire office while slowly releasing Ubisoft employees to ensure their safety.
This event reportedly affected 400 employees who had to be escorted out of the building to waiting buses and social workers to help deal with the situation. This cost Ubisoft “$1.7 million CAD in lost productivity, plus $15,000 in psychological support services and $40,000 in property damage, according to the denunciation seen by La Presse.”
The swatting allegedly occurred because Ouahioune had become distraught over being banned approximately 80 times from Rainbow Six Siege. However, Ouahioune has a history of threats and similar crimes, pleading guilty to threats against Minecraft developer Mojang and DDoSing a French government office.
Just under three years later, Ouahioune has been sentenced to three years of community service for these crimes, per a report from the Montreal Gazette. In service of the sentence, he will be required to “compensate victims, undergo treatment for a mental health problem and either work or undergo training.” At the end of the day, given the severity of the crimes and the potential outcomes from them, we are surprised to see this sentence especially considering Ouahioune's track record. However, hopefully this will be an opportunity for him to grow and truly see how heinous swatting actually is.
