He’s not the hero we need or deserve, but it seems a vigilante teenager has started disconnecting users from PSN for “disrespecting” him.
This unusual incident was reported by Reddit user DowntownReaper, who alleges that he and a group of friends had an online run in with a PSN user by the name of SpangeBaab. The encounter apparently ended with SpangeBaab disconnecting Reaper’s friends from their party chat while playing Destiny 2.
DowntownReaper explained the situation:
So today a group of friends of mine were DDOS by a gamer known as Decaf Gamer ( youtube account) SpangeBaab ( PSN account, he has several accounts) . He joined our party today and made random noise until we kicked him out of the party. he then returned to the party and had a confrontation with the party host. saying ” you like kicking people from parties” ” I’m going to disconnect you now”. host kicked him again then the event occurred he Disconnected one friend ( breakid psn) then joined and bragged about the disconnect.
Obviously, if SpangeBaab really did manage to disconnect a user from PSN, that’s something that should not be able to happen, and raises some pretty serious questions. It’s especially damning for SpangeBaab, given that his account profile allegedly has a message that reads “DISRESPECT=DISCONNECT.”
Reaper goes on to claim that SpangeBaab then disconnected the rest of his friends, leaving the two of them alone.
He said that after the incident, he reported the rogue disconnector:
I sent reports through PSN but i feel as if i couldn’t fully give them the entire story. Hopefully they are able to do a full investigation. This is a teenage kid that is causing damages and conducting a highly illegal act. the only really evidence i have is his account profile that states ” DISRESPECT=DISCONNECT” he purely brags about it in his account. something PLS tell me PSN can investigate this event further than just reading my post. this kid is conducting a crime and must be confronted and reprimanded.
It looks like SpangeBaab also has a YouTube channel called” Decaffeinated_Gamer, though his videos are basically a mix of random PS4 clips, none of which boast more than a few dozen views each.
Another Reddit user (Nicologogixs), claims to have discovered SpangeBaab’s Facebook profile, identifying him as a “skinny 15 year old kid”. It seems his parents were swiftly notified of their son’s crimes by Nicologogixs.
Nicologogixs wrote:
Lol looked at his channel, he has videos of himself and he’s a skinny script kid, looks about 15. Going off this I managed to find his Facebook profile and his parents profile, messaged them he is doing illegal stuff that is going to get him in trouble that they will need to end up dealing with or the police will become involved in the matter wonder if that will scare them to do anything about their douche child.
It’s not entirely clear how SpangeBaab disconnected Reaper and his friends (if indeed he did), but the general consensus seems to be that he managed to get hold of their IP addresses to carry out a good old fashioned DDOS.
The moral of this story, if there is one at all I guess, is that we should be careful who we invite to play with us online. Who knows how many angry 15 years olds are out there on PSN?
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.