Quote:
Pranknet, also known as Prank University,[1] was an anonymous prank calling virtual community that was involved in a string of malicious pranks and instances of telephone harassment, especially during 2009–2011. Their pranks were coordinated through an online chat room, and convinced others to cause damage to hotels and fast food restaurants of more than $60,000. The group was founded by a man who later referred to himself as "Dex1x1", later identified as a Canadian named Tariq Malik.[2][3][4] The group has been linked to nearly 60 separate incidents.[5]
Posing as authority figures, such as fire alarm company representatives and hotel front-desk/corporate managers, Pranknet participants called unsuspecting employees and customers in the United States and tricked them into damaging property, pulling fire alarms, setting off fire sprinklers, breaking out windows, and humiliating acts such as disrobing and the consumption of human urine. Pranknet members could listen in real-time and discuss the progress together in a private chat room.[6]
In 2009, a wave of the pranks across the United States prompted internal alerts by Choice Hotels, as well as advisories by the Sheriff's office of Orange County, Florida, and others.[7] At that time, law enforcement officials from a number of jurisdictions and the Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating the various incidents as well as the identity of "Dex".[4][5]
Quote:
In February 2009, "Dex" and a member called "Slayer" called a KFC restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire. Posing as a manager from the corporate office, he persuaded employees to douse the building with fire suppression chemicals and to then proceed outside, remove all of their clothing and urinate on each other. He claimed the chemicals were caustic and this would render them inert.[10] When "Dex" posted the audio to YouTube he described it as "Epic KFC Prank Call (greatest ever)...dex successfully convinces the 3 female employees to undress fully nude outside and urinate on each other." Many months later "Dex", posing this time as an insurance adjuster, called the same KFC and had the victims describe their experiences while Pranknet members listened.[6]
On February 10, "Dex" and a member called "DTA_Mike", posing as hotel front desk employees, called two separate guests at the Best Western hotel in Shillington, Pennsylvania. Using the pretense of a ruptured gas line, the caller persuaded each guest to break a window and then throw the television out. "Dex" and his friend repeated the same stunt on February 19 with a Best Western in Santee, California.[6]
On April 30, a Pranknet member called "Rollin in the A" called Prejean's Restaurant in Lafayette, Louisiana posing as an official from the health department. This target was selected because the restaurant provided live video streaming of its dining area on their own website. The victim at this restaurant was told that Prejean's pork was tainted with the swine flu. "Rollin in the A" also told the manager to close the restaurant immediately and tell the customers (75 of them) that they may have eaten tainted food.[6]
On May 27, "Dex" called a Hampton Inn in York, Nebraska, and tricked an employee into setting off the fire alarm. As guests made their way to the lobby, a second call was placed to the front desk. "Dex" claimed that, to avoid alleged fines, the fire department should not be called. Instead, the caller gave various bogus instructions to turn the alarm off, including going to a website that only displayed pornography. The next suggestion from the caller was to break the front windows of the hotel. A truck driver staying at the hotel volunteered, and under direction from "Dex", the man drove his semi-trailer truck into the front door.[11] Later that night, "Dex" tweeted: "I just pulled off the most epic prank. I had a hotel guest back his truck into the hotel front window (in the lobby), and break the window." The post was deleted in late July.[10]
On June 6, 2009, a prank was made on a Holiday Inn Express hotel in Conway, Arkansas. The caller posed as a representative from the company that installed the hotel's fire sprinkler and claimed the system needed to be reset by pulling the fire alarm. Once the alarm was turned on, the clerk was told that the sprinklers would activate unless windows were broken.[12] The same day, the pranksters called a Comfort Suites in Gadsden, Alabama, persuading a clerk to pull a fire alarm; sprinklers were subsequently activated, causing water damage.[13]
In July, a Pranknet member called a Hilton in Orlando, Florida, and, claiming there was a gas leak, convinced a family staying there to break windows with the lid for the toilet tank and throw their mattress out the window.[14] The incident cost $5,000 in damages.[10]
Also in July, a Pranknet caller informed two hotel guests that deadly spiders were about to infest their room. The caller was able to manipulate the couple into breaking their window with the tank lid from their toilet.[10]
On July 5, Pranknet members Powell and Markle called an Arby's in Baytown, Texas (where Powell lives) and talked a worker there into triggering the fire suppression system, causing an estimated $4,600 in damages. Powell failed in his attempts to get any windows broken.[6] Powell was later arrested and charged with criminal mischief for the incident.[15]
On July 20, Markle tricked a desk clerk at the Homewood Suites in Lexington, Kentucky, into drinking another person's urine. The prank started with a call to a guest. The guest was told it was the front desk calling and that a prior guest had tested positive for Hepatitis C. The guest was then told there was a doctor on site and a simple urine test could determine if the guest was infected. The urine was to be brought to the front desk in a simple drinking glass. Switching roles, Markle then called the front desk alleging to be an employee of Martinelli's Cider. He told the clerk that a representative from the company would like to come downstairs with a sample of their new drink. The guest from the previous call then arrived and handed the clerk his urine. Markle then coaxed the woman to try it. He asked how it tasted. "Horrible", she said. "That does not taste like cider. I'm not going to take another sip, that's horrible." Markle replied: "Well, I need to inform you of something, ma'am. I want you to understand that you just drank that man's urine."[6] In its investigation,[clarification needed] the cyber crimes division of the police department of Lufkin, Texas, requested a subpoena for Markle's Skype activities.[16] The police report classifies the Lexington incident as first-degree wanton endangerment, a Class D felony in Kentucky.[17] Markle was subsequently sentenced to a shock incarceration term of six months.[18]
Additionally, an employee at a Holiday Inn Express was persuaded by a Pranknet caller to set off a fire alarm, break windows, and set off sprinklers which flooded the building. Damages were estimated at $50,000.[9]
The Smoking Gun reported that Pranknet leader "Dex" was responsible for an October 21 hoax in which he phoned ESPN reporter Elizabeth Moreau, tricking her into breaking windows in her room at the Hilton Garden Inn in Gainesville, Florida. He then initiated a conference call with a front desk employee at the hotel, where he then claimed he was Moreau's boyfriend and that the damage was a result of them fighting, as well as making a number of vulgar statements.[19] As a result of the hoax, a Gainesville Police detective was assigned to the case.[19]
In November 2010, an elderly man staying at a Motel 6 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, was tricked by a Pranknet member posing as a hotel administrator into destroying his television set and smashing mirrors in his room with a wrench to destroy hidden cameras supposedly left by a previous guest.[1] The man, told that there was a "m***et" trapped in an adjoining room, was then tricked into destroying a sheetrock wall behind his room door, almost making his way through to the next room.[1] As one of the prankster's returned calls was heard by police and other guests who received prank calls soon called the front desk, the hotel did not hold the man accountable for the damages, but did ask him to leave.[1] The pranksters called back on March 11, 2011, persuading a guest to "disable" a sprinkler head by smashing it with a toilet lid to prevent a 'toxic gas' from entering the room.[20] According to TSG, "Motel 6 is a preferred target because Pranknet members can call directly into rooms without having to know a guest's name"[1] As of November 1, 2011, this is no longer possible. After police arrived to answer a 911 call placed by the motel manager, they declined to press charges against the victim but noted that other similar phone calls had been received at the motel.[1]
On December 5, 2010, two Pranknet members identified by The Smoking Gun collaborated to humiliate an Iraq War veteran, 22, at a Motel 6 in Amarillo, Texas. One, posing as the hotel receptionist, informed him that the prior occupant of his room had been diagnosed with "H1N1 flu virus", and transferred him to the other, posing as a physician, who over the course of half an hour directed him to induce vomiting, then to consume some of his own urine to "kill the incubation period", and finally to collect a stool sample in a pillowcase, which he was to bring to the front desk. A prankster then called the hotel's actual front desk, identifying himself by the guest's full name and claiming to be so angry with the service that he would leave a pillowcase full of feces at the front desk. The receptionist locked the door and called police, so the veteran returned to his room, where his conversation with police officers the receptionist had summoned became audible to the pranksters' followers. They finished by calling other visitors at the hotel describing aspects of the prank until the police were called again half an hour later. With voice electronically altered and posing as the mother of a boy making prank calls, one of the pranksters managed to convince police to put the victim back on the phone, who unknowingly recounted his experience to the pranksters.[21]
On January 9, 2011, a Holiday Inn in Omaha, Nebraska, was targeted. Taking advantage of the ability to call guests of the hotel directly, the prankster pretended to be a Fire Department employee reading instructions from a computer checklist to prevent an explosion from a gas leak. These instructions included to "break the red glass vial in the sprinkler", leading to $115,000 in water damage in seven guest rooms and a conference room. The guest was also persuaded to rip a mirror from his wall to find the (non-existent) shutoff valve.[22]
24 Sep 2023, 5:46 pm
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.
