Pranknet

Pranknet

Pranknet logo
Founded	2000
Founding location	Ontario, Canada
Years active	2000–2011
Membership	100+
Activities	Telephoneharassmentandhoa xing,viasocial engineering;DDoS attacks

Pranknet,also known asPrank University,was an anonymousprank callingvirtual communitythat 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 tohotelsandfast food restaurantsof 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.The group has been linked to nearly 60 separate incidents.

Posing asauthority figures,such asfire alarmcompany representatives and hotel front-desk/corporate managers, Pranknet participants called unsuspecting employees and customers in theUnited Statesand tricked them into damaging property, pulling fire alarms, setting offfire 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 privatechat room.

In 2009, a wave of the pranks across the United States prompted internal alerts byChoice Hotels,as well as advisories by the Sheriff's office ofOrange County, Florida,and others.At that time, law enforcement officials from a number of jurisdictions and theFederal Bureau of Investigationbegan investigating the various incidents as well as the identity of "Dex".

Technology

Pranknet initially operated through a chat room at Pranknet.org, and participants usedSkypeto make their calls. As of 2009,Skype used encryption and obfuscation of its communication services and provided an uncontrolled registration system for users without proof of identity, making it difficult to trace and identify users.After Skype began an internal investigation, Pranknet left Skype and briefly usedPaltalkfor its chats and calls. However, Paltalk banned Pranknet after a February 2009KFCincident. After Pranknet users were banned from Paltalk, the company was subjected to multipleDDoSattacks.Beginning in 2009, members chatted before, during, and after each prank via the chat system of Beyluxe Messenger, which is owned and operated in Romania, and thus outside ofNorth America.Audiences ranged from 40 to 200 people at any given time.

Pranks that created sufficient havoc were posted onYouTube.Updates were also provided through aTwitteraccount.

Notable Pranknet incidents

In February 2009, "Dex" and a member called "Slayer" called aKFCrestaurant inManchester, New Hampshire.Posing as a manager from the corporate office, he persuaded employees to douse the building withfire suppression chemicalsand 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.When "Dex" posted the audio toYouTubehe 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 aninsurance adjuster,called the same KFC and had the victims describe their experiences while Pranknet members listened.

On February 10, "Dex" and a member called "DTA_Mike", posing as hotel front desk employees, called two separate guests at theBest Westernhotel inShillington, 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 inSantee, California.

On April 30, a Pranknet member called "Rollin in the A" called Prejean's Restaurant inLafayette, Louisianaposing as an official from the health department. This target was selected because the restaurant providedlive video streamingof its dining area on their own website. The victim at this restaurant was told that Prejean's pork was tainted with theswine 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.

On May 27, "Dex" called aHampton InninYork, Nebraska,and tricked an employee into setting off thefire 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, thefire departmentshould not be called. Instead, the caller gave various bogus instructions to turn the alarm off, including going to a website that only displayedpornography.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 hissemi-trailer truckinto the front door.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.

On June 6, 2009, a prank was made on aHoliday Inn Expresshotel inConway, Arkansas.The caller posed as a representative from the company that installed the hotel'sfire sprinklerand claimed the system needed to be reset by pulling thefire alarm.Once the alarm was turned on, the clerk was told that the sprinklers would activate unless windows were broken.The same day, the pranksters called aComfort SuitesinGadsden, Alabama,persuading a clerk to pull a fire alarm; sprinklers were subsequently activated, causing water damage.

In July, a Pranknet member called aHiltoninOrlando, Florida,and, claiming there was agas leak,convinced a family staying there to break windows with the lid for the toilet tank and throw their mattress out the window.The incident cost $5,000 in damages.

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.

On July 5, Pranknet members Powell and Markle called anArby'sinBaytown, 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.Powell was later arrested and charged with criminal mischief for the incident.

On July 20, Markle tricked a desk clerk at theHomewood SuitesinLe xing ton, Kentucky,into drinking another person'surine.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 forHepatitis C.The guest was then told there was a doctor on site and a simpleurine testcould 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 ofMartinelli'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."In its investigation,the cyber crimes division of the police department ofLufkin, Texas,requested asubpoenafor Markle's Skype activities.The police report classifies the Le xing ton incident as first-degree wantonendangerment,a Class Dfelonyin Kentucky.Markle was subsequently sentenced to ashock incarcerationterm of six months.

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.

The Smoking Gunreported that Pranknet leader "Dex" was responsible for an October 21 hoax in which he phonedESPNreporterElizabeth Moreau,tricking her into breaking windows in her room at the Hilton Garden Inn inGainesville, 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.As a result of the hoax, a Gainesville Police detective was assigned to the case.

In November 2010, an elderly man staying at aMotel 6inSpartanburg, 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.The man, told that there was a "midget" 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.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.The pranksters called back on March 11, 2011, persuading a guest to "disable" asprinkler headby smashing it with a toilet lid to prevent a 'toxic gas' from entering the room.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"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.

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 "H1N1flu 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 astool samplein 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.

On January 9, 2011, a Holiday Inn inOmaha, 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.

Phone and computer hijacking

Beginning in July 2009, "Dex" began hijackingphone numbersof U.S. businesses and had them forwarded to his Skype account. Claiming to be an authority from a particular business, he calls a phone company and claims they have no dial tone. He then requests that all calls be forwarded to the number he provides.

On July 7, "Dex" took over incoming calls of the Olympic Game Farm inPort Angeles, Washington,making obscene sexual comments to customers who called. On July 11, he repeated the stunt with the Fun 4 All amusement park inChula Vista, California.On July 13 he took over incoming calls to a Best Western inJacksonville, Floridafor over 12 hours. In one interaction, a woman called to find out if her husband had arrived and was told first that he had been in an accident, and then that he was having sex with a man in his room and did not wish to be disturbed. On July 15, "Dex" controlled incoming calls to aHilton Garden InninTulsa, Oklahoma.He told people inquiring about a shuttle to take a cab and they'd be reimbursed. He told some callers the hotel had a swine flu outbreak and told other callers the hotel was in the midst of ahostage situation.

Talking hotel front desk clerks through a series of steps usingTeamViewer,"Dex" has posed as a corporate headquartersITsupervisor and taken remote control of hotel computers.

Craigslist abuse

Pranknet members frequently placedCraigslistads offering free tickets or items. Inquirers were bombarded with obscene sexual rants and racial epithets. A 12-year-old girl called about a free trampoline, and "Dex" told her not to get pregnant by a black man because "they haveAIDS".Markle frequently called women who were selling household items on the site, and after getting the home addresses of victims, told them he was on his way over to rape them and kill their children.

Smoking Gun investigation

"Dex" and other Pranknet members had regularly taunted victims and others, saying they were untraceable.In an interview withThe Smoking Gunon June 17, 2009, "Dex" exhibited no worries about being tracked down or caught. In a July co-interview with Markle, he boasted: "It's too difficult to find me. I'm a ghost on the Internet. I do pretty much everything I can to keep anything out of my computer that would lead it back to my actual computer. I'm not a stupid individual, like I said."

In June 2009, The Smoking Gun launched an investigation that lasted nearly two months and included travel toWindsor, Ontarioand astakeoutoutside Malik's mother's home. Smoking Gun editorWilliam Bastoneemailed "Dex", and during a Skype interview providedURLson the Smoking Gun website. The URLs were unique; when Malik viewed them, it revealed hisIP addressand location.The names, biographies and locations of Pranknet's founder "Dex" and a number of prolific members, and their other findings, were published on their website and provided to the FBI in August 2009.A 2016 article by theBBCnoted Bastone's outing of Pranknet's members and also referred to Pranknet as "long gone".

Members

"Tyler Markle" redirects here. For the nephew of the Duchess of Sussex, seeFamily of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex § Tyler Dooley.

According to crime reporting website The Smoking Gun, key members included:

• Tariq Malik, also known as Pranknet leader "Dex" (a tribute to the characterDexter Morgan,a fictionalserial killer).In an interview withThe Globe and Mail,"Dex" denied he was Malik (but confirmed he is Canadian).
• William Marquis, Pranknet's "second in command".Known as Hempster, Marquis was previously convicted in 2004 fordrunk drivingand in 2005 formarijuanaproduction.CBC Newsattempted to interview Marquis regarding the Pranknet allegations. However, he did not answer his door.
• James "Tyler" Markle, one of the group's most prolific callers. Markle was already aperson of interestin a Lufkin Police investigation involving a phone call to a localMcDonald's,and was arrested for this subsequently.The Smoking Gun had based the claim upon information from old MySpace and Facebook pages, and people from the area who identified Markle in photos.The Smoking Gun also published official documents showing that Markle pleaded guilty to aggravatedsexual assaultof a child in 2005, serving two years in a juvenile detention facility for having sex with a 5-year-old girl and then threatening to kill her if she told anyone about the incident.In an interview withThe Lufkin Daily News,Markle denied that the person described on TSG was him, claiming instead it was another person called the Samoan Prankster.He was charged with felonies in two separate states: for making a felony terroristic threat in the Lufkin McDonald's case and for terrorizing and criminal damage (both felonies) in a separate incident involving a Wendy's restaurant inGretna, Louisiana.He was later extradited to Louisiana as a result of the charges filed in the Gretna incident.In December 2010, Markle was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in Texas for the prank call to the Lufkin McDonald's.
• Shawn Powell, previously imprisoned forindecency with a minor(for taking nude photos of an 8-year-old female relative), a felony that put him in custody for 13 months. He specialized in racist and threatening calls.He was charged withcriminal mischieffor his part in a hoax call to the Baytown Arby's restaurant, resulting in the fire suppression system being activated and resulting in $1,350 worth of damage.
• LeeAnn Jordan, who had used herPayPalaccount to receive international money transfers and to pay for Paltalk.

A former member, Jericho Batsford, left the group in 2009 after the incident inConway, Arkansas,and contacted local FBI agents.She told them she knew Dex's identity to be that of Malikand that he was responsible for many incidents.In response to her defection, Pranknet members have constantly harassed her home and her workplace via Skype and Beyluxe. Malik told members to be patient, that she would not answer the phone and let them get to her, and to instead "get her later on down the road, when she least expects it."Batsford had participated in some phone pranks, but left when she witnessed members encouraging children to make bomb threats.

Officials in at least four U.S. States and six U.S. cities stated that they were considering charges against "Dex" and his possibleextraditionfromCanadato face trial.

External links

• Details, incident report and photos of the Conway, Arkansas incident
• Incident report of a Comfort Suites incident
• Orange County Sheriff Bulletin regarding pranks