Prank Call Program
Pranknet logo Founded 2000 Founding location Ontario, Canada Years active unknown Membership 100+ Criminal activities Telephone and, via; Pranknet, also known as Prank University, is an infamous Canadian-based anonymous responsible for damage to and of more than $60,000 as well as multiple instances of telephone harassment. It was founded by a man who later referred to himself as 'Dex1x1' (alleged to be a Canadian man named Tariq Malik ). The group has been linked to nearly 60 separate incidents. Posing as, such as company representatives and hotel front-desk/corporate managers, Pranknet participants called unsuspecting employees and customers in the and tricked them into damaging property, setting off, breaking out windows, and other humiliating acts such as disrobing and consumption of human urine. Pranknet members can listen in real-time and discuss the progress together in a private. In 2009, a wave of the pranks across the United States prompted internal alerts by, as well as advisories by the Sheriff's office, and others. At that time, law enforcement officials from a number of jurisdictions and the began investigating the various incidents as well as the identity of 'Dex'.
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- How to Make a Prank Call. If you're bored and want to annoy a stranger, a friend or even a business owner, then making a prank call may be just the activity you're.
- Do you have King Albert in a can? Today the standard for the prank or crank call. Such as MorphVOX a voice changing program from Screaming Bee.
Contents. Technology Pranknet participants initially used to make their calls. As of 2009, Skype 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 used for its chats.
However, Paltalk banned Pranknet after a February 2009 incident. After Pranknet users were banned from Paltalk, the company was subjected to multiple attacks. Beginning in 2009, members chatted before, during, and after each prank via Beyluxe Messenger, which is owned and operated outside. Audiences range from 40 to 200 people at any given time.
Pranks that created sufficient havoc were posted on. Updates were also provided through a account.
Notable Pranknet incidents In February 2009, 'Dex' called a KFC restaurant in. Posing as a manager from the corporate office, he persuaded employees to douse the building with 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. When 'Dex' posted the audio to 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 called the same KFC and had the victims describe their experiences while Pranknet members listened. On February 10, 'Dex' and a member called 'DTAMike', posing as hotel front desk employees, called two separate guests at the in. 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. On April 30, a Pranknet member named 'Rollin in the A' called Prejean's Restaurant in posing as an official from the health department.
This target was selected because the restaurant provided of its dining area on their own website. The victim at this restaurant was told that Prejean’s pork was tainted with the. '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 a in and tricked an employee into setting off the. 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 should not be called. Instead, the caller gave various bogus instructions to turn the alarm off, including going to a website that only displayed. 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 into the front door. Later that night, 'Dex': '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 a in. The caller posed as a representative from the company that installed the hotel’s and claimed the system needed to be reset by pulling the. 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 a in, persuading a clerk to pull a fire alarm; sprinklers were subsequently activated causing water damage. In July, a Pranknet member called a in and, purporting there to be a, 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 an in Baytown (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 the in into drinking another person’s. 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. The guest was then told there was a doctor on site and a simple 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. 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.
Prank Call Program
'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 Lufkin Police Department's cyber crimes division requested a for Markle's Skype activities. The police report classifies the Lexington incident as first-degree wanton, a Class D in Kentucky.
Markle was subsequently sentenced to a term 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 Gun reported that Pranknet leader 'Dex' was responsible for an October 21 hoax in which he phoned reporter, tricking her into breaking windows in her room at the Hilton Garden Inn in. 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 a in 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' a by 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 ' 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 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. On January 9, 2011, a Holiday Inn in 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 (nonexistent) shutoff valve.
Phone and computer hijacking Beginning in July 2009, 'Dex' began hijacking of 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 in making obscene sexual comments to customers who called. On July 11, he repeated the stunt with the Fun 4 All amusement park in. On July 13 he took over incoming calls to a Best Western in for 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 a in. 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 a. Talking hotel front desk clerks through a series of steps using, 'Dex' has posed as a corporate headquarters supervisor and taken remote control of hotel computers.
Craigslist abuse Pranknet members frequently place ads offering free tickets or items. Inquirers are 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 have '. Markle frequently calls women who are selling household items on the site. After getting the victim’s home address, he then tells her he is on his way over to rape her and kill her children. Smoking Gun investigation 'Dex' and other Pranknet members had regularly taunted victims and others, saying they were untraceable. In an interview with on 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 to and a outside Malik’s mother’s home.
Smoking Gun editor emailed 'Dex', and during a Skype interview provided on the Smoking Gun website. The URLs were unique; when Malik viewed them, it revealed his and 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. Members According to crime reporting website The Smoking Gun, key members included:. Tariq Malik, also known as Pranknet leader 'Dex' (a tribute to the character, a fictional ). In an interview with The 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 for and in 2005 for production. Attempted to interview Marquis regarding the Pranknet allegations. However, he did not answer his door.
James Markle, one of the group's most prolific callers. Markle was already a in a Lufkin Police investigation involving a phone call to a local, 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 aggravated of 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 with The 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 in. 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 for (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 with for 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.
A former member, Jericho Batsford, left the group in 2009 after the incident, and contacted local FBI agents. She told them she knew Dex's identity to be that of Malik and 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 under the age of 18 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 possible from to face trial. See also. References. 23 November 2010. Retrieved 23 November 2010. The Smoking Gun.
August 4, 2010. Retrieved 25 March 2013. ^ Lamb, Joe (June 12, 2009), The Log Cabin Democrat. ^ Hoyland, Christa (July 14, 2009), QSRweb. ^, CBC News, August 6, 2009, archived from on August 9, 2009.
^, The Smoking Gun, August 4, 2009. Leyden, John (August 10, 2009), The Register. Philippe BIONDI; Fabrice DESCLAUX, (PDF), blackhat, retrieved 2009-08-09. ^ Leonard, Tom (July 15, 2009), The Telegraph. ^ Abrams, Joseph (July 14, 2009), Fox News. ^ Wilkinson, Melanie (August 5, 2009), archived from on August 9, 2009.
Dickerson, Rachel Parker (August 7, 2009), KATV, archived from on August 10, 2009. The Smoking Gun. Beitsch, Rebecca; Edwards, Amy L.
(July 9, 2009), Orlando Sentinel. ^, The Smoking Gun, August 26, 2009. Cook, Ashley (August 7, 2009), Lufkin Daily News, archived from on August 10, 2009.
Ulber, Emily (August 7, 2009), Lexington Herald-Leader. The Smoking Gun. ^ staff (25 October 2010). Retrieved 28 October 2010.
The Smoking Gun. The Smoking Gun. The Smoking Gun. Chen, Dalson (August 4, 2009), 'Ontario man leader of notorious U.S.
Pranksters, website claims', The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 14 February 2011. ^ Verma, Sonya (August 8, 2009), The Globe and Mail. ^ Cook, Ashley (August 6, 2009), Lufkin Daily News, archived from on August 10, 2009., KTRE (Lufkin), September 9, 2009. Phillips, Christel (August 7, 2009), KTRE., The Smoking Gun, August 6, 2009., The Smoking Gun, September 9, 2009.
Phillips, Christel (September 24, 2009), KTRE (Lufkin)., The Smoking Gun, December 2, 2010 External links.
Contents. Anonymity Prank callers can now be easily found through, so it is often asserted that since the 1990s, prank calls have been harder to accomplish and thus waning in popularity. Most telephone companies permit callers to withhold the identifying information from calls using the that blocks the caller's ID (141 in the UK), but potential victims may be reluctant to answer a call from an ID-blocked number. By several governments have also helped made prank calls easier to trace. Callers can also call from in order to hide their identity, although this is becoming less common as pay phones are beginning to phase out starting in the late 2000s. The advent and advancements in digital switching technologies such as those found in, unspoofable, as well as outbound and inbound calls being logged at equipment, further complicate the pranksters will to remain anonymous while carrying out such activities.
Another increasingly popular option is to use some form of. With some VoIP services, the telephone number will simply not exist. These calls are extremely difficult to trace since they may pass through servers and routers operated by multiple corporations or entities in various countries. Although law enforcement agencies may theoretically be able to find where a call originates from if they tried, in practice the amount of time, effort, and resources required would be too great to use on ordinary prank calls.
Political leaders Sometimes prank callers are able to connect with political leaders. In December 2005, when a commercially operated radio station in Spain ( – owned by a series of institutions affiliated with the Catholic Church) played a prank on Bolivian president-elect. The hoaxster pretended to be Spanish Prime Minister, congratulating Morales on his election and saying things like, 'I imagine the only one not to have called you was George Bush. I've been here two years and he still hasn't called me'. Prank calls and the Internet Ever since the opportunity has been available, there have been multiple internet radio stations dedicated to prank calls. Most of them feature a so-called 'rotation' of prank calls, which is a constant broadcast of various prank calls submitted by the community, usually streamed from a server host.
Software such as has allowed prank calls to be carried out to a more private user-base, however, in real-time. The internet has allowed many people to share their own personal prank calls and develop into communities. Prank calls can be carried out in many ways; live or pre-recorded. Sites such as and allow hosts to carry out prank calls live to thousands of listeners, who can also chat and discuss on-goings in real-time. The use of and the popularity of also allows these prank calls to spread and popularity to grow.
For example, the popular internet series 'PrankCallsX' features pre-recorded prank calls to fan-suggested businesses and the website allows users to send pre-recorded pranks to any number they want. Legal issues Some prank calls are criminalized in many jurisdictions, for instance if the call involves calling the emergency services, while others may be protected as. For example, in the US, for a prank call to fall afoul of the Telecommunications Act, the call must be done with the intent to 'annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass'. In Australia, the 2Day FM incident is alleged by ACMA to have violated Australian law, but on the grounds that the recorded call was publicly broadcast without the other party's consent. Rudimentary criminal 'pranks' may range from simple to. One such hoax call occurred in, Western Australia, on New Year's Eve 2002, when a drunk teenager called the new anti-terrorist hot line to report a bomb threat against the New Year's Eve fireworks celebrations. The threat was taken seriously, and the celebrations were about to be cancelled when police discovered that no such threat existed.
The teenager was then arrested for the false report. More elaborate pranks rely on tricking the recipient into harmful behavior. An example of these was the 1996-2004, in which a prankster posing as a police officer was able to cause store managers to female employees. More recently, the has been credited for causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage to many hotels and.
Posing as, such as company representatives and hotel corporate managers, Pranknet participants called unsuspecting employees and customers in the United States via and tricked them into damaging property, setting off and other humiliating acts such as disrobing. They also post fraudulent ads on, and then shout racial epithets and make violent threats of rape and murder against the people who call them to respond to the ads. Pranknet members listen in real-time and discuss the progress together in a private.
The group, who flaunted their anonymity, were outed when editors of, posing as journalists, persuaded them to visit unique URLs. A series of prank calls by Joseph Sherer led to convictions and a twenty-year prison sentence for impersonating a physician, criminal endangerment, and. In one call, as described by the, 'Sherer, impersonating a sympathetic and caring doctor, instructed the victim to cut off her nipple. The victim's obedient actions flowed directly from Sherer's instructions.'
Until his death in 2011, Oklahoma construction worker Frank Garrett was prank called and recorded countless times for his vitriolic reactions. The community that followed him caused at least three known incidents with the law: two in and a third in; both were for threats of violence against residents and the police with his name being used in the process.
Both incidents were covered by local stations. Main article: In 2012, Jacintha Saldanha, a nurse at who was attending a pregnant, was deceived into transferring a prank call from and, the hosts of the radio program broadcast on in Sydney, Australia, who were impersonating and.
The hoaxsters were able to ask the duty nurse questions about the duchess' health, making the answers public. Saldanha was later found dead in a suspected suicide. The incident and the following death received intense media coverage and triggered an investigation, but no charges were laid. Popular culture Prank calls frequently appear in many earlier episodes of, as calls asking for people whose names are actually double entendres. Examples include 'Mike Rotch' (my crotch), 'Bea O'Problem' ( problem), 'Al Coholic' (alcoholic), 'Amanda Hugginkiss' (a man to hug and kiss), and 'Anita Bath' (I need a bath). Then asks his clientele if the person is present, embarrassing himself in the process.
However, in the episode ', Bart's prank call backfires when he calls up asking for a 'Hugh Jass' (huge ass), only for a man with the same name to answer. And in ', accidentally calls Moe asking for his business partner, 'Yuri Nator' (urinator). 's song ' (a parody of ' by ) deals with prank phone calls. Specifically, it talks about the 'Is your refrigerator running?' Gag and the 'Do you have Prince Albert in a can?'
It also incorporates Bart Simpson's aforementioned 'Mike Rotch' prank phone call. On an episode of, the mischievous Randy makes a prank call (the classic 'Is your refrigerator running?
Then you better catch it!' Gag) and talks Pee-Wee into doing so also. The recipient of the call is irritated and gets her husband on the phone, who happens to be a police officer. The officer sternly warns Pee-Wee that making prank calls is against the law and that it can result in going to jail and a lifetime criminal record.
The series featured an episode centered around prank calls in its first season, entitled 'Prank Callers'. Inspired by watching online videos of the 'world's best prank caller', the show's protagonists, Mordecai and Rigby, attempt to make several prank calls of their own. After the two fail to prank the world's best prank caller, they are sent back in time to 1982, and are later joined by the rest of the show's main cast. The episode then focuses on the group's efforts to return to their proper time period.
In John Carpenter's spooky thriller, during the scene when appears before Lynda while disguising himself as her boyfriend, Bob, in a ghost costume, and she teases him before calling Laurie, during which Michael strangles her, Laurie thinks it's just Annie making another prank call. Prank calls are common in morning radio talk shows with a comedy theme, radio broadcasts a Carmen Prank Call will occur, where 'Carmen' calls random people and annoys them to the point of them hanging up, irritated, once, and after a second call, twice.
Prank calls are generally done for the amusement of the pranksters (and their listening audiences). Some performers such as, and made a name for themselves producing albums of their recorded prank calls. And, writers on, have made various prank calls to shows, radio stations, and normal people at home. They also have a fictional radio show called the 'Jack and Rod show' where they call a major celebrity for an interview and prank them with sound effects or fake guests such as (where Howard imitates a famous radio host while using an exaggerated version of his signature speech patterns) and many other pranks.
The television show is a series of real-life prank calls made by celebrities and re-enacted on-screen by for a humorous effect., a show started on April 5, 2007 on, stars performing prank calls to the general public and being shown with animated pictures in a style with their mouths moving and live recordings as the victim receives the call. Beginning in early 2011, the image board organized a prank calling of the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in, location of the popular television show. The callers repeatedly asked the employees if they sold, a video game for the notorious for its difficulty. This call led Rick, star of Pawn Stars and owner of the store, to repeatedly swear and yell at the prank callers.
The 4chan callers recorded this and uploaded it to, and subsequently many videos related to prank callers dialing random establishments and asking about Battletoads have been uploaded. See also.