- Reaction score
- 6,294
- Points
- 1,360
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/08/the-smoking-gun-exposes-pranknet-as-internet-badboys-cower.ars
The Smoking Gun exposes PrankNet as Internet badboys cower
Investigative website The Smoking Gun has tracked down the "anonymous" leading members of the sociopathic prankster collective PrankNet, then paid visits to their homes to see just how tough they are in real life. Hint: not very.
By Nate Anderson
The Smoking Gun this week released the results of its lengthy investigation into PrankNet, an online community specializing in disturbing phone pranks. The operators operated under a veil of anonymity, covering their tracks and using Skype to place non-traceable phone calls. When TSG eventually exposed the ringleader as a young man living in Canada, however, the results were predictably pathetic.
On July 21, a pair of TSG reporters approached "Dex"'s building at 1637 Assumption Street in Windsor, where he lives in the ground-floor 'B' apartment. Calling to his mother, who was standing near an open living room window, a reporter asked her to summon her son. The woman disappeared into "Dex"'s adjoining bedroom, where the pair could be heard whispering. Despite repeated requests to come out and speak with TSG, "Dex" hid with his mother in his bedroom, the windows of which were covered with plastic shopping bags, a towel, and one black trash bag.
As the sun set and his room darkened, "Dex" did not reach to turn on a light. The notorious Internet Tough Guy, who has gleefully used the telephone to cause all kinds of havoc, was now himself panicking. He had been found. And, as a result, was barricaded in Pranknet World Headquarters with his mom, while two reporters loitered outside his window and curious neighbors wondered what was up.
PrankNet's "pranks" went far beyond funny or annoying phone calls—the "best" ones ended with vandalism, naked KFC workers standing in parking lots, and hotel clerks drinking urine from cups. A representative example:
Earlier this year Marquis offered a $500 bounty to anyone in the chat room who could succeed in getting someone to drive a car through the lobby window of a hotel. Remarkably, Malik did just that on May 27 at a Hampton Inn in York, Nebraska. Posing as a representative from a fire alarm company, Malik tricked a front desk worker into pulling the hotel alarm, which he claimed was malfunctioning and needed to be "reset." After the alarm sounded, he told the woman that the only way to stop the screeching was to break lobby windows, which supposedly contained sensors of some sort. As York Police Department Chief Donald Klug recalled, "A trucker was standing there and he offered to help and drove his truck through the front door."
The article is lengthy, but it's a fantastic read and a superb bit of original reporting. It's also a good reminder that the Internet's biggest bullies aren't nearly so threatening in real life, where they may in fact be the proverbial 25-year old kid still living with his mom.
The Smoking Gun exposes PrankNet as Internet badboys cower
Investigative website The Smoking Gun has tracked down the "anonymous" leading members of the sociopathic prankster collective PrankNet, then paid visits to their homes to see just how tough they are in real life. Hint: not very.
By Nate Anderson
The Smoking Gun this week released the results of its lengthy investigation into PrankNet, an online community specializing in disturbing phone pranks. The operators operated under a veil of anonymity, covering their tracks and using Skype to place non-traceable phone calls. When TSG eventually exposed the ringleader as a young man living in Canada, however, the results were predictably pathetic.
On July 21, a pair of TSG reporters approached "Dex"'s building at 1637 Assumption Street in Windsor, where he lives in the ground-floor 'B' apartment. Calling to his mother, who was standing near an open living room window, a reporter asked her to summon her son. The woman disappeared into "Dex"'s adjoining bedroom, where the pair could be heard whispering. Despite repeated requests to come out and speak with TSG, "Dex" hid with his mother in his bedroom, the windows of which were covered with plastic shopping bags, a towel, and one black trash bag.
As the sun set and his room darkened, "Dex" did not reach to turn on a light. The notorious Internet Tough Guy, who has gleefully used the telephone to cause all kinds of havoc, was now himself panicking. He had been found. And, as a result, was barricaded in Pranknet World Headquarters with his mom, while two reporters loitered outside his window and curious neighbors wondered what was up.
PrankNet's "pranks" went far beyond funny or annoying phone calls—the "best" ones ended with vandalism, naked KFC workers standing in parking lots, and hotel clerks drinking urine from cups. A representative example:
Earlier this year Marquis offered a $500 bounty to anyone in the chat room who could succeed in getting someone to drive a car through the lobby window of a hotel. Remarkably, Malik did just that on May 27 at a Hampton Inn in York, Nebraska. Posing as a representative from a fire alarm company, Malik tricked a front desk worker into pulling the hotel alarm, which he claimed was malfunctioning and needed to be "reset." After the alarm sounded, he told the woman that the only way to stop the screeching was to break lobby windows, which supposedly contained sensors of some sort. As York Police Department Chief Donald Klug recalled, "A trucker was standing there and he offered to help and drove his truck through the front door."
The article is lengthy, but it's a fantastic read and a superb bit of original reporting. It's also a good reminder that the Internet's biggest bullies aren't nearly so threatening in real life, where they may in fact be the proverbial 25-year old kid still living with his mom.
