Oh, and a good measurement for internet/telephone pranks: If you’d expect to lose teeth if you’d do something in “real life”, don’t do it on the phone.

Not in the US, at least (though I’ll accept that in it’s native range (Pakistan?) it may be a “John Smith”)

See:

http://www.namestatistics.com/

Ultimately, a lot of the so-call culture-jammers are motivated by a nothing more than need to control and a desire to fuck with people.

Pranknet is nothing more than extreme form of this phenomena. The underlying motivation is still the same and still just as base.

-S

I worked in a library whose web site went online and suddenly we were inundated with prank calls like this. People trying to place holds on books or harass staff. Turned out the ringleader was a guy who’d been arrested for defacing library material months prior (carving his name on tables and tearing up books, real creative stuff) and he’d posted our information to some troll forum.

He was 29, lived at home with mom and dad, unemployed. He did nearly a year in jail.

you’ve read the bill of rights, correct?

Ultimately the only things you can do about it is change the channel, or amend the Constitution.

And to the guy(?) who wrote this:-

The “living with his mommy” isn’t true. I used to know Dex personally, but I still know him, just not irl.

-:I say WTF? You USED to know him, but you STILL do, just not…irl? in real life? thats got to be without a shadow of a doubt, THE DUMBEST ATTEMPT AT A SENTENCE IN ENGLISH I’VE EVER READ IN MY WHOLE LIFE, FROM A NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER!! Apart from the obvious…does it even qualify as diatribe? He not only lives with his mommy, but he bullys her too. He was a bit slow switching off his mic one evening I was in the room on Paltalk.She foots the bill for the “energy drinks” that keep him going thru the show. (cant afford weed these days as his income from the denizens of pranknet has all but dried up) Even hempster is wary of being linked to him. After TSG hempster (William (Bill) Marquis went underground for just short of 9 months. Well he did have a thriving hydroponic show growing in his residence that he had to harvest early and move on to another premises. but he’s back now, just not tossing the bucks around like he used to.Beyluxe themselves provide the upgraded room and colored nicknames as long as pranknet keeps raiding other shows and webcam sites for bored schoolkids to fill the room. And how do I know all this I sense you wondering?

Explaining the methodology is part of what makes the story credible. Otherwise it’s just a bunch of accusations.

I mean, obviously the guy is a criminal misanthrope, but all the namecalling by the investigators (and Xeni) seems a little too elementary school.

And btw as far as I know it’s a tort, “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Like a lot of torts it can become criminal if taken to an extreme. IANAL though, so I could be wrong.

Curtis 39: They might be interesting social experiments, but they aren’t funny (in my opinion). My rule doesn’t say it’s not an interesting social experiment if it’s not funny to the victim.

The only one of the things you cite that I know anything about is Fear Factor, and IIRC those were volunteers. They knew they were going to be emotionally distressed. I don’t think it was appropriate even so, but it’s not the same thing as playing a cruel prank on an innocent victim. Contrast Scare Tactics, which was a genuine “enjoy the cruelty” show; the victims were not volunteers at all, and as far as they knew the situation was perfectly real. It was the stupidest, rottenest thing I’ve ever seen on television.

In some of those scenarios, had I been the victim people might have died (the guy who pulled the knife on the driver of the car, for example: I’d've watched my chance to sucker-punch him in the temple with all the force I could muster, and if I didn’t it would be from a lack of courage, not from thinking it was inappropriate; and if I didn’t kill him it would be because I’ve never sucker-punched anyone in my life, not because I wasn’t trying); in all of them, some camera equipment would have gotten broken when they revealed it to me, I’d've sued their asses off, and the “friend” who set me up would never have heard me speak again except in court.

Also, I would respectfully submit that conducting an interesting social experiment does not actually preclude one’s being an asshole.

Brainspore 42, Mark 45: While I’d certainly agree that it’s fair when that happens, I’d still question whether it’s funny. But I guess I accept your amendment as friendly!

Like an idiot, I left my nikon d200 at a theatre one night, and freaked out when I realized I left it behind. I posted all of my contact info, along with a sad, pleading cry for help to Craigslist.

I was pranked over 4 times, but the pranknet one was by far the worst. They seemed to be very genuine, drawing out the conversation as long as they possibly could, giving me tons of information, and pulling out my frustrations. TSG was listening to the call being broadcast, and was kind enough to look up my post on craigslist to find my number. It was only when confronted with ending the call, did the pranknet guys finally break out the big guns…

in exchange for my camera, id have to star in a little bestiality film they were putting together.

nice.

anyways, thanks to Joe at TSG for trying to get a hold of me as I was being mercilessly fucked with while already bummed at myself for losing such a serious item…

-casey

For instance, a great prank call involves a girl calling up her strict Orthodox Jewish dad and telling her she is going out with a Catholic Italian. He starts to scream and wail, which gets even worse when the “boyfriend” gets on the phone and tells him how delicious hamis, and how ought to worship Jesus, because that’s the “right” religion. At the end, when it is revealed, the dad says “so who’s gonna pay for the heart attack I just about had?”…but he laughs too. That was a well formed joke.

This prank is just mean spirited, maniuplative, and cruel. I doubt anyone was laughing after they had smashed up their hotel room and experienced mortal fear.

in short:
jail = ok
dropping the soap jokes = not ok

it’s one thing to be a douche, it’s another thing entirely to drag your mother into it. And the namecalling fits the crime.

But what struck me: They’re not doing “pranks”. It’s not for fun. It’s a bizarre experiment in manipulating and degrading random people just for the sake of it. There’s a point where you feel sorry with even the biggest idiot, and they do not seem to have any sense for that.

I would consider the classification of a sociopath to be correct and it feels good to hear they were stopped. They were giving a bad name to pranksters. Scary shit.

…although it’s still far away from “terrorism”.

For some reason I really like this phrase. That should be the name for the next Star Trek sequel.

“CHAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!”

I suspect that you ARE ignorant of jailhouse etiquette. Personally, I had a great time- it was a vacation to me, made some friends, didn’t do any crying, was not abused, except that in the morning I was called to ‘roll up’, the guys didn’t want to wake me, so I spent another day. It didn’t make me an animal- I already was.
Now a guy like Maliq probably will be crying and
thinking about his useless life. He should. Jail is what some people need.

pointing out he still lives at home, doesn’t have any real friends, and is a shut-in with a “doughy” body?

Where did I write those things? He lives at home with his mom, that much I wrote, and it’s an interesting part of the story.

9/11 bombers were mass murderers, this guy is a terrorist. Of course murders make people fearful, but doesn’t it disrespect the dead victims to use a “lesser” word? This guy makes people afraid for no good reason — to me, that’s not only the definition of the word, but a better reason for his arrest than most of the people arrested under the charge in the last 8 years. (usual reason: wears a turban and said the word ‘bomb’ one time)

But I’m surprised to read that no one has suggested the power relationship here. If you read the entire article, the perps tend to be single, unemployed, and have other antisocial traits.

They people feel powerless, either through past abuses (it is suggested Malik has a abusive past) or because of mental illness. Another is a convicted child abuser. Another talks about raping other men, but is a regular at a gay bar in his hometown. Also, lots of misogyny, racism, ect.

Because of this powerlessness they are seeking to find their own source of power. This desire for power lead to these warped, sadistic, manipulations.