Remember all those terrible incidents where hotels and restaurants have been trashed by people tricked into doing some ass’s prank? Here is a long article profiling the perps in detail. It seems South Park was right we can Blame Canada. (Not really) The leader is a Canadian though. I have to wonder if these people can survive the backlash from victims with their personal information reviled.
These guys deserve a solid beating but what crimes have they committed? Is inciting panic a crime when its only one person? Is re routing phone calls a crime? They never impersonated law enforcement. There was no profit to be had so how could this be considered fraud? Is this one of those instances when the laws just don’t contemplate these actions?
How much do you want to bet if someone who was pranked or a relative of someone pranked goes out and beats the snot out one these bone heads they sue TSG?
First paragraph?
Regardless of profit, they caused millions in damages. It seems like he doesn’t have much in the way of assets, but he can certainly have his ass sued off in civil court anyway. Might as well take whatever he does have and garnish any future wages he may earn for the rest of his life (if he ever gets an actual job).
I’m sure they’re open to tort liability but they’re judgment proof. It would be a dead end.
That statement that the Pranknet idiots are guilty of “vandalism, threats, harassment, impersonation, hacking, and other assorted felonies and misdemeanors” appears to be an editorial comment. Several municipalities and FBI investigated but stopped. In fact the FBI says there were no violations of Federal Law. TNG doesn’t report on possible charges that were being considered in any of the State investigations.
I was looking for a more technical answer. I know there are a number of Dopers who are familiar with criminal law. I was hoping they’d weigh in on the actions detailed. Do the actions reported actually equate to specific violations of criminal law that would reasonably lead to punishment? This story is 4 days old and received national press. When I Googled for developments all I saw was commentary. I didn’t see any stories about prosecutors or police departments re-opening cases.
Kinda hope he’s done one of his stunts in Singapore. Or any country that still uses corporal punishment to go with a lengthy jail term.
As for what to charge him with–about a zillion counts of criminal mischief, multiple counts of impersonating various government officials–health inspectors, fire officials, probably several counts of wiretapping or something similar for the transfering phone calls to his own number stunt, various hacking charges for taking over corporate computers, and possibly some version of RICO.
This is something I’ll be watching for future updates. It’s one of those crimes for which you wish they could be forbidden access to any modern equipment. Like in the SciFi stories where none of the electronics will work for them.
Sounds about right to me. I don’t know why people fall for these kinds of stupid pranks, but still, these guys are shit.
I hope they pranked the mother of a biker somewhere along the line. Payback would be fun to watch.
You have a nasty, twisted sense of justice. I like it!
Quis hacket ipsos hackers?
Credit rating slashed to ribbons…monthly power bill $235,000,000…all outgoing phone calls rerouted thru the Solomon Islands…heeheeheeheehee 
The sad thing is, the hotel franchise system for which I work has posted a “scam alert” bulletin on the home page of our property management system. The description of the scams makes me think “What kind of moron employee would fall for these?” I realize that there are some pretty goofy people working in every industry, but why would the fire department have to call me about an alarm? Even if one of my alarm systems fails, I have two backups. The guys down the street at the fire station will know if any goes off, but I’ll have three systems blaring at me long before that telephone call can be placed!
That said, though, I hope these guys face a whole heap of criminal and civil charges and penalties. And that their mothers ground them for life! (Before the bikers find them…)
I’m not sure, but the piss/apple juice one does have the directive on drinking it coming from them. That might have some criminality in it.
It’s not just employees they have to worry about. It’s everybody staying at the hotel or shopping in the store they have to worry about. Don’t tell me you haven’t walked in a store and questioned the mental agility of some of the shoppers. Yes I wrote agility.
I like how they listed the home addresses of the pranksters (and the conviction of one of them for child rape Another Pranknet Child Molester | The Smoking Gun) something tells me there are going to be some akward block parties for the guy who pranked the woman living across the street from him and filmed the whole thing.
I like his statement “I don’t go anywhere. All I do is go to church and home.” This is after he raped a 5 year old girl in a church bathroom.
They’re exactly the mixed bag of assorted losers you’d expect to do these kinds of pranks, arent’ they?
Yes.
I think you have to admit that this is great investigative reporting from TSG.
Damn, he only got 2 years for raping a 5-year-old? That’s messed up.
I wonder if local news stations will pick up on these stories. The guy who pranked the old lady across the street from him and broadcast the whole thing was a particular douche. She probably waved hello to him every morning. I’d love to see him on some Action News 5 program explaining why he did what he did.