Their pranks were coordinated through an online chat room, and convinced others to cause damage to hotels and fast food restaurants of more than $60,000.

[6] In 2009, a wave of the pranks across the United States prompted internal alerts by Choice Hotels, as well as advisories by the Sheriff's office of Orange County, Florida, and others.

Posing as a manager from the corporate office, he persuaded employees to douse the building with fire suppression chemicals and to then proceed outside, remove all of their clothing and urinate on each other.

Many months later "Dex", posing this time as an insurance adjuster, called the same KFC and had the victims describe their experiences while Pranknet members listened.

Using the pretense of a ruptured gas line, the caller persuaded each guest to break a window and then throw the television out.

This target was selected because the restaurant provided live video streaming of its dining area on their own website.

[12] The same day, the pranksters called a Comfort Suites in Gadsden, Alabama, persuading a clerk to pull a fire alarm; sprinklers were subsequently activated, causing water damage.

[15] On July 20, Markle tricked a desk clerk at the Homewood Suites in Lexington, Kentucky, into drinking another person's urine.

The urine was to be brought to the front desk in a simple drinking glass, referred to by the code name of "apple cider" in order to not rouse suspicion amongst guests.

"[6] In its investigation,[clarification needed] the cyber crimes division of the police department of Lufkin, Texas, requested a subpoena for Markle's Skype activities.

[16] The police report classifies the Lexington incident as first-degree wanton endangerment, a Class D felony in Kentucky.

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.

[19] In November 2010, an elderly man staying at a Motel 6 in Spartanburg, 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.

[1] The pranksters called back on March 11, 2011, persuading a guest to "disable" a sprinkler head by smashing it with a toilet lid to prevent a 'toxic gas' from entering the room.

[20] 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"[1] As of November 1, 2011, this is no longer possible.

[1] 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 "H1N1 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 stool sample in a pillowcase, which he was to bring to the front desk.

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.

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.

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.

"[6] In June 2009, The Smoking Gun launched an investigation that lasted nearly two months and included travel to Windsor, Ontario and a stakeout outside Malik's mother's home.

[23][24] 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.

"[6] Batsford had participated in some phone pranks, but left when she witnessed members encouraging children to make bomb threats.