Prankin'

If the phone in your hotel room rings unexpectedly at 2 in the morning, you might soon become the next victim of a network of scammers who are causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage at accommodations around the country.

Often imitated and deviously duplicated, a group called PrankNET appears to be at the center of a growing trend that has harried hoteliers and restaurateurs for months and is now being investigated by the FBI.

During their calls they often drop the name of a security corporation or say they are phoning from a hotel's front desk to lend themselves an air of credibility — and to get their victims to do surprising things.

In February, Dex's work made headlines when he called a KFC in Manchester, N.H., and convinced workers there to douse the restaurant with fire suppression chemicals, evacuate the building and strip outside in freezing temperatures. Dex accomplished all of this by pretending to be their boss from a corporate office.

A Florida family staying in an Orlando Hilton was tricked last week into smashing windows, breaking a mirror, bashing in a wall with a lamp and tossing their mattress outside, causing about $5,000 in damage, the Orlando Sentinel reported. The caller persuaded them to do all of that in order to save themselves from a gas leak.

Though the perpetrators in many of these cases remain unclear, PrankNET's administrator took direct credit for at least one prank:

In York, Neb., a Hampton Inn employee was tricked into setting off an alarm and then was convinced that the only way to make it stop was to break the hotel's windows. He enlisted the help of a trucker who smashed his vehicle into the front door, shattering the glass and causing more than $1,000 in damage.

The owner of PrankNET's Twitter account — believed to be Dex — claimed in a post the night of the incident, "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." That post, too, has been deleted.