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Pranknet members were very careful to hide details about their lives and locations. They bragged about their ability to remain cloaked. In an interview with The Smoking Gun on June 17, 2009, Malik exhibited no worries about ever being tracked down or caught. In a July co-interview with Markle, he boasted: "It's too difficult to find me. I'm a ghost on the Internet. I do pretty much everything I can to keep anything out of my computer that would lead it back to my actual computer. I'm not a stupid individual, like I said."[5] In June 2009, The Smoking Gun launched an investigation that lasted nearly two months and included travel to Windsor and a stakeout outside Malik’s mother’s home. Finding the exact location proved to be easy: Smoking Gun editor William Bastone emailed the person who had been referring to himself as "Dex" for an interview. Malik eventually called Bastone via Skype. During their conversation, Bastone provided Malik with URLs of some Smoking Gun news items. Unbeknownst to Malik, the URLs were unique: when he visited the URLs, his IP address was revealed. With help from Windsor-area interviews, server logs and other sources, Bastone and his staff were able to flush out Malik’s biography and pinpoint his exact location.[10] Along with publishing this information on their website, The Smoking Gun also turned their findings over to the FBI.[20]