tonight on "nightline" -- extreme pranksters. from an urgent s.o.s. >> we've had an explosion on board. >> to a 911 call that brings out the s.w.a.t. team. >> i shot my wife. >> the people who hack your xbox and tell police they're you. we tell you what's behind the new wave of costly and dangerous high-profile hoaxes. and toxic spray tans? we go undercover to expose why the tan everyone thinks is safer than the sun may be more dangerous than you realize. what you need to know before taking a glow.

plus, ewe pick quaty from a rhinoplasty, a surgeon at night making house calls at the zoo. good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. tonight, they're the so-called pranksters, creating havoc with their dangerous and expensive phony 911 calls. and a new technology is making it easier for them to get away with it. from using untraceable internet numbers to hacking an xbox to send a s.w.a.t. team to an incident victim's front lawn. just yesterday, one such fake cry for help sent the coast guard scrambling for hours. here's abc's linsey davis. >> reporter: for nearly six

chaotic hours yesterday afternoon, these helicopters swirled above the atlantic as part of a massive search and rescue operation, the u.s. coast guard looking for survivors of a yacht named "blind date" carrying 21 people. it was allegedly sinking after an explosion off the sandy hook, about 70 miles off the central post of new jersey. this distress call to the coast guard was utterly convincing. >> we have three deceased, nine injured. we've had an explosion on board, that's why we're taking on water. >> reporter: the search went on for hours, but oddly without any signs of an explosion, no debris, no survivors, no witnesses. >> about 6:30, we started looking at the possibility of a hoax call. >> reporter: around 7:00 p.m., the owner of "blind date" confirmed his boat was not in new jersey and not exploded.

the coast guard had confirmed this was the biggest hoax in years. >> you're talking about human life, the coast guard in particular will scramble to go look for people in distress. >> reporter: these prank criminal calls are now so common, there's a term for them, s.w.a.t.'ing. the idea is that pranksters get s.w.a.t. teams sent to your door. the latest estimate for this yacht hoax so far, more than $300,000. the fbi says each s.w.a.t.'ing incident costing an average of $10,000 in resources. beyond the money is the paralyzing fear that the victims experience and the danger they're put in. >> i've got two people held hostages all right? >> right. >> you know what happens to people held hostage? >> reporter: with rifles drawn, a s.w.a.t. team swarms down where inside a teen age girl and her father were bound and held hostage by a man threatening to

kill them, or so they thought. >> i am armed. i do have a pistol and i swear to god i will kill these people. >> reporter: but it turns out no such hostage situation existed. it was a regular night at home for 15-year-old hunter galinas. they come into my room and a gun pointed at me. >> reporter: he had been the victim of a s.w.a.t.'ing prank. s.w.a.t.ing that is so prevalent because the internet makes it easier to make a call without leaving a trace. some calls use the hearing impaired or disabled to contact services. others use a spoofcard. >> we were eating dinner and police showed up with a gun pointed in my face and my mom's face. >> reporter: for lisa, the

s.w.a.t.ers who targeted their family got the information from an x box. >> they surrounded our house. i had no clue what was going on. it was terrible. >> reporter: the police had received these terrifying message, please help, my dad had killed my 4-year-old sister. please help. he killed my mom with an ak-47. >> it makes me very upset and mad at the person. >> reporter: when local authorities failed to find a perpetrator, lisa did her own sleuthing and believed she found out who hacked her x box and sent the original 911 call to police. tyler said he was playing an online game which may have been the reason they were targeted. no one has been arrested. >> gotta get my son!

>> reporter: s.w.a.t.'ing may be new but hoaxes are not. one of the most elaborate hoaxes of all time, the now infamous balloon boy which cost a local colorado town almost $50,000. the world watched and waited as a little boy floated away in his homemade balloon. but it turns out his parents did it all as a publicity stunt for a reality tv show. >> they put on a very good show for us and we bought it. >> reporter: they ended up serving jail time and paid close to $40,000 in restitution. so why do people pull these sometimes extremely dangerous pranks? >> some of the motivation for s.w.a.t.'ing is for the victims or ego. >> reporter: tonight, law enforcement is still searching for the latest yachting incident. if caught, the person will be in a boat load of trouble. they'll have to pay back the coast guard for their search, not to mention $250,000 in fines

and potentially spend up to ten years in prison. proving committing a federal crime like this one is no joke. for "nightline," i'm linsey davis, in new jersey. >> outrageous behavior. thanks to ly thanks. up next, a surgeon by day and why one surgeon is treating man and beast. [ female announcer ] think it's impossible to reduce the look of wrinkles

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from obese dragonflies to depressed gorillas when it comes to humankind most puzzles diseases it may surprise you to know we're not the only ones

from the animal kingdom who are suffering. one doctor who is breaking down the species. >> reporter: in an area of high-tech medicine a transesophageal is a fairly common procedure. but for this patient, not so much. jake is a 13-year-old chimp getting a preventive checkup common for humans. in jake's case, a house call at the los angeles zoo. madison horowitz has been moonlighting at the zoo for six years, sort of a modern-day dr. doolittle. >> when this started i was skeptical. >> reporter: she's been surprised to learn how much human and veterinary medicine have in common. >> animals have almost the same as human beings, the veterinarians never talk about it. >> you sort of confess that doctors count on this a little bit? >> physicians have not typically

traditionally seen veterinarians as their clinical peers and that's unfortunate. >> reporter: veterinarians may be the ultimate general practitioners, dealing were a variety of species, and patients who can't tell the doctor where it hurts. like cookie, a lioness diagnosed with fluid around her heart, a potentially fatal condition. >> they were looking at this diagnosis, looking at body positions, eating patterns. an they were right. >> reporter: ucla would have run a lot of tests. >> we would have made a diagnosis quickly. i don't think even my most esteemed colleagues could have made this inspection alone. >> reporter: she started seeing her human patients differently. >> every time i saw it in human patients, i asked the questions. i'm batting 1,000. i saw a patient with chlamydia. i asked if animals get stds.

>> reporter: scientists are trying to develop a koala chlamydia vaccine. >> is there one? >> no. >> reporter: with a book co-authored by kathryn bauers called zoobiquity. >> it's connected to all the other animals in the planet. >> reporter: the l.a. zoo's chief veterinarian. >> do you guys pay the going rate or have insurance? >> we're very fortunate. >> reporter: so when rhonda the rhino was diagnosed with cell

chance no carcinoma -- >> she's appreciative of it. look at that. >> reporter: now rhonda is cancer-free. but acknowledges the similarities between animals and humans does have different complications, for instance, what does ubiquity mean? >> maybe it's an argument against it because we show more zpags. compassion. >> animal testing is a really important and complicated issue. and there's no question that the debate will continue. >> that's your opinion? >> i really can't give one because it's a very complicated nuanced question. >> reporter: should the hippocratic oath apply to hippos? dr. horowitz refuses to say. >> zoobiquity is in stores now. we go under cover to reveal

the potential danger of spray tanning. follow the wings.

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it's swimsuit season and millions of americans are looking for that summer glow. for many years, many have thought a spray-on tan was the safe alternative to tanning beds or sunbathing. but there could be a hidden danger just faking it. we're pleased to welcome for the first time on the broadcast our abc news correspondent mark

greenblatt. >> reporter: it's a booming billion-dollar business. spray tanning. it's how khloe and kim get their low. >> you go every single night. >> but not orange like that. >> reporter: long considered the safe at of it to uses u.v. tanning beds or laying out in the sun, some experts say a chemical in that may pose a potential hazard. it's called dha and it's what turns your skin brown. it was approved by the fda back in the '70s before spray tans existed but only for external use. rubbed on to the skin as a lotion or jell. before that, the fda is clear, dha should not be inhaled or ingested. but now, of course, it is inhaled on a regular basis by many people. because as anyone who has ever gotten the popular service knows it's virtually impossible not to inhale the mist when you get a spray tan.

>> the first time, you below your nose because you breathe it. >> it's winding up in your respiratory system. in your nose. >> reporter: dr. lynn goldman was among a group of doctors we had review ten different lab studies on dha that we obtained. one study calls it a potential human health hazard. another says it could cause dna damage which experts say could lead to birth defects. >> i'm very concerned about the concern for lung cancer. >> reporter: if i say, doctor, should i go tan in a spray? >> my response before would be sure, that's a great alternative. after reading these papers i don't think i can say this anymore. >> reporter: even the most successful tanning technicians seem to be in the dark when it comes to the dangers. >> you could drink this. >> reporter: and he doesn't just think it's safe to drink dha -- >> whoa -- >> it doesn't taste good, but

you can do it. >> reporter: donte say he's a proud spray tanner for the sprays. >> lady gaga. >> reporter: and like this one. >> you have protection your your nose and eyes? >> it's not recommended. >> is it safe? >> the fda thinks so. >> reporter: this is one of a dozen of salons we went to under cover. none seems to know that the fda says you protect your eyes, nose and lips so dha gets inside your body. >> you really don't need it. >> reporter: in fact, they dumped it. >> we don't recommend you doing because when you spray your face that part is not going to be done. >> reporter: most say just close your eye or hold your breath. >> hold your breath for one second. >> reporter: online, some go further saying you can eat dha, that it's food grade and approved by the fda.

but they're confusion two completely different kinds of dha. both with the same abbreviated name one. tans your skin, the other, a health supplement found in foods like salmon and milk. food grade dha and sun tan dha. is that md leading to the american public to tell them something is safe to eat and approved by the fda when it's not? >> i don't believe it's anybody's intention. >> reporter: that's joe leavy a spokesman. >> indoor tanning is a reliable controlled mechanism for which to get vitamin d while getting your tan. >> dermatologists attack showing they're know they're wrong. >> reporter: today, he's talking about how spray tans are safe. >> there is at this point no understanding that there are adverse effects. no one has communicated that.

>> reporter: there's been a litany of studies that have come out proving that dha in the lab caused an alter racing of genes. >> i haven't heard any of that. >> reporter: you haven't heard of that? >> no. >> reporter: bottom line, experts say if you only spray tan once or twice, the risk is probably low but -- >> just like anythings, the more you're exposed to it, the greater your risk. >> reporter: the good news is, in response to our questions, there now seems to be a new awareness across the industry about the potential dangers of dha. >> whoa. >> reporter: even for a believer like dante. >> if i came back a week, two months from now, what would i see? >> definitely using goggles and nose plugs. >> because of mark's reporting, the tanning industry says they're now retaining salon technicians all across the country to follow fda recommendations. our thanks to