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PLEASE read the entire thread before posting to avoid repeating dead theories or working on solutions to problems already solved
ORIGINAL OP: I thought I'd share it, since we've had some pretty fun threads about ciphers before. A person I've never spoken with before, let's call her "Sally", popped up on my AIM and asked if I was good with codes, and I told her "a little". Then she sent me an image.  (click for big) She says "sorry its a bit dirty, i pulled it out of the bin" and when pressed, she said "you might say i actively found it rather than passively found it" which I find interesting. I asked her how she found me, and said that her "ex boyfriend from university knew some fellow off usenet or something, goes by the sn of "[removed]"?? im not sure. i asked my ex (comp sci student) if he knew anyone, and this fellow seemed to know you" - I removed his nickname, cause he's probably not related to this at all, but for those who like to cook up conspiracy theories, he's from Missouri and works in film. I have no idea who he is, aside from googling him. Likewise, Sally is a linguistics student somewhere in England. Now, I've decoded it (took about half an hour, it's not very complex), but I thought some of you might want a shot at it as well. Who knows, maybe there will be more (Sally said she'd be on the lookout for more). Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Dec 8, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 18:04
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 09:11 |
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http://nanda.satukubik.net/2006/09/29/pigpen-cipher/ looks to be the answer to this one. I am too lazy to decode it, I am happy enough to know that I could if I wanted to.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:08
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There's a little bit more to it than that, but yeah, the alphabet is pigpen.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:13
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Even if you had never heard of pigpen, you could do a simple frequency analysis on it to figure out (approximately) which symbol maps to which letter.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:18
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It may be a pigpen cipher which will reveal another cipher - because if it were simple pigpen, the first line reads BMMJAMQD ZJZDJIK.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:24
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I didn't have my glasses on when I read it and it just looked like LAOUUUVVALOAOUALOLOUALOUAUUVOULAUOULVU. So that's what I'm going for.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:24
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odd2k posted:Even if you had never heard of pigpen, you could do a simple frequency analysis on it to figure out (approximately) which symbol maps to which letter. Just looking at it the 3 letters that look like "Aun" (A without the dot) is "THE". That would make the O or box equal to "N". I got BMM... as well. But yeah, different key. VVVV Boll Weevil fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 18:28
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vibrantglow posted:It may be a pigpen cipher which will reveal another cipher - because if it were simple pigpen, the first line reads BMMJAMQD ZJZDJIK. I don't think you understand how pigpen works. If it's standard pigpen, the first line is this: NGGRAGIO XRXOREF. I ran it through a ROT converter, and got nothing, so there's some sort of other code to this, as well.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:28
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D14BL0 posted:I don't think you understand how pigpen works. If it's standard pigpen, the first line is this: NGGRAGIO XRXOREF. Oops, you're right... I was looking at the wrong key.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:31
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I ran NGGRAGIO XRXOREF through a ROT13 converter and got ATTENTVB KEKBERS. Looks like someone hosed their pigpen and spelling up. No wonder it got thrown away. OP, you said you deciphered it, is it any more coherent past the first line? I presume it is meant to say ATTENTIO (sic) MEMBERS.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:43
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bonne chance posted:I ran NGGRAGIO XRXOREF through a ROT13 converter and got ATTENTVB KEKBERS. Yeah, there are some misspellings in it (I attributed them to transcription errors on my part), but as a whole it makes sense.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:46
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Boll Weevil posted:Just looking at it the 3 letters that look like "Aun" (A without the dot) is "THE". That would make the O or box equal to "N". What about the two letter word with the "U" in it? That would make it some two letter word which ends with "h". Only thing I can think of is "eh" which isn't really a word.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:48
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could also be a freemason cypher, which is similar to pigpen though it still doesn't work edit: letter frequency chart for normal English 
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Dec 4, 2007 18:48
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bonne chance posted:I ran NGGRAGIO XRXOREF through a ROT13 converter and got ATTENTVB KEKBERS. The second line is "be sure to drink your ovaltine"
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Dec 4, 2007 18:50
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bonne chance posted:I ran NGGRAGIO XRXOREF through a ROT13 converter and got ATTENTVB KEKBERS. I saw the same thing on ROT13, as well, but "KEKBERS" didn't make enough sense. But if they used a bad key to translate, that might make sense. Here's the entire thing: quote:NGGRAGIO XRXOREF: So here's the entire thing done through ROT13: quote:ATTENTVB KEKBERS: PMEASE NOTE THE DATES GIVEA IN ZNUR PERSONAM CAMENDARS. THESE DRE AMM PROSPECTIVE TIKEV FOR KOBIJISATION. MOU ARE EYPECTEE TO BRING ZOUR AMMOTTEE EQUIPKENT. IF THERE IS ANZ DOUBT AS TO WHAT TASLS ZOU SHOUMD BE PERFORKING, PMEASE CONTACT ZOUR COKPOUND MEADER. THE FACIMITZ quote:ATTENTION MEMBERS: PLEASE NOTE THE DATES GIVEN IN YOUR PERSONAL CALENDARS. THESE ARE ??? PROSPECTIVE TIMES FOR MOB????????. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BRING YOUR ???????? EQUIPMENT. IF THERE IS ANY DOUBT AS TO WHAT ???? YOU SHOULD BE PERFORMING, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR COMPOUND LEADER. THE FACILITY(?)
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Dec 4, 2007 18:50
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Almost there. Also, it's not a "bad" key per se, it's just organized differently than the examples found on the web.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:52
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D14BL0 posted:I saw the same thing on ROT13, as well, but "KEKBERS" didn't make enough sense. But if they used a bad key to translate, that might make sense. ATTENTION MEMBERS: PLEASE NOTE THE DATES GIVEN IN YOUR PERSONAL CALENDARS. THESE ARE ??? PROSPECTIVE TIMES FOR MOB????????. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BRING YOUR ???????? EQUIPMENT. IF THERE IS ANY DOUBT AS TO WHAT ???? YOU SHOULD BE PERFORMING, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR COMPOUND LEADER. THE FACILITY(?) MOB??= mobilization AMMOTTEE= [strike]Committee[/strike]- yeah, allotted works a lot better TASLS= Tasks Ornamental Dingbat fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 18:53
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[quote=] ATTENTION MEMBERS: PLEASE NOTE THE DATES GIVEN IN YOUR PERSONAL CALENDARS. THESE ARE ??? PROSPECTIVE TIMES FOR MOB????????. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BRING YOUR ???????? EQUIPMENT. IF THERE IS ANY DOUBT AS TO WHAT TASKS YOU SHOULD BE PERFORMING, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR COMPOUND LEADER. THE FACILITY(?) [/quote] Thats all I see that can fit there. Beaten.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:54
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D14BL0 posted:AMMOTTEE EQUIPKENT Looks to be "allotted equipment", since whoever wrote this had a problem confusing M's and L's.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:55
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^^^ I think there are a few transcription errors there. Actually, if I use the Freemason cipher, NZZBGGRR is NXXBGGRE, which when ROT13ed becomes ALLOTTED.Khad posted:What about the two letter word with the "U" in it? That would make it some two letter word which ends with "h". Only thing I can think of is "eh" which isn't really a word. I think it is "TO". Ugh e: f;b
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Dec 4, 2007 18:55
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ATTENTION MEMBERS: PLEASE NOTE THE DATES GIVEN IN YOUR PERSONAL CALENDARS. THESE ARE ??? PROSPECTIVE TIMES FOR MOB????????. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BRING YOUR ???????? EQUIPMENT. IF THERE IS ANY DOUBT AS TO WHAT ???? YOU SHOULD BE PERFORMING, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR COMPOUND LEADER. THE FACILITY(?) ATTENTION MEMBERS: PLEASE NOTE THE DATES GIVEN IN YOUR PERSONAL CALENDARS. THESE ARE ALL PROSPECTIVE TIMES FOR MOBILIZATION. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BRING YOUR ALLOTTED EQUIPMENT. IF THERE IS ANY DOUBT AS TO WHAT TASKS YOU SHOULD BE PERFORMING, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR COMPOUND LEADER. THE FACILITY(?)
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Dec 4, 2007 18:55
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quote:ATTENTION MEMBERS: PLEASE NOTE THE DATES GIVEN IN YOUR PERSONAL CALENDARS. THESE ARE ??? PROSPECTIVE TIMES FOR MOB????????. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BRING YOUR ???????? EQUIPMENT. IF THERE IS ANY DOUBT AS TO WHAT ???? YOU SHOULD BE PERFORMING, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR COMPOUND LEADER. THE FACILITY(?) From that, I get: quote:ATTENTION MEMBERS: PLEASE NOTE THE DATES GIVEN IN YOUR PERSONAL CALENDARS. THESE ARE ALL PROSPECTIVE TIMES FOR MOBILIZATION. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BRING YOUR ????? EQUIPMENT. IF THERE IS ANY DOUBT AS TO WHAT TASKS YOU SHOULD BE PERFORMING, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR COMPOUND LEADER. THE FACILITY AMMOTTEE is giving me issues. e:f,b as well.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:57
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ATTENTION MEMBERS: PLEASE NOTE THE DATES GIVEN IN YOUR PERSONAL CALENDARS. THESE ARE ALL PROSPECTIVE TIMES FOR MOBILIZATION. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BRING YOUR ALLOTTED EQUIPMENT. IF THERE IS ANY DOUBT AS TO WHAT TASKS YOU SHOULD BE PERFORMING, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR COMPOUND LEADER. THE FACILITY(?) Even decoded, it's pretty cryptic. Also, what the hell is going on here? 
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Dec 4, 2007 18:58
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madprocess posted:ATTENTION MEMBERS: PLEASE NOTE THE DATES GIVEN IN YOUR PERSONAL CALENDARS. THESE ARE ALL PROSPECTIVE TIMES FOR MOBILIZATION. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BRING YOUR ALLOTTED EQUIPMENT. IF THERE IS ANY DOUBT AS TO WHAT TASKS YOU SHOULD BE PERFORMING, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR COMPOUND LEADER. THE FACILITY(?) This is what I got as well. I didn't do ROT13 in my solution, I did it by letter frequency analysis and only noticed afterwards that each letter was transposed. For example, the non-dot matrix is NOP QRS TUV So, what do we make of this? Student club? The language is full of military parlance.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:58
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It's from Cloverfield.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:58
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Well that doesn't make sense there are no times listed in the message. I am guessing someone just saw something posted on a board and copied to down poorly in a code and threw it away where your new friend found it.
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Dec 4, 2007 18:58
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Welp, that solves that one. Good job everyone!
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Dec 4, 2007 18:59
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This is what I get by doing a simple letter substitution, finding the "THE" and going from there, without using frequency or pigpen. There aren't any misspellings, just what the gently caress is ATTENTVB?quote:
Edit: beaten because I didn't type faster.  Edit #2: Waaaaait... where are you guys getting "Attention" out of 8 letters? Plus the last two letters of the first word are clearly VB. 
cocteau fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 18:59
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Isn't this the part where this "Sally" person is supposed to give us more? That's how these things tend to work. EDIT: Judging by their spelling of "mobilization", we can probably rule out that this person is American.
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Dec 4, 2007 19:00
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Okay my new guess is Sally is a viral marketer that sent you this same scan that other people probably have seen and this is some viral marketing campaign for something.
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Dec 4, 2007 19:01
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It would sound like any old college outdoor club activity poster if it weren't for "compound" and "The Facility".quote:Judging by their spelling of "mobilization", we can probably rule out that this person is American. OP said she was British? Did she tell you this?
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Dec 4, 2007 19:01
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Drone posted:Isn't this the part where this "Sally" person is supposed to give us more? That's how these things tend to work. If she has more. I'll try to get her to scour all of Britain's bins for codes. bonne chance posted:OP said she was British? Did she tell you this? She mentioned she was a linguistics student and that she ought to know more about codes, though I don't know how that factors in. She also said she was in an internet cafe and used "50p" to pay. Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 19:02
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doublepost
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Dec 4, 2007 19:06
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Carthag posted:If she has more. I'll try to get her to scour all of Britain's bins for codes. Maybe I misunderstood the OP, did you send the decrypted message back to "Sally" after you found the answer?
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Dec 4, 2007 19:06
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Maybe you inadvertently got contacted by a terrorist handler 
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Dec 4, 2007 19:06
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GodofGravity posted:Maybe I misunderstood the OP, did you send the decrypted message back to "Sally" after you found the answer? Yes, she was gushing with thank-yous. She also mentioned that it smelled of liniment and that she thought the code was insidious and was hiding something, that was before I decoded it. Then she suddenly signed off with "seems im on the move. cheers"
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Dec 4, 2007 19:09
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Sounds like some uni thing, or perhaps you've been pulled into some viral marketing ploy.
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Dec 4, 2007 19:12
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Well at least we know google is on the job. I tried googling "Attentvb" and all I got was a link to this thread. Edit: okay, if you add a dot to the second to last character in the first word, and remove the dot from the last character, and add a backwards L, you get ATTENTION. So maybe there was an error - not a misspelling but a lovely code. cocteau fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 19:15
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cocteau posted:Well at least we know google is on the job. I tried googling "Attentvb" and all I got was a link to this thread. That was fast. I think it may just be poorly encrypted ATTENTIO (faux latin greeting?) or just ATTENTION. Edit: Exactly. Misplaced dots screw this code up pretty bad.
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Dec 4, 2007 19:18
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 09:11 |
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Oh you people and your fancy decoders. I just got all excited about writing this all down in my notebook, only to be sadly disappointed when I got gibberish. Seems I need some schooling in basic decoding. Also, I'm praying to who ever is listening that this ends up being an ARG. They're why I joined SA in the first place...
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Dec 4, 2007 19:27
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