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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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GodofGravity posted:Maybe its the company Attentio and they're watching us... That fits pretty well.. "Attentio members" -> "members of Attentio" perhaps?
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Dec 4, 2007 19:33
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D14BL0 posted:Hold up. Yeah, England as far as I gather. But there's quite a distance (although maybe not by American standards). Belgium uses the Euro, which has cents.
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Dec 4, 2007 19:51
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KatWithHands posted:You know, I can see why they were named as a Finalist for that Red Herring Award. Haha! I'll let you know if Sally contacts me again. It would be a bit of a bummer if it's just some university club playing spies for christmas.
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Dec 4, 2007 20:03
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GodofGravity posted:If she does, ask her if she cut anything off the original scan of the paper. 1993x2048 is a kind of an odd dimension to scan at. Oh I scaled it so it would fit on waffleimages. It was originally 2254 x 2316. I can send it to you if you want it. bonne chance posted:Does she just have your AIM or your email as well? Gave her a throwaway email I use for signing up for things as I don't know her.
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Dec 4, 2007 20:08
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GodofGravity posted:Ah ok, probably don't need the full sized version,unless there is something you cut out... Nah, it was a simple scaling.
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Dec 4, 2007 20:16
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bonne chance posted:Do you ever check it? I want closure, drat it. Yeah, I check it once in a while. I'll up the frequency now, though. Edit:  Email from person with same surname as "Sally"! With images attached. Gimme a bit to copy and waffle them Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 20:27
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EMAIL Okay, who cares about the pseudonyms. Mostly because I don't want to keep all the names in mind and juggle them. "Sally" is actually called Sara. quote:from Edward Northwood <*@googlemail.com> Attached images:  ohqtvr qbg.JPG  uryvpbcgre.JPG  ng tznvy.JPG  qbg pbz.JPG  6E6F686F626F6B656E343333.JPG  30362F31322F3037474D543131.jpg Edit: Should I reply? What should I write?!? Is it real? What's going on? Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 20:37
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^^^ same size. I hit "download" in gmail ^^^Oncogene posted:I don't know what this is exactly but it looks disgusting. It looks sorta like anatomy, maybe? KatWithHands posted:HELP. Oh loving hell. Okay should I write Eddy back? I probably should.
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Dec 4, 2007 20:43
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GodofGravity posted:After ROT13'ing the file names you get(in order of appearance): The alphanumerica are hex ascii codes nohoboken433 06/12/07GMT11? the first was the password to the budgie.helicopter account. I've changed it so some lurker doesn't gently caress my poo poo up. I'm guessing a mail will arrive at that time/date... Edit: 
Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 20:51
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KatWithHands posted:Excellent idea. GMT11 looks like 11 am GMT, which would be 6 am NY time, as far as I can do finger math while still being high on adrenalin. I'm in Denmark, GMT+1. Cutty posted:Here's something about Budgie the Helicopter, apparently a cartoon. I vaguely remember that. I think it was on TV here some time ago. Those images really creep me out.
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Dec 4, 2007 20:56
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EMAIL quote:Hello Knud, Edit: should I tell him about the codes in the filenames? Edit2: Sent this for now: quote:Hello Edward, Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 21:08
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EMAIL Cutty posted:Tell him about the cipher she IMed you first to gauge his reaction. Sent: quote:Edward, Hopefully not giving him the creeps if he's actually a real person  Valrik posted:That image wraps pretty seamlessly: Looks like a single digit 6 or 9 distorted a lot (echos vertically, waves horizontally). Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 21:16
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EMAIL quote:Hello Knud, quote:Edward, Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 21:29
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Carthag posted:
What the hell is this thing?! I've tried googling microscope photos, as that is what it looks like, but I'm not finding anything. Also, the white stuff looks like a fluid, which grosses me out.
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Dec 4, 2007 21:40
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bonne chance posted:I think the misspellings were probably because of the message using a variation on the Freemason Cipher, and us using the standard Freemason Cipher. There were letter swappings that were consistent with this. Yeah, the only error is the spelling of ATTENTVB, which is one misplaced dot from ATTENTIO. If it's a cult, attentio could be a formalized greeting of a sort. EMAIL quote:Knud, quote:Edward, Edit: Northwood in London is "the location of the British Armed Forces Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) for planning and controlling overseas military operations." 
Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 21:43
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EMAIL quote:Knud,  size as-is. quote:Edward, Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 21:53
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Cutty posted:What about the password? Hoboken is a town in New Jersey. There's a train 433 which runs north, I think. I don't think it's important, since everything else refers to Britain (50p, their mother is moving to south London). I don't remember if gmail makes password suggestions, but hoboken433 looks autogenerated to me.
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Dec 4, 2007 22:09
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Trying to piece together a timeline: ca. 1984: Sara is born (22 in 2006 or 2007) ca. 2004: Photo from latest email. Sara is 19-20 (Late?) 2006: Sara gets mixed up with a boy, shaves off hair, moves out into the country. Is 22. Summer 2007: Sara stops seeing Eddy Dec. 4, 2007: Sara mails Eddy with photos and embedded "HELP", contacts me on AIM with cipher, Eddy mails me. There's probably nothing in this line of inquiry. So far the images are the most interesting. FamilyCircumcision posted:I don't know what good it does, but if you look, these are all of the same building. The first one is the roof of the fourth one, and the third one is the door to that house. Maybe there's something about this location? uryvpbcgre.JPG looks like it could be the view from the door towards a board fence. Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 22:17
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Cochise posted:the first picture is an off center cross(Nordic Cross) similar to the flags of Finland, Denmark, Sweden and many other european nations as well as the old Royal Navy signaling flags Verdafolio posted:efb: That is what I get for answering a friend's question about Java. In that case, it's closest to Sweden, which has yellow-on-blue. I don't know of any with a black cross, but I'll try to look them up. Edit: Lots of images: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Cross_Flag
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Dec 4, 2007 22:26
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I would really really like to identify the Jupiter picture. I tried looking at the Voyager shots, which are the first that I know of, but I didn't see anything. Do we have any astronomy buffs here? Edit: EMAIL quote:Knud, quote:Edward, Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Dec 4, 2007 |
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Dec 4, 2007 22:37
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Cochise posted:see if you can get any more information on the cult or orgnistation the boyfriend was involved with. I'll try. Man, my roommates are cooking dinner and I'm starving. I should get some as well, it's killing me. I'm keeping Mail.app open though with sound up, so I'll let you know if any mails dump in.
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Dec 4, 2007 22:45
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That looks plausible. I wish the images were larger. Also, to the guy who just sent an email to the budgie email half an hour ago, knock it off or I'll post your email address for all to see.
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Dec 4, 2007 23:30
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KatWithHands posted:Alright, and I'm back, and... good work on the photos, everyone. I'll try asking him next time I get ahold of him. I don't wanna add him outright.
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Dec 4, 2007 23:46
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Doctor Fatty posted:Hey Carthag, can we get some Sure. I'll go back and edit as well, before the thread gets too big.
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Dec 4, 2007 23:54
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KatWithHands posted:I don't know, it kind of does. Like a thick glove finger, except really, really stiff and symmetrical. But the seam going up the side, assuming that isn't just a smudge, makes me think a case. Like a case for glasses, only of an unknown size. I think the "bendy"-ness is due to the distortion. Looking closely at the numeral in the tiled image Valrik made, it looks like the whole image is transformed along a sine function on the vertical axis.  It has then been echo'ed over itself. The black line we see is the edge of the image. Edit: Is that a crease along the center? Oh poo poo, I think it's a bank note. The colors and the way they appear are totally European money-like. Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Dec 5, 2007 |
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Dec 5, 2007 00:13
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New post, because: EMAIL quote:Knud,    These are larger, click for big. 
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Dec 5, 2007 00:26
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Tongsy posted:Wow, that last email is pretty intense. Well I do, because if not, some young girl really is in trouble. Drafting a reply to Eddy. quote:Edward, Anything I should add/remove at this point?
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Dec 5, 2007 00:29
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Valrik posted:Ask him if Budgie the helicopter means anything to him. Don't mention it's an email address, just see how he reacts. Trying to think of a way to bring it up without giving too much away. We still don't know if he's on "our" side.
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Dec 5, 2007 00:34
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Replied,quote:Edward, I figure a little white lie (about Budgie) won't give away too much.
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Dec 5, 2007 00:38
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UnctuousSerendipity posted:They could be photos from a while ago (pre shaved head). Is the guy in the picture her ex boyfriend? Eddy doesn't know him, but he mentioned the boy she moved to the country with had a shaved head, not that that means much. Could be them both from before the head shaving or a different guy.
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Dec 5, 2007 00:41
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 13:39 |
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EMAIL quote:Knud,
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Dec 5, 2007 00:49
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