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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
[DEFCON "Experiment"] 212.796.0735
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snamo
Boot

Joined: 14 Apr 2006
Posts: 12

 		[DEFCON "Experiment"] 212.796.0735
excuse me if this has already been found, or is part of another arg..but
A friend found this on Digg

http://digg.com/links/The_212-796-0735_mystery

Apparently someone put an odd classified ad in Craigslist with a phone number. yea, ok, pretty normal. but when you call, it's multiple recordings reading off a long series of numbers.



Edit: Updated topic in light of latest post. -SpaceBass

PostPosted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 4:38 pm
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GuyP
Unfettered


Joined: 15 Sep 2004
Posts: 584
Location: London, UK

 		Cutting to the chase:

May 8th. Craiglist NY. Message reads:

Quote:
For mein fraulein

Mein Fraulein, I haven't heard from you in a while. Won't you
call me? 212 //// 796 //// 0735

Calling the number gets a pre-recorded message, with each block of numbers repeated twice.
Quote:
Group 415
01305 60510 12079 04606 50100
93000 08203 90130 94069 01207
81080 17028 01706 90220 73038
01401 70150 15073 00402 00680
12013 12510 00540 04091 01401
30150 86022 09608 10660 02082
05507 00020 00000 02208 30290
08022 01200 40710 13065 02709
40190 29014 02200 80020 11083
07300 30260 19000 00700 00000
86


[url="http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/mis/165936352.html"]Message two[/url]. 29th May. SF missed connections. Reads:

Quote:
Mein Fraulein,

You must call me again soon.

///415///704///0402///


New pre-recorded message:

Quote:
Group 617
06107 80020 21085 00601 30690
06079 01201 50240 07006 01601
70690 95000 01702 40050 14024
00908 70220 67089 07401 00820
10086 07801 30240 04016 02707
30130 15006 09306 91120 20084
00000 00210 03070 03107 60490
65023 02706 70000 07016 01201
7

Note that the initial "Group" number seems to indicate where the next message will be placed - 415 is the area code for San Francisco. 617 is the area code for Boston.

Lots of interesting discussion and comments in the two blog postings, here and here, along with MP3 recordings of the messages. The current working theory seems to be numbers are, in fact, in groups of three rather than groups of five. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled on Boston's craigslist!

PostPosted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:59 pm
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mork
Boot

Joined: 04 Jun 2006
Posts: 11

 		I haven't been interested in an ARG in a while, but this one peaked my interest (if it is in fact an ARG).

Either way, it is very interesting. I think, hoax or not, a message is contained within the code. If its some marketing thing, I sure hope it isn't for Lost or Perplex City or some other old-hat thing..

Having recently read some articles on cyphers/etc I thought I could put my new-found knowledge to work on this one.. however, it has only shown me how limited my knowledge is. Smile

I'll save you the details of the dozens of things I've tried, but this is the only thing I think useful to provide at this stage.

Below is a histogram/frequency table of the #'s which appear in the code - this assumes the 3-digit groupings theory is valid (which I like.. )

The first set of #'s in groupings of 3 digits is:
Quote:

013 056 051 012 079 046 065 010 093 000
082 039 013 094 069 012 078 108 017 028
017 069 022 073 038 014 017 015 015 073
004 020 068 012 013 125 100 054 004 091
014 013 015 086 022 096 081 066 002 082
055 070 002 000 000 022 083 029 008 022
012 004 071 013 065 027 094 019 029 014
022 008 002 011 083 073 003 026 019 000
007 000 000 086



The second set is:
Quote:

061 078 002 021 085 006 013 069 006
079 012 015 024 007 006 016 017 069
095 000 017 024 005 014 024 009 087
022 067 089 074 010 082 010 086 078
013 024 004 016 027 073 013 015 006
093 069 112 020 084 000 000 021 003
070 031 076 049 065 023 027 067 000
007 016 012 017



If you look at the frequency of occurance of #'s in the first message you get the following:
Quote:

6: 000
5: 013
5: 022
4: 012
3: 002
3: 004
3: 014
3: 015
3: 017
3: 073
2: 008
2: 019
2: 029
2: 065
2: 069
2: 082
2: 083
2: 086
2: 094
1: 003
1: 007
1: 010
1: 011
1: 020
1: 026
1: 027
1: 028
1: 038
1: 039
1: 046
1: 051
1: 054
1: 055
1: 056
1: 066
1: 068
1: 070
1: 071
1: 078
1: 079
1: 081
1: 091
1: 093
1: 096
1: 100
1: 108
1: 125



For the second set you get:
Quote:

4: 000
4: 006
4: 024
3: 013
3: 016
3: 017
3: 069
2: 007
2: 010
2: 012
2: 015
2: 021
2: 027
2: 067
2: 078
1: 002
1: 003
1: 004
1: 005
1: 009
1: 014
1: 020
1: 022
1: 023
1: 031
1: 049
1: 061
1: 065
1: 070
1: 073
1: 074
1: 076
1: 079
1: 082
1: 084
1: 085
1: 086
1: 087
1: 089
1: 093
1: 095
1: 112


Now, they could be randomly generated numbers, but the frequency of occurence as it is for several numbers indicates that it may not be random at all (though it could well be - don't discount it!).. Further, a good cypher aims to appear as random as possible (i.e. a fairly even distribution of occurences of numbers). This alone is my reason for believing there is a message within (and perhaps the 'code' is not overly sophisticated).

There are some commonalities between the two messages - values like 000 and 013 occur frequently in both. With sufficient messages, one might be able to conclude they have been encrypted in the same manner.

I'm anxious to see a thrid message to see if at least 000 and 013 continue to occur frequently..

Attached are the MP3's of the recordings of the phone messages.
212-796-0735.mp3
Description  [MP3] Recording from 212-796-0735
 mp3

 Download 
Filename  212-796-0735.mp3 
Filesize  1.53MB 
Downloaded  183 Time(s) 
415-704-0402.mp3
Description  [MP3] Recording from 415-704-0402
 mp3

 Download 
Filename  415-704-0402.mp3 
Filesize  1.26MB 
Downloaded  156 Time(s) 

PostPosted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 4:23 am
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logic_phyber
Boot

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 53
Location: Wilmington, nc us

 		We must also remember that while groups of 3 seem to be the current thinking, it may not be groups of 3 or groups of 5. The easiest way to group characters after encoding is to group them in groups of 5, so this 5 grouping could easily be arbitrary. Beyond that, why are people saying that it is groups of 3? Or is that just the current guess?
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:23 pm
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Ehsan
Entrenched

Joined: 09 May 2003
Posts: 992
logic_phyber wrote:
We must also remember that while groups of 3 seem to be the current thinking, it may not be groups of 3 or groups of 5. The easiest way to group characters after encoding is to group them in groups of 5, so this 5 grouping could easily be arbitrary. Beyond that, why are people saying that it is groups of 3? Or is that just the current guess?


Patterns. Basically when trying to find the correct grouping, you try to find different patterns.

The first step is to find possible divisors for the length of each message:
Message 1 - 252 characters - 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 14, 18, 21 etc.
Message 2 - 201 characters - 1, 3, 67 etc.

So they only share the 1 and 3.

However if you don't have an obvious divisor, you can group them and start looking for the patterns. Without going into details of each grouping, when you try it with 3 you find that the range for all the numbers becomes 000 to 125 (a very plausible range) and they all mostly start with a 0, with the 000 group separating numbers every once in a while. It's almost impossible for this to be a coincidence, so the grouping of 3 is a very plausible conclusion and there's no reason to explore other options which don't present any viable patterns.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:42 pm
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jlr1001
Decorated

Joined: 06 Jun 2006
Posts: 210

 		Possible Hint Dropped At Digg.com...
Hopefully this amounts to something--being that this would be my first ARG (as a participant) I'm crossing my fingers that this is an actual trailhead.

Anyway, over at the digg conversation about these craiglist messages someone posted what might be a hint:

http://digg.com/links/The_212-796-0735_mystery#c1890235

I find it interesting that it's a) actually an insightful speculation as to the type of cypher these numbers might be and b) it's the only post by this person...

Following their suggestion (and contrary to their post) I was able to visit the page about the Secom cipher, find a piece of software for encoding and decoding texts, and have been trying to make headway there...

Nothing yet, but here's what I did. Since the Secom cipher encodes messages as groups of five digits--and, again, I'm assuming that the person who suggested the cipher was giving a valid clue--I rearranged the numbers so they fit the scheme...

41501 30560 51012 07904 60650
10093 00008 20390 13094 06901
20781 08017 02801 70690 22073
03801 40170 15015 07300 40200
68012 01312 51000 54004 09101
40130 15086 02209 60810 66002
08205 50700 02000 00002 20830
29008 02201 20040 71013 06502
70940 19029 01402 20080 02011
08307 30030 26019 00000 70000
00086

I took the "415" from the group name and appended it to the first set of numbers. I then shifted everything to the right until, ultimately, the final three "0" shifted to the left of the "86" to form the last set of five numbers.

So it seems this could possibly work. (Although this won't work for the second set of numbers, my guess is the missing number is included in this encoded message).

Now, the hang-up... I don't have (or haven't yet noticed) the encryption key. The Secom software requires a key with a least twenty letters.

If I'm on the right track, the key's probably in the song that plays before we hear the numbers in the voice mail. There's some debate over whether it's "A Journey to Brussels" by Great War or "Little Black Heart" by A-Ha.

That's all I have for now...



-jlr1001

PostPosted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:52 pm
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Randomeis
Unfettered


Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 426
Location: AL

 		Googled this out of the Washington DC Craigslist w4w (women for women) ads - not current but in the cache

Beautiful Blue Eyed Fraulein Ready for Organic Dining (NW)

Quote:

Date: 2006-05-29, 3:13PM EDT


This posting has been deleted by its author.

165815660


Since fraulien is not a word in modern usage I found it interesting.
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:03 pm
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Phaedra
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Joined: 21 Sep 2004
Posts: 4033
Location: Here, obviously
Randomeis wrote:
Googled this out of the Washington DC Craigslist w4w (women for women) ads - not current but in the cache

Beautiful Blue Eyed Fraulein Ready for Organic Dining (NW)

Quote:

Date: 2006-05-29, 3:13PM EDT


This posting has been deleted by its author.

165815660


Since fraulien is not a word in modern usage I found it interesting.


It could just indicate that she is German.
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:10 pm
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jlr1001
Decorated

Joined: 06 Jun 2006
Posts: 210
Quote:
It could just indicate that she is German.


True, though we might never find out...

(One "clue" for this not being a related post is that the other messages were taken down, I believe, by Craigslist. The fact that the auther removed this message could be telling).

I'm thinking this is just a coincidence.


-jlr1001

PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:46 pm
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matalanifesto
Boot


Joined: 15 Jan 2006
Posts: 61

 		its definatly the terrible Aha track, there is some discussion on it and they play it on Off the Hook, you can listen to it at 2600.com in a few hours. they've been on it for a few weeks.

the off the hook and off the wall radio shows have sections on these numbers for the past couple of weeks you can catch them in the archives, but there is no analysis on the level here.

a few of the numbers sound like they are read by a couple of the hosts of the show.

plus the numberstations are using asterisk, an opensource pbx. and the group is named after something all phreakers will know the 2600Hz tone.

they deny a link.

PostPosted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:39 pm
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Cousarr
Boot


Joined: 10 May 2006
Posts: 17

 		If it's a stream cipher and the key was reused, here's Unencrypted Message 1 XOR Unencrypted Message 2 as a running key cypher. I did this by hand, so there might be errors strewn about.

Code:
050 118 049 025 025 026 040 079 090
079 094 040 021 019 089 028 095 041
078 028 000 093 019 071 062 007 070
025 076 016 078 030 022 006 091 033
105 046 000 075 021 069 002 089 016
061 020 050 022 006 055 070 023 003
070 009 031 044 073 001 023 071 071
010 081 023 079


PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:30 am
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etx
Kilroy

Joined: 08 Jun 2006
Posts: 1

 		Boston!!
GuyP wrote:
In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled on Boston's craigslist!


Nice! Great call! But it seems we missed it!

http://boston.craigslist.org/mis/168612997.html

edit: huge url

I've been watching args for a bit now, but this really made me think. I saw it on digg and thought immediately thought ARG. So let's figure this thing out, wither it's an arg or not! Wink

So how do we get the deleted message from the Boston Craigs list?


EDIT:

Ok! I just did some searching and found some more info. From googles cache I found this:
Quote:

Mein Fraulein last modified: Tue, 6 Jun 13:12 EDT ... Mein Fraulein, You must call me again soon. ///301///518///8895/// ...


Also, the Boston number is posted on http://www.shoutwire.com/comments/14941/The_212_796_0735_Mystery

Here is the post:
Quote:
Did you guys see this post he did?
For Mein Fraulein
For Mein Fraulein last modified: Fri, 2 Jun 07:21 EDT ... Mein Fraulein, I am anxious to speak with you. ///617///973///3463/// ...
boston.craigslist.org/mis/167168282.html
(they removed the link, but i put a google link where you can view it)


I'm off to call the two new numbers.

Edit 2: Ok, don't call the 301, it's some poor guys cell phone :/

PostPosted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:18 am
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Macavity
Entrenched


Joined: 25 Jul 2004
Posts: 883
Location: UNSC Comm Relay Station Alpha, West Shokan, NY
matalanifesto wrote:
its definatly the terrible Aha track, there is some discussion on it and they play it on Off the Hook, you can listen to it at 2600.com in a few hours. they've been on it for a few weeks.

the off the hook and off the wall radio shows have sections on these numbers for the past couple of weeks you can catch them in the archives, but there is no analysis on the level here.

a few of the numbers sound like they are read by a couple of the hosts of the show.

plus the numberstations are using asterisk, an opensource pbx. and the group is named after something all phreakers will know the 2600Hz tone.

they deny a link.


Yah, I heard that episode. Planning to tune in again today (7PM ET, 7415 shortwave - WBCQ Free Speech Radio) and see what comes up.

By the by, the iPod Sneakiness article in the latest issue of 2600 could be useful for us ARGonauts . . .
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 2:55 pm
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GuyP
Unfettered


Joined: 15 Sep 2004
Posts: 584
Location: London, UK

 		The third message:

Quote:
For Mein Fraulein

Mein Fraulein,

I hear the weather in the South is good this time of year. Won't you call me?

///678///248///2352///

Numbers:

Quote:
Group 134
00300 30020 79087 02202 50150
75031 06501 00110 67027 06607
90640 21079 02107 90000 72018
06501 60000 12008 06801 90180
15088 03108 40730 29024 02500
60760 79013 01107 70950 07071
01806 9070


Apparently this nix's the Boston / group-number theory as well (see the link for details.)

PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 5:51 pm
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matalanifesto
Boot


Joined: 15 Jan 2006
Posts: 61

 		[stealing someone elses observation] the message is very spyish this time round unlike the others, and breaks the US area code group naming tradition, also the message is shorter. Is this possibly an imitator? or a red herring thrown out by the people behind these messages if they don't like the fact loads of people are listening in?[/practical plagarism]

I don't know, but there are definatly a lot of differences this time around. the whole weather comment seems a like a bit of ridiculous James Bondery too far to be genuine to me and the pattern doesn't hold. so i'm drawn to the idea of an imitator/.red herring

But i got nothing substantial to back this up.

The sparrow flies at midnight.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:03 pm
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