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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
[Lucrezia] strange email upon subscription: test or puzzle?
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fog
Boot

Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 23

 		[Lucrezia] strange email upon subscription: test or puzzle?
I am pretty new to ARGs so please be nice and don't bash me too much if this is a FAQ or something like that. I was dragged to this forum by the ./ announcement about ilovebees but not loving xbox i just ended browsing the forum. Then I subscribed and about 48h later I received a mail than was barely accepted by my spam filter. It does not seem spam so I tought it can be some kind of puzzle/test sent to new subscribers...

Code:
From: tolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
To: undiscosed recipients;

Here comes a spider under my skin. It was rain and rain and rain
washing my clothes clean. Only they weren't my clothes. How clean
can a soul be? Beautiful soul, leave me alone.

Rain. Rain. Rain. This is not a game.


The email had no subject, no date, no recipients and the headers were the bare minimum necessary for SMTP transfer. But apparently it does not contains any clues too.. ideas/hints?

PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 10:39 am
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Tien_Le
Charter Member


Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 878
Location: corner of no and where

 		hmmm
yahoo.it Is that Italy? Some of our Italian friends trying their hands at being Puppetmasters?
_________________
consume less; live more

PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 10:50 am
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phammond
Boot

Joined: 31 Jul 2004
Posts: 14
Location: Germany

 		Interesting. Is it possible someone is just toying with you?
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P. Hammond

PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 11:07 am
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fog
Boot

Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 23

 		Re: hmmm
Tien_Le wrote:
yahoo.it Is that Italy? Some of our Italian friends trying their hands at being Puppetmasters?


It is Italy, yes. I didn't mentioned that in the previous message but I am from Italy too and that seemed very strange (I even started thinking about what information I put in the subscription form).

I also guessed if that can be a joke by some of my friends but I don't think I talked about ARG to any of them.

No newbie-test, then? Very Happy Going back to lurk-mode...

PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 11:09 am
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carlitoxxi
Veteran

Joined: 26 Sep 2002
Posts: 140

 		Italiano? Mitico, un fratello! E la comunità cresce Smile

PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 4:04 pm
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carlitoxxi
Veteran

Joined: 26 Sep 2002
Posts: 140

 		This is what i've received, same method, no subject, no date, etc.

Quote:
From: tolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
To: undiscosed recipients;
Go ahead says the spider. Spider ahead says my head.
Rain rain rain. Where are you today? tic-tic-toc used to say.
Rain pouring down on the glass, will'o'wisp dancing the night.
And you were. Just. There.


PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 9:13 pm
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Cyfre
Boot

Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 63
Location: Tampa FL

 		I mailed tolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it with the following:

Don't be afraid of snakes in the garden
when there are spiders in your bed.
Don't try to block out the memories
because they are already in your head.
In the shadows where they play.
You can run and hide in the day
but come night there's a price to pay.

-Christopher S - Whitehall, MT.

Now that i re-read it, i'm noticing it looks a bit threatening! I didn't mean to do that. I doubt i'll even see a response. But if i do, i'll surely relay the info.
_________________
Today, a young man on acid realized all matter is merely energy condensed into a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream in which imagination of ourselves.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2004 2:33 am
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fog
Boot

Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 23
Cyfre wrote:
I mailed tolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it with the following:


I mailed that address too a couple of days ago but until now no answer. I note that the emails were sent to two italian guys here so it probably is some kind of joke upon us (still thinking how he/she/they did know I am italian before my second message though!)

PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 2:38 am
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BrianEnigma
Entrenched


Joined: 05 Oct 2003
Posts: 1199
Location: Pacific Northwest

 		I got a similar email from the same address, which slipped through my spam filters (removed my address in case any spammers are scraping the site for email addresses):

Quote:
From: tolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
Date: August 2, 2004 3:19:56 PM PDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Return-Path: <tolmhbe@yahoo.it>
Delivered-To: ********@sack.dreamhost.com
Received: from 66.36.208.96 (unknown [66.36.208.96]) by sack.dreamhost.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 73C6E13D89D for <********@netninja.com>; Mon, 2 Aug 2004 15:19:56 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <20040802221956.73C6E13D89D@sack.dreamhost.com>
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.61 (1.212.2.1-2003-12-09-exp) on sack.dreamhost.com
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=3.2 required=5.0 tests=MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT, NO_REAL_NAME autolearn=no version=2.61
X-Spam-Level: ***

This is probably just a test. Or maybe not. Surely this is not a game.
It can be an email. Intangible are those electrons moving like drunk
ducks through my toughts. World is shattering and shards of reality
are punching and tearing at my dreams. Is that liberty? Or just marble.

Cubes, only cubes pouring from everywhere. And the rain.


Without further information, I am going to guess that this is a joke or some kind of spammer fishing trip (e.g. no bounce == address sent to is likely valid). The headers do not show it as having originated from a Yahoo machine. In fact, a traceroute shows a similar address in the same Class C (66.36.208.2) that is registered in Mozambique.
_________________
Y0 Resources / VP Wiki / PXC Catalog / Metacortex

PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 6:53 pm
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fog
Boot

Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 23

 		got mail
I got mail from the tolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it address right now. It is a strange email for various reasons:

1. there is a real (italian) name in it: Lucrezia Ricci
2. she put an aol.com address in the to: field but I was bcc:
3. she refers to 4 mails but as far as I know only me and Cyfre wrote her
4. the style is really different from the anonymous mails
5. the mail really comes from yahoo.it

Here it is (removed some headers to protect email addresses, etc.):
Quote:
Received: from web52107.mail.yahoo.com (web52107.mail.yahoo.com
[206.190.39.76]) by ...
Message-ID: <20040803075306.74180.qmail@web52107.mail.yahoo.com>
From: "Lucrezia Ricci" <tolmhbe@yahoo.it>
Subject: please stop bugging me
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 09:53:06 +0200 (CEST)

four emails about bugs and snakes and spiders are more
than enough. i use this email for work and i don't
want to have it filled with your stupid messages. i
will unsubscribe from orkut, but please stop.




________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Mail: gratis 100 MB per i messaggi e allegati da 10 MB
http://mail.yahoo.it


I note she cite orkut, but I don't have the time to check it right now (busy at work). That's all. Confused

PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 4:04 am
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sapagoo
Charter Member


Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 1213
Location: Atlanta, GA

 		Re: got mail
fog wrote:
I got mail from the tolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it address right now. It is a strange email for various reasons:

1. there is a real (italian) name in it: Lucrezia Ricci
2. she put an aol.com address in the to: field but I was bcc:
3. she refers to 4 mails but as far as I know only me and Cyfre wrote her
4. the style is really different from the anonymous mails
5. the mail really comes from yahoo.it
......
Quote:

but please stop.


I note she cite orkut, but I don't have the time to check it right now (busy at work). That's all. Confused


Since it's very easy to send "spam" and spoof someone's e-mail address, there is a good chance that this isn't a game, and that we should lay off e-mailing the tolmhbe address.

if it turns out to be a game, (and not harassment), we'll figure it out.

sapagoo

PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 10:02 am
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Cyfre
Boot

Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 63
Location: Tampa FL

 		I've received two e-mails from the address, and both were asking to stop. I initially sent the one e-mail, of course i'm not going to continue sending e-mails if the response tells me it's not part of a game. But today i received a second e-mail, the exact same mail as the last person who received the mail about the person getting four of them. I wrote back and explained that someone received an e-mail and thought it may have been part of an ARG. I included the web address to this thread so he or she can look it up on their own. =)
_________________
Today, a young man on acid realized all matter is merely energy condensed into a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream in which imagination of ourselves.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 3:20 pm
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Cyfre
Boot

Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 63
Location: Tampa FL

 		Alright, so i've just cut and pasted the back-and-forth e-mail interaction i've had with Tolmhbe, aka Lucrezia. Let me know what you all think.

----------------------------------------------------------

From: (me)
To: TolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
Subject: (none)

Don't be afraid of snakes in the garden
when there are spiders in your bed.
Don't try to block out the memories
because they are already in your head.
In the shadows where they play.
You can run and hide in the day
but come night there's a price to pay.

------------------------------------------------

From: TolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
To: (me)
Subject: please stop

Mr. Meeks,

yours is second email I receive with some rhymes
in it. my friends suggested using orkut to find
other people interested in architecture
and i did not wanted to just "meet friends".

I use this email address mostly for work so, can you
please stop writing me? I will be out for work for
about 10 days, so i will not be able to answer you
anyway.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

From: TolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
To: (me)
Subject: please stop bugging me

four emails about bugs and snakes and spiders are more
than enough. i use this email for work and i don't
want to have it filled with your stupid messages. i
will unsubscribe from orkut, but please stop.

------------------------------------------------------------------

From: (me)
To: TolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
Subject: Re: please stop bugging me

I sent you one e-mail, which you responded to asking me to stop. So i stopped. =) Let me explain to you why you are receiving these strange e-mails, okay? There is a website (http://www.unfiction.com/) that people frequent, people who are interested in ARG (Alternate Reality Gaming). For an explanation of Alternate Reality Gaming, feel free to visit unfiction.com. At any rate, someone started a message thread that they received an e-mail from your address stating the following:

From: tolmbeSPLATyahoo.it
To: undisclosed recipients

Here comes a spider under my skin. It was rain and rain and rain washing my clothes clean. Only they weren't my clothes. How clean can a soul be? Beautiful soul, leave me alone.

Rain. Rain. Rain. This is not a game.


The person who received this e-mail thought it was definitely a strange e-mail, and thought it might be a lead-in to an ARG. So, they posted it on this message board looking for assistance. The people you mailed you, likely did it to find out whether this was part of an internet game or not. Your response of "please leave me alone" is more than enough to convince me that this is not part of an ARG.

I won't bother you again, and i apologize for any inconvenience my ONE e-mail may have caused. But i won't take responsibility for the other three e-mails you received. I will, however, post on the message board that you do not want to receive any more e-mails of this nature. If you are interested in viewing the message thread, please cut and paste the following address to your browser:

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5185

Thanks,
Nathan
Florida, USA

PS- All of this has nothing to do with Orkut. Infact, i had never heard or Orkut before you mentioned it in this e-mail!

------------------------------------------------------------------

From: TolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
To: (me)
Subject: Re: please stop bugging me

> According to the person who initially posted the
> message, they found it in
> the e-mail you wrote them!

this is so strange... i feel like i ought to remember
something but i don't know why.

don't worry for my flight, i was only delayed a couple
of days and i'll depart tomorrow. no strange emails
for at least 20 days!

lucrezia

------------------------------------------------------------------

From: (me)
To: TolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
Subject: Re: please stop bugging me

> Here comes a spider under my skin. It was rain and
> rain and rain washing my
> clothes clean. Only they weren't my clothes. How
> clean can a soul be?
> Beautiful soul, leave me alone.

According to the person who initially posted the message, they found it in the e-mail you wrote them! I have personally never heard it in my life, but i do agree that it brings a number of images and feelings to mind. It's kind of a nice little verse, if you ask me. =)

You don't have to apologize for the way you reacted. I'm sure i would get a little bent out of shape if i started receiving all these strange e-mails about spiders for no apparent reason. And i'm sorry to hear your flight was cancelled! Hope things work out for you in the future.

Thanks, Nathan

-----------------------------------------------------------------

From: TolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
To: (me)
Subject: ...

Don't. Trust. Her. Nathan.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The last e-mail is the interesting part, beyond all this skirting around the subject of a flight she was supposed to take.

Internet header information for the last "please stop bugging me" mail from Lucrezia:

Return-Path: <tolmhbe@yahoo.it>
Received: from rly-yh01.mx.aol.com (rly-yh01.mail.aol.com [172.18.180.65]) by air-yh02.mail.aol.com (v100.26) with ESMTP id MAILINYH23-2a4410ffc6f161; Tue, 03 Aug 2004 17:40:34 -0400
Received: from web52106.mail.yahoo.com (web52106.mail.yahoo.com [206.190.39.75]) by rly-yh01.mx.aol.com (v100.23) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINYH16-2a4410ffc6f161; Tue, 03 Aug 2004 16:58:24 -0400
Message-ID: <20040803205814.26360.qmail@web52106.mail.yahoo.com>
Received: from [66.36.208.4] by web52106.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Tue, 03 Aug 2004 22:58:14 CEST
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 22:58:14 +0200 (CEST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Lucrezia=20Ricci?= <tolmhbe@yahoo.it>
Subject: Re: please stop bugging me
To: LucasMeeksSPLATaol.com
In-Reply-To: <8e.1152900d.2e414c3a@aol.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-AOL-IP: 206.190.39.75
X-AOL-SCOLL-SCORE: 0:0:0:
X-AOL-SCOLL-URL_COUNT: 0

-------------------------------------

Header info from the "..." e-mail:

Return-Path: <tolmhbe@yahoo.it>
Received: from rly-xl02.mx.aol.com (rly-xl02.mail.aol.com [172.20.83.71]) by air-xl02.mail.aol.com (v100.26) with ESMTP id MAILINXL22-5bd4110085f103; Tue, 03 Aug 2004 17:49:35 -0400
Received: from brithol.brithol.com (ip113.satcom.co.mz [66.36.208.113]) by rly-xl02.mx.aol.com (v100.23) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINXL29-5bd4110085f103; Tue, 03 Aug 2004 17:49:22 -0400
Received: (qmail 3325 invoked by uid 500); 3 Aug 2004 21:42:18 -0000
Received: from tolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it by brithol by uid 92 with qmail-scanner-1.20
(spamassassin: 2.63. Clear:RC:1(127.0.0.1):SA:0(0.3/6.0):.
Processed in 0.446701 secs); 03 Aug 2004 21:42:18 -0000
X-Qmail-Scanner-Mail-From: tolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it via brithol
X-Qmail-Scanner: 1.20 (Clear:RC:1(127.0.0.1):SA:0(0.3/6.0):. Processed in 0.446701 secs)
Received: from unknown (HELO brithol) (127.0.0.1)
by localhost with SMTP; 3 Aug 2004 21:42:17 -0000
Received: from lamu.initd.org ([172.30.254.152] [172.30.254.152])
by localhost (VaMailArmor-2.0.1.16) id 00647-2895B29E;
Tue, 03 Aug 2004 23:40:52 +0200
FROM: tolmhbeSPLATyahoo.it
To: LucasMeeksSPLATaol.com
Subject: ...
Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2004 23:37:03 +0200
Message-Id: <1091569023.3328.7.666@localhost>
X-AntiVirus: checked by Vexira MailArmor (version: 2.0.1.16; VAE: 6.26.0.10; VDF: 6.26.0.57; host: brithol.brithol.com)
X-Spam-DCC: :
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on brithol.brithol.com
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.3 required=6.0 tests=NO_REAL_NAME autolearn=no
version=2.63
X-AOL-IP: 66.36.208.113
X-AOL-SCOLL-SCORE: 0:0:0:
X-AOL-SCOLL-URL_COUNT: 0

----------------------------------

Anyone have any thoughts on this?
_________________
Today, a young man on acid realized all matter is merely energy condensed into a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream in which imagination of ourselves.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 11:09 pm
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fog
Boot

Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 23

 		The last email is much like the forged ones: very few haders (no content type, for example) and does not come from yahoo.

I had to read all the exchange a couple of times before noticing that: how the forger knows your name?. I mean, you signed the email to Lucrezia with your real name so she knows, but the person (people?) sending the not-from-yahoo mail need to have a connection to her (or her yahoo password) to know that right? This smell fish.

Also she cited orkut two times. The site was not working last night but I'll check again today and see what can I discover.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 1:45 am
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fog
Boot

Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 23
fog wrote:
Also she cited orkut two times. The site was not working last night but I'll check again today and see what can I discover.


Just checked for "Lucrezia Ricci" on orkut. She exists (account quite new I think, only 3 friends and a couple of groups.)

Now, the photo, that's strange. It has some kind of watermark, a pattern of very light (on my monitor) horizontal lines. Going to work right now, so I don't have much time to analyze in-depth. Maybe someone else with an orkut account.. Wink

PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 1:50 am
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