unforum

[cemgate]

LLL email

[Caterpillar]

am trying to attach the pdf file

[Caterpillar]

Not sure what it all means...but it's labeled TO:SUSPECTS (plural) so anyone else get one?

[sapagoo]

The postal barcode looked interesting, so I did some research.
http://www.cedar.buffalo.edu/Adserv/postcode.html

The postal barcode (POSTNET) can have 52 or 62 bars in it.
Ours has 62
ll..l.ll.....l.lll.....ll....ll...llll...ll..l.l..l.l..l...ll
Separate the first and last tall bar, and then group the rest into 12 groups of 5 bars
l l..l. ll... ..l.l ll... ..ll. ...ll ...ll ll... ll.. l.l.. l.l.. l...l l
Each group of 5 bars translates to a single digit in this format
ZIP+4+2+ checksum.
The ZIP+4 you've probably seen before.
The +2 appears to be a more detailed way to find a street address.
And the checksum (as explained below) will verify that you decoded the zip correctly.

I decoded it out to 80203-1100-99 (7)
I then googled 80203-1100 and found at least 2 addresses:
"Norwest Bank For Any Metro Denver Norwest Bank Denver CO 80203-1100"
and "1775 SHERMAN ST, DENVER, CO, 80203-1100"
Then I googled "1775 Sherman St" and found several law firms:
"Friedlob Sanderson Paulson & Tourtillott, LLC"
"Wood Ris & Hames "
"Cox Padmore & Skolnik Shakarchy"
among others.
so my guess is that 80203-1100 could be in Denver's Law district.

Sapagoo

NOTE: to verify the checksum, just add all the digits together. You should
get a multiple of 10. in our example, 8+2+3+1+1+9+9+7=40, so there wasn't a problem.

[sapagoo]

and the fax number (509)756-2889. appears to be in Spokane Washington, but when I google for (509)756, I find dozens of companies from all over the map (CA, NY, NJ, MI, NC, etc) using the 509-756-xxxx block of numbers as Voice Mail/Fax numbers.

unfortunately, I can't find out who has 2889, or who gives out those numbers.

sapagoo

[grumpyboy]

From my post at CD:

The 99 at the end of the postnet zip code (80203-1100-99) is called a delivery point code. Apparently a delivery point barcode (in our case, the whole bar code including the 99) is required for bulk mail discounts.

For simple addresses without suite or box numbers, the delivery point code is the last 2 digits of the street number. Otherwise it's calculated from a complicated formula.

If you look at the blacked out parts of the address, you can make out "1775 S------n St" on the first line and "1100" at the end of the second line (it's easier to make out now that we know what the address is). The rest of the second line is probably Denver CO and the rest of the zip.

As for the return address I confirmed that the zip is indeed Tucson AZ but that zip is only for 12601 to 12699 (odd only) on E. Broadway. Further searching seem to indicate that 12701 does not exist on E. Broadway in Tucson (the street only goes up to 12699).

[cemgate]

Even their home page is citing "Shut Down Pending Gov. Investigation"

http://www.landau-luckman-lake.com/

~cem

[Varin]

lll site

[grumpyboy]

My guess is that this is the PMs way of making game registration feel in-game. Either that or one of these days, the FBI is gonna knock down my door.

[Guest]

First post and my first taste of ARG! I hope I can keep up with you all. That examination of the postal barcode was pretty intense!

I did notice that the return address has the name Hexedit, as if it were a company name. There are several hexadecimal editing programs, or perhaps different versions of the same one, that you can read about if you Google.

Does this mean that the numbers either on the barcode or the address should be converted to hexadecimal or thrown through a Hexeditor? What about .wav and image files?

Hexadecimal is base 16, composed of 0-9 and then the letters A to F, where 10 = A, 15=F and at 16 it starts over again so that 16=10, 25 = 19, 26=1a, 31 = 1f and then back to 32=20 (20 = 2x16). Not sure this helps.

[erikzen]

Here's a simple decimal to hexadecimal converter:

http://natali.mine.nu/test2.html

80203 = 1394b
1100 = 44c
99 = 63
12701 = 319d
85748 = 14ef4
7208 = 1c28
1775 = 6ef

Is this going anywhere?

[drz]

I did a bit of research on the hexedit program and found the names of the original developer and the two people who have taken over. One of them Max Horn had no website; another Nicholas Shanks had a site under construction and the third, Lane Roathe had a valid web page. When I visited that page, the Projects Link led to a page where 4 separate links led to the same page. I wrote to Lane and asked her about it.

Is this a simple typo or a real clue? Do we have a link to the PMs?

[drz]

Hexedit Follow up

[grumpyboy]

Did a bit more research and found that the whole structure at the upper right corner of the envelop is an Information Based Indicium (IBI) or PC postage developed by the US Postal Service.

More specific details:
(1) The seven vertical marks is called a Facing Indentification Mark or FIM and is used by the cancelling machines to sort mail according to whether or not they have bar code and their postage requirements. The specific one on the L3 envelope is a FIM D, which is used only with IBI postage.

(2) $0.37 is consistant for first class mail from zip 85748 to 80203 for a letter weighing less than or equal to 1 oz. So whatever was sent was not big or heavy.

(3) The 12 alphanumeric sequence below the barcode is the Device ID/type from which the IBI was printed. From the format of the IBI, it appears that the IBI was printed from product/service provided by endicia.com (other providers are pitneyworks.com, stamps.com and simplypostage.com). In addition, although I'm not sure which digits on the sequence stands for what but from the demo pics on the endicia site, the first 8 digits are the same as those on our envelope (maybe the first part of the sequence is a supplier code and the last part is the specific customer?).

(4) *IF* this was a real IBI, the barcode would be PDF417 and would contain encrypted information containing a unique digital signature for verifying that the postage info has not been tampered with. It would also contain various processing information. From the examples I've seen for real IBI's, the barcode should have more columns and rows though. So either the PMs made a dummy barcode to hide some info OR had to make one because what they cut and paste from the web had "void" on it (which is what i saw on endicia.com)

I'm not any closer to finding what's on that barcode (if anything at all) but sure learning a lot about the US postal service.

[Spuds]

LLL Envelope...