SecondAgenda : Cause you to blow your iWad

For Mein Fraulein

Category : cryptography + entertainment + internet + programming

“For Mein Fraulein” or “For My Lady”. - This little mystery has slowly unfolded over the past few months when a person or persons posted a personal ad under the “missed connections” category over at Craigs List. The messages were all found under listings for different U.S. cities, followed with a short message and VoIP telephone number associated with it’s city. When the number was called, a pre-recorded message played like that of a cold-war era number station. First you hear what has been identified as “A-Ha: Little Black Heart” followed by a repeated string of numbers, with each number spoken by a different voice. A little Spooky, right?

Well that alone certainly piqued my curiousity on the subject after it popped upon a late night vistit to digg to learn that a fifth number had recently been posted. Now who doesn’t want to know what the secret message is after this obvious taunting? I think what makes it more interesting is that at the moment, is that it’s not attached to any specific movie, radio or TV show contest nor does it involve any other known alternate reality game currently in play. And the fact that it’s style hinges on technology both old and new makes it every bit more refreshing.

Insertion Point + Forensic Reconstruction

The “U.S. Dept. of” Homeland Stupidity has done an pretty good job of archiving and brain storming over all of the recorded calls to date while looking-out for any new ones. One early conclusion I’ve come to while attempting to read through all the comments on the ad-mangled blog/forum, is that they really could use some real forum software besides the wiki I stumbled across.

While that would be nice, for the moment it’s not necessary. However, what I did find interesting was a well thought out cryptanalysis followed by some well rounded discussions from the first call up to the current. And as helpful as it all is, I feel that some things may have been discarded. While this post isn’t meant as a replacement, I think a fresh set of eyes could be used to reorganize some of the missing bits of information.

Disclaimer: This might NOT be a game…

If you do manage to discover that the messages here contain sensitive information that should not be immediately made public, do not post the solution. Instead, forward the solution along with your cryptanalysis to your nearest Federal Bureau of Investigation Field Office. If you are outside the U.S., contact the Legal Attaché at your nearest American embassy or consulate. If the solution matches this criteria and is posted here as a whole, as a link to, or delivered any other way it will not get published and instead be forwarded to the FBI anyway.

Reconstructing a time-line & locations

In order to put this puzzle into any reasonable form of context, I think that the best way is to reconstruct the scenario noting all the evidence found along the way. If you think I’ve watched too much CSI you’re probably right, but computer systems like property can be treated like crime-scenes too. And unless proven otherwise, don’t simply throw away pieces of data which you think are meaningless. Because if this was all meant to be decrypted the messages ARE the clues.

So far the only absolute date known to be good is July 3rd, 2006; this would be the 5th discovered message. If anyone knows the other correct dates, let me know and I’ll update this. Otherwise this is what I’ve been so far been able to scrape from other discussions.

Anything in this section marked with “???” and zeros is simply an estimate based on the “last modified” date, and with that I can only presume that the message was originally posted within a 7-10 day period. Note: Any dates previous to July 3rd may also be inaccurate.

+Mon May 08 - 0:00?? ??? - New York (Manhattan), New York
+Mon May 29 - 7:26PM PDT - San Francisco (BayArea), California
+Sat Jun 10 - 4:52AM EDT - Atlanta, Georgia
+Mon Jul 03 - 4:48AM CDT - Little Rock, Arkansas

Since the Craigs List community has deleted most of the original messages, it’s really impossible to verify any more absolutes. And through heavy linking, Googles cache now reflects the latest deleted messages to the original posts unless some one managed to save those pages in their entirety. As a result, the timeline of when these messages were created is still somewhat sketchy at best and left entirely to approximation. Meaning if this was meant for us, any of that data in the Craigs List posting could be relevant to deciphering the encrypted numerical message.

Messages & Data Notes

Originally the messages were in groups of five and likely repeated twice for the sake of clarity. I’ve taken the extra step of breaking them down into groups of three which they all naturally appear to divide into given the obvious pattern.

Clicking the phone number will take you to Homelands details on the original message. It’s quite likely that the numbers may be completely out of service or linked to another owner. Also take note that since the VoIP accounts were all prepaid, attempting to call any of the first few numbers will likely result in a “account over balance” message. Otherwise, have an excuse prepared if someone does answer wondering why you’re calling them.

Subject: For mein fraulein - New York (Manhattan), New York
# 212-796-0735 - Telecom Provider: RNK Telecom
CL Message + VoIP Transcript:
Mein Fraulein, I haven’t heard from you in a while. Won’t you
call me? 212 //// 796 //// 0735

GROUP: 415
----------
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

Subject: For Mein Fraulein - San Francisco (BayArea), California
# 415-704-0402 - Telecom Provider: Pac-West Telecomm
CL Message + VoIP Transcript:
Mein Fraulein,
You must call me again soon.
///415///704///0402///

GROUP: 617
----------
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

Subject: For Mein Fraulein - Atlanta, Georgia
# 678-248-2352 - Telecom Provider: Global Crossing
CL Message + VoIP Transcript:
Mein Fraulein,
I hear the weather in the South is good this time of year. Won’t you call me?
///678///248///2352///

GROUP: 134
----------
003,003,002,079,087,022,025,015,075,031,065,010,
011,067,027,066,079,064,021,079,021,079,000,072,
018,065,016,000,012,008,068,019,018,015,088,031,
084,073,029,024,025,006,076,079,013,011,077,095,
007,071,018,069,070

Subject: For Mein Fraulein - Little Rock, Arkansas
# 501-588-1015 - Telecom Provider: Level 3 Communications
CL Message + VoIP Transcript:
Mein Fraulein,
Do not become disillusioned; you are more popular than you imagine. Call me.
501 //// 588 //// 1015

GROUP: 205
----------
001,079,020,079,001,009,009,080,003,027,014,069,
079,003,083,011,024,022,012,085,001,065,017,025,
006,019,079,021,067,082,086,003,027,015,000,024,
083,067,010,010,029,006,077,008,004,009,023,016,
000,078,065,065,029,004,078,013,029,019,024,014,
000,000,024,095,010,082,087,088,031,000,022,079,
013,001,020,066,018,004,003,006,076,020,000,007,
014,084,026,017,081

Analysis

If these messages were in fact put out there as puzzles to solve, then there are a few things to analyze besides the obvious groups of numbers. Primary clues are the delivery method, cities & dates on Craigs List that make up one part, while faking a number station over VoIP can be another. What possible relation besides possibly telling us that the message was either for or from the person in that particular city? Possible known about public events for that state/city on that given date might hold a clue.

One thing I did note on with the recordings is that nearly all spoken even numbers were delivered in american and british sounding accents, while the odd numbers sounded like they were spoken by people who knew english as a second or third language. It’s safe to assume that these voices could have probably been synthesized, but there’s also that chance that they’re not. If not, then they were either sampled from someone asked to speak them otherwise from any radio or tv broadcast. When’s the last time you’ve been asked by strangers to clearly speak zero through nine for them?

Anything else to consider for analysis should already have been covered by Homelands already well thought out Cryptanalysis. And nearly anything and everything else has been discussed or attempted in the series of posted replies found there. I think that this may add some clues to that with any other bits of missing information not already provided in regards to the original posts for those who wish to investigate.

Summary

There have already been several dozen, if not hundreds of proposed methods to coax a message let alone anything readable from within the array of numbers so far. And if anything there has been proven true, it’s that the messages are proving to be irreversibly encrypted. Without the original key to decipher each message, it’s contents appear to be safe between those it was intended for at the moment.

While this could be thought of as a game (a difficult one at that), it might actually be a form of intercepted communique or just scatter to occupy the time of real cryptologists. Else it could be anything already mentioned and covered. What did strike me as slightly odd was by running a quick anagram search on “Mein Fraulein” just happened to oddly return “[I RUN/RUIN] Filename”, it could just be purely coincidental. But who knows, it could even be a clue.

Whatever it turns out to be… Good luck!

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