[extropy-chat] codes in scam letters

[David Lubkin]

Kevin Freels wrote:

>True, but in the WWII model, the point is that the signal is buried in a ton
>of irrelevant information. I'm talking about regular daily conversation
>between a "student" and his "mother" oversees and such. Moreover, the sender
>sends messages to dozens of other people who are not part of the
>"conspiracy" and the mother does as well. They both receive dozens of
>messages daily as well. Every day they talk back and forth and a message
>would only be buried occasionally. We're not talking about a single
>broadcast like "the crows fly at dawn".  More like "I failed my test today"
>or "Your father hurt his back today changing a lightbulb".

But if the "student" or "mother" became a suspect, everyone they 
regularly communicate with may also be scrutinized. If the regular 
traffic (with occasional embedded messages or fragments) is through a 
mass medium -- newsgroup, blog, forum, wiki, mailing list -- devoted 
to something innocuous like fly fishing, diabetes, nude pix, or Linux 
distros, there's nothing to lead you from one player to another. And 
instead of dozens of candidates, you have 10^3 or 10^7.


-- David.