I was wondering if you forwarded all of that poor bastard's contact information to an entire mailing list with malicious intent, or if you simply didn't think about it. Then it occurs to me that anyone that randomly sends email full of contact info to people they don't know is kind of asking for it. Question is, no matter how much someone asks for it, is it ok to sock it to them?

-----Original Message-----
From: McMeikan, Andrew [mailto:andrew.mcmeikan@mitswa.com.au]
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2000 9:14 PM
To: 'k.brown@ccs.bbk.ac.uk'
Cc: cypherpunks
Subject: RE: Survey meters.

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I think the simplest is probably true, they genuinely are after something,
they do a quick web search and a mass mail out to all matches.

I got this one which I can only attribute to the <<TUNNEL CONNECTION BETWEEN
DIVING TANK AND DEEP DIVING SIMULATOR IN CHINA-DSIGN & BUILD PROJECT>> above
method. (included
for entertainment value)
 

It is probably hard for people in some countries to get their hands on
certain equipment and thus end up resorting to Spam.

A 'sting' operation would be one where the only response would be one that
confirmed guilt, I think these are just mis-directed pleas for help, when
they should be doing a little more research and approaching only those
that can help.

The paranoid side of me notes a certain similarity in style (has anyone
else received emails like these?)

        cya,    Andrew...

- -----Original Message-----
From:   Ken Brown [SMTP:k.brown@ccs.bbk.ac.uk]
Sent:   Wednesday, November 29, 2000 10:19 PM
To:     Anis Ahmed Sheikh
Cc:     cypherpunks
Subject:        Re: Survey meters.

I was 99% sure that these posts were some sort of spam-scam, whose
purpose I didn't quite get.  (Am I falling for it by replying?)

And about 1% doubtful that it might be a genuine company who had somehow
been tricked into sending mail to toad. In which case, if you are
reading this, know that your mail got sent to an obsolete gateway to a
discussion list on the political and economic effects of new
communication technologies & cryptography and we don't now anything
about scintillation meters (I haven't used one since September).

But what if, just what if, it is some crazy snoop trying to fish for
illegal arms dealers? Are they that crass? Are they that imaginative? Do
they really have that much time and money to play with? Are these the
sort of people who have been so successful in getting Iraq to disarm?

(if there are any intelligence agents reading this, that last bit was an
example of "irony". This paragraph is "sarcasm".   You need to know
about those things to decode communications between civilians. Look it
up in the handbook. It will be in the exam.)

Ken

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