Actually, the press article describes the message as an "SMS", which is a GSM Short Message Service cell-phone text message, rather than an email. This implies that the Belgian police are either routinely eavesdropping on GSM text messages, or else some intelligence service is doing so and asked them to do the local legwork. -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:dave@farber.net] Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 3:50 PM To: ip-sub-1@majordomo.pobox.com Subject: IP: Risks of bogus e-mail addresses "FROM: ObL": Risks Digest 21.68

Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 14:11:16 -0400 From: Peter Wayner Subject: Risks of bogus e-mail addresses "FROM: ObL"

Sincerely yours, *Not* Osama bin Laden?

A Filipino in Belgium ended up in jail after *receiving* a joke e-mail seemingly from Osama bin Laden (but apparently from one of his friends), asking to "stay with you for a couple of days." The man was freed only after a Catholic priest vouched for him as a regular attendee each Sunday. [http://www.vnunet.com/News/1125822]

Ah, there's nothing like putting faith in identity, keyword scanning surveillance, and data stored in computers.