kernelmag.com calls "numbers station", station now refers callers to "backup channel" - Polidicks

[url=http://www.kernelmag.com/features/report/4903/we-called-a-secret-mi6-phone-number/]First article[/url], in where they call the number after they received it from an anonymous source. [media]http://soundcloud.com/kernelmag/the-lincolnshire-poacher[/media] [url=http://www.kernelmag.com/features/report/4947/did-we-take-out-mi6s-secret-line/]Second article[/url] after calling the station would get you the following "number unavailable" message. [media]http://soundcloud.com/kernelmag/the-lincolnshire-poacher-is[/media] [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincolnshire_Poacher_(numbers_station)]Wikipedia article on the "Lincolnshire Poacher"[/url] Facepunch is historically good in solving ARGs, this might not be so alternate (or a game) and having a go at it might possibly get you killed. :v: Might still be a hoax to get some pageviews, but I doubt it.

It's got to take balls to phone up a number associated with MI6. I certainly would fear the consequences of doing so.

How so? [editline]7th September 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Genericenemy;42108298]It's got to take balls to phone up a number associated with MI6. I certainly would fear the consequences of doing so.[/QUOTE]

God damn it the first recording creeps me out Hello, new voicemail

Brb making a tinfoil hat

I've always found numbers stations to be fascinating. They're so simple and do so little, yet they're such an oddity.

[QUOTE=Binladen34;42108311]How so? [/QUOTE] Perhaps the fact that you're calling a station used by MI6 Operatives to communicate mission information overseas?

[QUOTE=Chief Martini;42108575]Perhaps the fact that you're calling a station used by MI6 Operatives to communicate mission information overseas?[/QUOTE] What's scary about MI6?

[QUOTE=Teddybeer;42108667]Well it got called by people that shouldn't and could probably spread it somehow. It wouldn't be hard for say the NSA to list the people who have called those and start executing people for being spies.[/QUOTE] I hope this is a joke.

number stations are probably the most boring fucking thing ever to be played-up.

[QUOTE=pfoot;42108759]number stations are probably the most boring fucking thing ever to be played-up.[/QUOTE] They creep me out. It's mostly the little tunes they play. :( Though I'd love to know more about them. :j

[QUOTE=Binladen34;42108623]What's scary about MI6?[/QUOTE] Generally not a good idea to fuck with the brass of any country.

Hey, MI6, if you don't want your messages (which are worthless without the decoder code thingy) snooped, don't broadcast them on regular fuckin' shortwave or on a telephone number that literally anyone can call.

Fucking with stuff that probably really does have an effect on national security probably isn't the best of ideas. If this is real that is. [QUOTE=Riller;42108849]Hey, MI6, if you don't want your messages (which are worthless without the decoder code thingy) snooped, don't broadcast them on regular fuckin' shortwave or on a telephone number that literally anyone can call.[/QUOTE] Uh they have to be that easy to listen to otherwise the whole point of them goes out the window? If they were spread using means that required special equipment (such as encrypted radios) then people who need to hear them would have to have special equipment on them which would prove that they are working with the person who is transmitting it. Hypothetically a "spy" could just have a shortwave radio on them and be able to receive messages, and it isn't unreasonable for someone to own a radio so it isn't suspicious.

[QUOTE=Jsm;42108987] Uh they have to be that easy to listen to otherwise the whole point of them goes out the window? If they were spread using means that required special equipment (such as encrypted radios) then people who need to hear them would have to have special equipment on them which would prove that they are working with the person who is transmitting it. Hypothetically a "spy" could just have a shortwave radio on them and be able to receive messages, and it isn't unreasonable for someone to own a radio so it isn't suspicious.[/QUOTE] Which is exactly why shit like this [I]doesn't[/I] have an effect on national or operative security. If there was anything of value to snoop up for third parties on numbers stations, trust me, every talibob and his grandmother would be listening to it in the shower. There's not. No one is put in danger unless they have a copy of the decoder-thingy for the day at hand.

[QUOTE=Riller;42109015]Which is exactly why shit like this [I]doesn't[/I] have an effect on national or operative security. If there was anything of value to snoop up for third parties on numbers stations, trust me, every talibob and his grandmother would be listening to it in the shower. There's not. No one is put in danger unless they have a copy of the decoder-thingy for the day at hand.[/QUOTE] The fact that they have shut it down could have an effect, that is what I meant. If it is actually being used to transmit stuff and now it isn't that could cause problems for people.

[QUOTE=Jsm;42109029]The fact that they have shut it down could have an effect, that is what I meant. If it is actually being used to transmit stuff and now it isn't that could cause problems for people.[/QUOTE] The end of the new message does offer instructions on what to do instead. They clearly had a backup plan all along. [editline]7th September 2013[/editline] Call backup channel RX39. She says that loud and clearly.

Number stations over the phone. That's interesting, if not a compromise of security if the calls can be intercepted. Oh well, at least the Lincolnshire Poacher is still alive in some form :v:

[QUOTE=Hizan;42109067]Number stations over the phone. That's interesting, if not a compromise of security if the calls can be intercepted. Oh well, at least the Lincolnshire Poacher is still alive in some form :v:[/QUOTE] Regular ol' shortwave numbers stations are even easier to intercept, and you can't backtrace who is intercepting them, since you're just tossing your secrets out in the wind for anyone to pick up, instead of making an actual connection to whoever is recieving. Sure, whoever can still pick it up now, but the sender will know who's recieving and can trace that.

[QUOTE=Riller;42109085]Regular ol' shortwave numbers stations are even easier to intercept, and you can't backtrace who is intercepting them, since you're just tossing your secrets out in the wind for anyone to pick up, instead of making an actual connection to whoever is recieving. Sure, whoever can still pick it up now, but the sender will know who's recieving and can trace that.[/QUOTE] They use one time pads though, they are (if done correctly) absolutely impossible to crack. The problem with a phone is that its a 1 to 1 connection, if you intercept it you know who the person (or at least the phone) that is calling it is. If you intercept a radio transmission you have no idea who the intended recipient is.

[QUOTE=Riller;42109085]Regular ol' shortwave numbers stations are even easier to intercept, and you can't backtrace who is intercepting them, since you're just tossing your secrets out in the wind for anyone to pick up, instead of making an actual connection to whoever is recieving. Sure, whoever can still pick it up now, but the sender will know who's recieving and can trace that.[/QUOTE] Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It seems a bit weird to have these 'secret messages,' as they seem, to be passed over a phone line where the person calling the number can be traced. Steam powered radio is untraceable as you mentioned and having anybody pick up the message is not really a problem since their methods of message encryption are basically unbreakable by a third party. I've only ever had one encounter with a Cuban number station at 1:00 AM while scanning around 11 MHz.

[QUOTE=Riller;42108849]Hey, MI6, if you don't want your messages (which are worthless without the decoder code thingy) snooped, don't broadcast them on regular fuckin' shortwave or on a telephone number that literally anyone can call.[/QUOTE] It's not like there are literally millions of phone numbers in the UK alone, and they're broadcasting un-decryptable messages... That channel was pretty much entirely secure until someone tipped off this website, and gave them the number - unless you're the NSA or GCHQ, with the volume of calls coming out of major cities, I imagine it's not so easy to isolate someone calling a seemingly random international number and identify that they happen to be up to no good. Unless you've seen that a website has made a certain number easily recognisable as something someone shouldn't really be calling, that would probably make it easier. Hence why they stopped using it.

It's quite sad that some of these stations are switching to telephones now. Looks like thanks to the Internet the practice of broadcasting encrypted secrets on the radio is coming to an end. I wonder how they know this is legit and not some guy who set up a recording to play when they called the number...

[QUOTE=SPESSMEHREN;42109196] I wonder how they know this is legit and not some guy who set up a recording to play when they called the number...[/QUOTE] That's a fair point, and to be honest sounds more likely. I'm not entirely sure why MI6 would text you afterwards asking you to stop calling, after all

[QUOTE=SPESSMEHREN;42109196]It's quite sad that some of these stations are switching to telephones now. Looks like thanks to the Internet the practice of broadcasting encrypted secrets on the radio is coming to an end. I wonder how they know this is legit and not some guy who set up a recording to play when they called the number...[/QUOTE] Yeah, it seems more likely for some guy to just be messing around rather than an MI6 operative who decided to go rogue and leak information to this website. Then again, that sort of thing has been happening recently. EDIT: Well, if this is some silly game or something bigger or whatever, I don't think this matters at all but I might as well bring up that all the numbers in the first telephone number, +44 1252 230 607, are all prime numbers. It's too early to jump on the "DECODE EVERY LITTLE THING" bus but I just wanted to point it out I guess.

That phone ringing in the second soundwave. Fucking hell, The Wall.

this reminds me of OTP22, with the phone number scavenging and stuff. did anyone record their calls to the number?

[QUOTE=Agoat;42108761]They creep me out. It's mostly the little tunes they play. :( Though I'd love to know more about them. :j[/QUOTE] what the fuck is :j is this some new smiley i've never heard about

Has nobody noticed that the sound of the Poacher riff in the first recording is the [I]publically-available recording from that one numbers-station album?[/I] You can even hear the same exact background noise in it. [editline]7th September 2013[/editline] That and the numbers announced do not match any of the previously-recorded numbers from the Poacher station. The others always used to be prefixed by 13. The recording is obviously the publically-available one played over a phone line that also plays numbers using a standard text-to-speech program. The Poacher signal never played any voicefiles remotely like that. Also note how clear the speech is compared to the music clip, which it ISN'T in actual recordings of the Poacher station. [editline]7th September 2013[/editline] Not only that, but the between-numbers tunes are waaaaaaay different. This is a hoax. Go home, people. Compare with: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnXPqUU6fI0[/media] Same clip.

[url=http://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/1lwnc3/we_called_a_secret_mi6_phone_number/cc3l7ir?context=3]Redditor monotoko has done some digging[/url] [quote]Dude:: 01252 230605 hangs up straight away 01252 230606 is still an active numbers station (ring it and you'll see) 01252 230608 tells me to wait for a Simon Mason. 01252 230609 seems to get stuck for about 10 seconds (saying calling) then hangs up. 01252 230610 - "Please wait while we connect your call" then goes o another country and just rings, no-one picks up. 01252 230611 suggests I dial 118 018 (Directory Enquiries) Edit: Simon Mason looks like someone who was attempting to track the numbers stations, could these just be recordings? [url]http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page14.html[/url] Edit2: Numbers owned by TelNG Limited, [url]http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=52056037[/url] Edit3: TelNG Was in turn bought out in 2009 (around the time Lincolnshire Poacher went dead???) by Hello Telecom, who provide "communications systems and services to UK corporates" Edit4: Alternatively called "Hello Technology" as you can see here: [url]http://au.linkedin.com/in/adamtruelovepacnet[/url] - US Government hacked PacNet in where that guy now works, leaked by Edward Snowden: [url]http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1266875/exclusive-us-hacked-pacnet-asia-pacific-fibre-optic-network-operator[/url] I'm calling it, there is something going on here and I can't seem to get any deeper down the rabbit hole.[/quote] -- [url=http://www.reddit.com/user/Cookie0024]Reddit posts by the author of the articles, including comments on it possibly being a hoax[/url]