From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 1998 10:30:09 +0800
To: holist <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: bogus Hungarian disinformation.
In-Reply-To: <199811261817.KAA27682@toad.com>
Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19981126220233.008f83d0@idiom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 10:17 AM 11/26/98 -0800, holist wrote:
>I wonder if this is also old hat to you people. If it turns out to be
>another FAQ, I promise to read some.
> [Bogus saga deleted, about extortionist using anonymizers threatening
> the German government, and claiming the FBI runs the anonymizers.]

I haven't _seen_ Lance Cottrell's NSA ID badge, but many of the hard-core 
cypherpunks have them - it's amazing how official things look when they're 
laminated in plastic!  Even the one with Hugh Daniel in a tie... 

Anonymizers don't do very well for extortion yet.
Sending the anonymous message is the easy part - paper mail is much
better at anonymity, since there's much more of it, and the default
collection methods in most countries are anonymous.

Then you've got to get the targets to READ email - some do, some don't.
Email to most politicians is like paper mail to most of them - 
gets sorted by the pound, and if there's money attached you'll
get a thank-you note.

It's collecting the ransom money that's hard - without Digicash,
there's no good anonymous payment mechanism.  

>Quite a few of the messages to cypherpunks seem to come from anonymous
>remailers in the US.

I usually post anonymous postings from the Netherlands, myself.
It simplifies jurisdictional questions.
				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639