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Author Topic: New York City Cryptic Subway Code  (Read 5201 times)

Frostbyte

July 15, 2012, 03:40:40 PM
(Taken from Know Your Meme)

View Page here:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/new-york-city-cryptic-subway-code

Original post on reddit and another story about him: (Thanks Soukuw :D)

Quote from: Soukuw on July 15, 2012, 03:55:14 PM
Anywho let me pull the sources up:
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/weo8j/today_a_homeless_looking_man_handed_me_50_and

http://www.reddit.com/r/cryptography/comments/wet8g/xpost_from_raskreddit_a_man_was_given_this_piece/

Note how the OP has deleted his account.
Quote
On July 11th, 2012, Redditor delverofsecrets submitted a post titled “Today, a homeless looking man handed me $50 and this note. Do any of you have any idea what it means?” which linked to a photograph of a cryptic note that the OP (original poster) apparently received from a mysterious man on the 1 train in Manhattan, New York City.

Dear Reddit, I work in NYC, and was dragged into a very curious situation today. I was taking the 1 train from midtown to the financial district and as usual, the train was pretty packed. I bumped into a raggedy dressed man as we got on and he shot me a quick smile. I though nothing of it until he went to get off at 14th street and he handed me a $50 bill along with a note. Before I could even open my mouth to ask him a question, he was gone. Below you find pictures of both the front and back of the note.

The note:


More development:
Quote
The post instantly sparked a lengthy discussion about the nature of the code and reached the front page of Reddit with more than 30,000 up votes in less than 24 hours. It was subsequently cross-posted to Reddit’s /r/cryptography and the image was verified as a cryptic code by multiple accounts. Less than two hours later, Redditor SirSpam28 identified the code as a Bifid Cipher that substitues alphabet letter G’s with A’s and provided the translation:
There’s plenty more money to make figure this out and prepare to meet July 19th, Fifty Six and Sixth. There’s a hot dog stand outside Rue57 cafe. Ask for Mr. Input.

Quote
A few hours after Redditor SirSpam28 posted the decoded message, the OP followed up with a private message that he received from Redditor 2220944379, who apparently claimed to be the ragged man on the street. In the thread, OP also noted that the mysterious sender was able to recall his name displayed on his personalized backpack. The message read:
You may not believe me, but I will remind you of your personalized backpack [personal information redacted] You have recruited the help of friends, the offer is now on the table for them too. I cannot have strangers inquire about me, rather we will use a proxy. Here is the next step: DWY JLRR QUBPKSJ IL NDLM OQD OUCEQMW KGXI CSH RFRM XL WEZUXKJ. YME QLPRBAZ OQD TPVJG HPM UK CQJS H. PPVD BFSRST NJYT KR. BFPU EWP BMHY BTK WL VGB FXK R PXFE DTC GPBQL QWHKI JFA QRPE EJW EYC KLJ HCB JHGN.
The translation of the second cipher was eventually submitted by Redditor icedmilkflopr, who used the online cryptbrown townysis tool Autokey Cipher to decode the message. The OP later updated the post and revealed that he plans to follow the instruction and see what happens.
YOU HAVE MANAGED TO FIND THE MESSAGE WITH THE HELP OF FRIENDS. YOU CHANGED THE RULES NOW SO WILL I. JULY TWELVE FOUR PM. FIND THE BLUE JAY AT SIX AND A HALF AND FIFTY SIXTH AND TELL HIM YOU ARE THE LAST.

Batman Movie Advertisement?
Quote
As the peculiar story continued to get more bizarre, some Redditors began speculating the possibility of a viral marketing scheme for the upcoming Batman movie Dark Knight Rises on the basis that it is scheduled for release on the same date, July 19th. Others also supported the theory by comparing the mysterious ragged man to the Batman villain Riddler. On the following day of July 12th, the story was covered by various internet news blogs including Mashable[2] and Gawker.[4]

Pretty strange huh? So what do you guys think? I thought it was pretty interesting and that you guys might want to see.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2012, 04:02:27 PM by Frostbyte »

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rambo1220

July 15, 2012, 03:48:35 PM
Looks interesting.

Also just got done reading it. I love little mysterious puzzle codes like these. They give me the shivers too.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2012, 03:50:06 PM by rambo1220 »

Soukuw

July 15, 2012, 03:51:46 PM
It's a Viral Marketing scheme.

Tetris

July 15, 2012, 03:53:20 PM
Just some really bored old rich guy with a lot of time on his hands

He just wants to watch them scramble

Soukuw

July 15, 2012, 03:55:14 PM
« Last Edit: July 15, 2012, 03:59:12 PM by Soukuw »

rambo1220

July 15, 2012, 03:59:56 PM

Frostbyte

July 15, 2012, 04:00:37 PM

Soukuw

July 15, 2012, 04:02:18 PM
Oh and forget viral marketing it's a piece of stuff and is spam.

Edit: Oh and I forgot to mention how I got those sources (Because teaching is fun.)
If you put inurl:(X) (Search Text) into Google it will only show results with X in the url.
I searched for "inurl:reddit.com (Text from OP quotes)"
« Last Edit: July 15, 2012, 04:07:42 PM by Soukuw »

Sami2ss

July 15, 2012, 04:14:40 PM
Quote from: Tetris on July 15, 2012, 03:53:20 PM
Just some really bored old rich guy with a lot of time on his hands

He just wants to watch them scramble

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Westing_Game

Nickelob Ultra

July 15, 2012, 04:21:58 PM
Quote from: Soukuw on July 15, 2012, 04:02:18 PM
Oh and forget viral marketing it's a piece of stuff and is spam.
Viral marketing is incredibly clever, especially because this actually makes people think instead of just take in advertisements like spoonfed children.

Sami2ss

July 15, 2012, 04:26:42 PM
Quote from: Nickelob Ultra on July 15, 2012, 04:21:58 PM
Viral marketing is incredibly clever, especially because this actually makes people think instead of just take in advertisements like spoonfed children.

it's incredibly disappointing though when you find out that some cryptic code leads to bullstuff like a 50% off coupon for baby food.

Lunatic

July 15, 2012, 04:27:20 PM
Quote from: Nickelob Ultra on July 15, 2012, 04:21:58 PM
Viral marketing is incredibly clever, especially because this actually makes people think instead of just take in advertisements like spoonfed children.
Quote from: Sami2ss on July 15, 2012, 04:26:42 PM
it's incredibly disappointing though when you find out that some cryptic code leads to bullstuff like a 50% off coupon for baby food.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdA__2tKoIU#t=35s

Sami2ss

July 15, 2012, 04:29:46 PM

Nickelob Ultra

July 15, 2012, 04:30:25 PM

rambo1220

July 15, 2012, 04:30:35 PM
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