Red Monday: 11-26-2007, page 1

So what happens when the line between a game(?) and reality gets a little blurry? Well, it either gets kindof funny, or kindof scary...

For a few weeks, I've been poking around on Red-Monday.com (password: gabriel), a site which resembles an ARG, but might be more... It focuses on a secret government intel gathering operation directed at a big wig (a real person) in Saudi Arabia. It's pretty interesting... complete with "echelon" intercepts, cryptic emails, encoded messages and the like.

A group of people have been following and keeping track of the game on the unfiction forums (not linked here for politeness purposes, but google "Red Monday -- new game?" if you want to find it), but there's been some strangeness related to it that I wanted to ask folk's opinion on:

There's a poster named "Ayanami Rei" on the thread, who claims to "own a firm which is registered to do business with the Department of Defense." Recently, he put forward a kindof crazy idea... that "Red Monday" might be an actual US intelligence gathering operation, and that the government is using the cover of an online viral to make us do the dirty work for them:

"2. There's some stuff that I don't like. This could be someone attempting to use uF players and other people to conduct an actual operation against a target. We've all bantered about how maybe a government is doing this. Well, I bring this up."

What makes this whole thing more creepy is that there was a supposed leak of "sensitive information" pertaining to Red Monday, which made it's way onto the homepage of Digg on Wednesday, October 3rd:
digg.com...

After about 2 hours of naked exposure, the story was promptly buried.

Ayanami himself offered that "Since the Digg article was buried so quickly (under 2 hours of front page even though the headline had a heavy anti-gov slant), this may be part of the information suppression operation."

It is kindof strange. Any thoughts?

First of all, it uses the symbol G. This can be FBI or can be freemasons.

Secondly this thing is peppered with clues.

I logged on once, gave bad email, logged on again and gave a real email it gave a different message, so it is leaving a cookie, hence why it says wipe cookies.

The phone messages I got in email have a digital encoded message at end.

phone messages also have inconsistent echo background noise that does not lead me to believe them to be intercepts, they are manufactured

The guy in the suit was not government in my opinion, did not have the right feel. This could be like the guy who went to a UFO conference and hired fake bodyguards to amp up his story.

So I will chalk this up as a Viral campaign.

Could people post there requests for information as they get them.

The email uses this moniker
NCS www.ncs.gov...
Mission Statement

Assist the President, the National Security Council, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget in (1) the exercise of the telecommunications functions and responsibilities, and (2) the coordination of the planning for and provision of national security and emergency preparedness communications for the Federal government under all circumstances, including crisis or emergency, attack & recovery and reconstitution.

also this is NCS www.ncsx.com...

I am curious why a viral campaign would use a gov site, does not make sense to me, this is the kinda thing that gets people a bit testy.


[edit on 14-10-2007 by Redge777]

[edit on 14-10-2007 by Redge777]

reply to post by NetNinja42

---

well there is a sound like a modem at end of call
www.red-monday.com...
(message I got in Email, I have not received any names like the original OP said.

note that the directory
www.red-monday.com...
is not locked and only contains that message

The inconsistencies are the following, clear no background noise, no deflection in voice from normal use of phone movement, multiple voices on one end but if speaker phone no echo or distance difference from speakers, original person answering call did not say hello when picking up phone. It didn't feel right

Although if this is a game company they got balls of steel to use Homeland defence web site and a real prince. The OP said he is real, I don't have any info on that. Prince is also the guy who runs Blackwater, the mercinary company. Not sure if that is related.

[edit on 14-10-2007 by Redge777]

I've interacted (to a limited extent) with ARGs, so I took the only steps I could feasibly take.

I took a screenshot of the 'loading' screen that occurs immediately after entering the requested password. The shot was taken early -- three lines appeared immediately afterwards, and the page soon switched over to the timer where you either request or decline a notification for this event. I don't know what those lines were, but they appeared to be the same length.

Nonetheless, the screenshot provided me with valuable information; an IP address (211.99.196.66). Subsequent research revealed that the IP address is in China.

And on that note, I'll leave off my investigations. Hope the image helps. Screenshot below. By the way, it may not be too far-fetched to presume that we're dealing with an individual (or an individual's pseudonym), "Jim (or James?) Chu". A cursory search on google led me to someone else's speculation that this could be religious-themed (hence the password "gabriel"). To that end, James is a Christian name. However, I propose no speculation of my own; this looks interesting, but I doubt I'll follow it too closely, as it alleges 'information' under the guise of a 'carrot and stick' act. If someone had the time to build a fancy, ambiguous flash site (with a timer -- not unlike the tactic recently used in the Halo 3 Arg 'Iris'), they may have motives I am uninterested in.

Large IMAGE Link

[edit on 14-10-2007 by UM_Gazz]

I read a page I had opened prior to my previous post, and it revealed something else; Red is also associated with Communism (I suggest browsing the posted comments).

I suppose it broadens the possible reasons for this act; however, another name ("Saul) seems to be associated with this as well. I'm going to revisit the site and check the source code. If this turns out to be a viral campaign (probably is, and it may be gradually catching on), then there may be some entertainment to be had in discovering its purpose. After that, I can return to ignoring the advertised products, as always.

As the saying goes; no skin off my back.

Perhaps a few feathers -- but no skin.

One more thing;

Just looked at the source code. Here's a direct quote;

The code is gabriel
---
www.purepwnage.com...
Here's a hint... it's all about the thirdd

The url led me to a forum which, incidentally, has a user with the id NetNinja42.

Perhaps the original poster would like to enlighten us as to the contents of that thread? I couldn't understand it; it appeared to be discussing a youtube video involving Elijah Wood.

Edited to fix quote.

[edit on 10/14/2007 by Mr Jackdaw]

The second page of that forum has this
(first quotes from past posts, simple encryption)
www.purepwnage.com...

I ask, because there's a certain thread over on the unFiction forums that has been linking to here...
forums.unfiction.com...

Apparently one of the PM's of an ARG has been using this forum to pass coded messages. (Translated below)

1. nereus. i am looking for information on khalid bin sultan.
2. come on you guys. how hard is it for a bunch of lt folks like you to break a simple trifid encryption?
3. tony hawkins ethan chloe obrien d.l. edward isaac sawyer gray anderson bauer robert isaac eko locke

Khalid bin Sultan is some Saudi Arabian dignitary (real person). "Trifid" is the code used to encrypt the messages, and the names in the third one are basically a bunch of characters from popular prime time TV shows.

Do you guys know anything more about this than we do?

The page in the ex above also mentions JC
It seems this is where the prices name might come from

[edit on 14-10-2007 by Redge777]

[edit on 14-10-2007 by Redge777]

Seems either the OP is taking information from this blog or is posting at more then one site.

In my opinion its just a game, marketing at its best. Creating a lot of mystic around the game so we play it.

Just spotted your post above. Very peculiar -- but I wonder why they would use the name of a seemingly unrelated person. Perhaps the name is merely a key to cracking the code, and not an indication of larger connections. Here's the Wikipedia article on Khalid Bin Sultan; I immediately noticed that he is neither Chinese, nor an LOTR afficionado.

The use of encrypted messages lends more credence to this being an ARG, as ARGs characteristically focus on puzzle-solving. If there truly was sensitive information in those emails, the messages wouldn't be encrypted; the address would be. Also, it wouldn't be sent to someone who could display the message's contents all over the net; it isn't too far-fetched to believe that the message's contents would be cracked in no time by a team of top-notch, Government-employed individuals -- and long before the proudly-trumpeted 11/26/06 date.

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