Weird thing I "found" about Romney Tax-BC thing

[nonBCuser]

Hi all, first post.

So by now I assume you've heard of the alleged "hack" of Romney's tax returns and the demands for 1 mill USD worth of bitcoins. Recall that the anons said you could donate bitcoins to one address if you want the records kept secret and another address if you want them released. Here are the blockchain.info links for each:

If you want them kept secret:
http://blockchain.info/address/1HeF89wMjC48bWNgWvVo7Wu3RaLW8XVsE8

If you want them released:
http://blockchain.info/address/12AP6iCwRNFQqKLStH3A4b4hw3SL6RaNgB

For both addresses there is a string of transactions of amounts that are binary numbers that correspond to ascii characters, so each address received a message through the transactions in ascii. I haven't seen anyone comment on this yet so I translated the binary strings to ascii characters and this is what I found:


If you look at the transactions to the "release" option, the message says:
"prove it"

If you look at the transactions to the "keep secret" option, the message says:
"gnp.fR6k5/moc.rugmi.i//:ptth"

which is "https://i.imgur.com/5k6Rf.png" backwards.

If you go to that web address you get this image:

https://i.imgur.com/5k6Rf.png

I put up a mirror here:
http://s16.postimage.org/jxr8st6md/5k6_Rf.png

2nd mirror:
http://i48.tinypic.com/2n9ml1i.png

And that's it. Unfortunately I am from the stone age so I don't have a smartphone that can "read" this, so if anyone interested can I would appreciate to know what it says.

Update: Okay after some astute googling, I used an online QR decoder to read the image. It gives the following:
"0110100001110100011101000111000000111010001011110010111101101001001011100110100 1011011010110011101110101011100100010111001100011011011110110110100101111011010 01"

which with binary-to-ascii converter is https://i.imgur.com/i which is an image that no longer exists I guess.

[1715091397]

1715091397

[1715091397]

1715091397

[1715091397]

1715091397

[DeviledMoon]

QR Code gives binary back

0110100001110100011101000111000000111010001011110010111101101001001011100110100 1011011010110011101110101011100100010111001100011011011110110110100101111011010 01

That turns into

https://i.imgur.com/i


And it cuts off at a half URL, the only other assumption is, that te binary is something other than text, or there's another hint.

only other thought is the message might not be complete yet?

[totaleclipseofthebank]

no longer exists

I think the URL was truncated. Is there another QR code somewhere perhaps?

[nonBCuser]

Maybe the message isn't complete or there is another QR code... I have no idea! (I detailed all my workings in the first post. If anyone has any suggestions on pertinent info glossed over on those pages, please share )

[nonBCuser]

Follow up:

I figured that maybe the anons replied somehow. How would the reply? sending messages back using bitcoins of course! I.e. back to the addresses that sent them the bitcoins. There are a few of these address though, and most of them are completely emptied out, but if you look at this address:
1A68Zamnv9yCHEYKbrvyPW6TQ8oANhhQ1y
http://blockchain.info/address/1A68Zamnv9yCHEYKbrvyPW6TQ8oANhhQ1y

It got back the message:
.00032
.00024
.00008

in binary:
00100000
00011000
00001000

Which AFAIK are just spaces.

Update: Also found something similar at 1LwLbxQUqVv4gS1anbDU3wY6jakih8s8Jc,
http://blockchain.info/address/1LwLbxQUqVv4gS1anbDU3wY6jakih8s8Jc

Message:
.0003

again just a space when translated to binary

Found another one (.0003) to
http://blockchain.info/address/1LwLbxQUqVv4gS1anbDU3wY6jakih8s8Jc

Found another one (.00032, .00024, .00008)
http://blockchain.info/address/1A68Zamnv9yCHEYKbrvyPW6TQ8oANhhQ1y

Update 2: I started looking at possible responses to the "for release" option, and it seems to be a process that is on going:
http://blockchain.info/address/1NNpaaasYkogJEuUidrpKigFEPFdn5z6jy

(Here you see the .00032 already sent a few minutes ago.)

Update 3: Due to lack of interest, I'll stop updating this and go on with life, but for completeness I found several of those .00032, .00024, .00008 responses to different addresses that had sent the anons money. Also, 615-762-9138 seems to be a phone number someone wants the anons to call. (Look at the BC transaction that is .07629138 then just use the area code of the PricewaterhouseCooper's branch that was hacked, which is 615).

[Chang Hum]

A business owner or comedy artist could take the opportunity to complete the image link with a string of small donations and potentially get world wide media coverage of whatever pic they want.... and probably a knock on the door from the FBI!

[nonBCuser]

A business owner or comedy artist could take the opportunity to complete the image link with a string of small donations and potentially get world wide media coverage of whatever pic they want.... and probably a knock on the door from the FBI!

Lol... though the picture file would have to end in ".png" or ".jpg"  I think? I'm not actually sure about that

[Luno]

Has anyone done a phonetic or string search of the two messages from Pastebin? Like searching for similar phrasing, misspellings? The second message seems a little more coherent. Another writer? This is a common way to narrow down possible authors of ransom notes.

[Chang Hum]

Sorry if this is stating the obvious it just hasn't been said, could it be a communication between someone and the person who claims to hold the tax return i.e:

Person who claims to hold the tax return via letter to media: blah blah we've got Romnys tax return blah blah
someone: prove it
Person who claims to hold the tax return: www.imager/i....

......either making it look like they tried, ran out of bitcoins, or got bored halfway through posting link.

[speeder]

I saw yesterday the binary and thought of wasting my time to decode it, but then I thought that maybe I was just seeing things...

Thanks for proving to me that I am not mad.

Maybe unfortunately this also proves to me that I am TOO nerd... (if there is such thing)

[322i0n]

a ransom for rmoneys tax returns and a negotiation with the black mailes, cool. this story is worthy of mainstream media. wonder if it will get picked up. 

[nonBCuser]

Sorry if this is stating the obvious it just hasn't been said, could it be a communication between someone and the person who claims to hold the tax return i.e:

Person who claims to hold the tax return via letter to media: blah blah we've got Romnys tax return blah blah
someone: prove it
Person who claims to hold the tax return: www.imager/i....

......either making it look like they tried, ran out of bitcoins, or got bored halfway through posting link.

ha! interesting theory! can be...

[QuantumKiwi]

very interesting to see that the image linking was off, however there was a phone number transferred...

I wonder how much more BTC ransom goes on?

[Chang Hum]

Wouldn't surprise me if these criminal genius's hit the $20 mark by the end of the weekend!

[nonBCuser]

Wouldn't surprise me if these criminal genius's hit the $20 mark by the end of the weekend!

According to http://nandbit.com/romney/ They've already passed it!

[malevolent]

Saw this yesterday thanks for reminding me.

Maybe this is just the beginning of the address, with the rest being revealed if $1M is / isn't collected.

[antares]

well, obama is probably just trying to get the money on his hands without any ties to him. Romney's relatives tax reports published might be a game-changer for him and give him at least a chance to be re-elected.

[nonBCuser]

By the way, if you appreciate the research from before -decoding, the phone numbers, the activity reported- I am happy to say my username is no longer accurate and I will gladly accept any tips  at 15nkjVFc46bkRVKqfJ8BfEocbxiYQL6buV .

[antares]

there's a new message flowing in :-)

[bitcoinbear]

This is demonstrating the amazing ability of bitcoins to transfer anonymous messages. You just send a series of transactions to a single adress using either binary or binary -> decimal coding (0.00010001 = 0.000000017, contains the same info but costs less). It is convienient that the number of decimals allowed in the bitcoin protocol is 8, the same as one byte of informaiton, which is great for characters! I guess that makes sense since it is a computer based system, so it shares some characteristics with other computer systems.