Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records • Hacker News Board

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#61

Post by corry » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:22 PM UTC

ender7 wrote: post #47

I don't understand why they made this a public posting. Romney isn't incentivized to pay up once the blackmail is public knowledge -- payment is equivalent to admitting guilt. Might as well keep your money and take the hits. I don't see any situations where this beats contacting the campaign privately, with a document or two in hand to prove that you have the real stuff. Unless, of course, if this is just a stunt tha…

A possible motive is to force Romney's hand to release it himself. It still makes him look bad - but not as bad as a bidding war between his supporters and detractors.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#62

Post by corry » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:27 PM UTC

The ransom note has pretty specific language:

"Romney's 1040 tax returns were taken from the PWC office 8/25/2012 by gaining access to the third floor via a gentleman working on the 3rd floor of the building. Once on the 3rd floor, the team moved down the stairs to the 2nd floor and setup shop in an empty office room. During the night, suite 260 was entered, and all available 1040 tax forms for Romney were copied."

Anyone at PwC will instantly know if this is true or not. My guess is that the specifics will check out (why else include them?) and give credibility to the claim.

But even if those specifics are true, how will anyone know that they really have the returns? Maybe they just figured out where the returns were stored and are trying to force someone else's hand.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#63

Post by sp332 » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:29 PM UTC

ender7 wrote: post #47

I don't understand why they made this a public posting. Romney isn't incentivized to pay up once the blackmail is public knowledge -- payment is equivalent to admitting guilt. Might as well keep your money and take the hits. I don't see any situations where this beats contacting the campaign privately, with a document or two in hand to prove that you have the real stuff. Unless, of course, if this is just a stunt tha…

This isn't about getting Romney to pay, it's about getting some suckers to send a little money to the addresses on their own. Here's the balance for the "stop release" account https://blockchain.info/address/1HeF89wMjC48bWNgWvVo7Wu3RaLW... and the "promote release" account https://blockchain.info/address/12AP6iCwRNFQqKLStH3A4b4hw3SL...

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#64

Post by engtech » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:32 PM UTC

tstegart wrote: post #5

engtech wrote: post #2

title didn't convey the content of the article, or why it would be of interest to HN. I thought it was political stuff at first vs tech news. A better title might be: Anonymous' steals Romney's tax return for blackmail extortion

Actually, I think the thieves are anonymous in that they aren't known yet, not "Anonymous" the hacker group.

I assumed it was A-nonymous when I read the article, but on re-read I think you are correct.

That probably explains why the story hasn't exploded more like other stories about Anonymous or Lulsec have.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#65

Post by tlrobinson » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:33 PM UTC

"anonymous group" not THE "Anonymous"

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#66

Post by tlrobinson » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:35 PM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #8

Is it safe to accept a ransom via BitCoin? Theoretically how might they be caught?

It's safe to accept it, but once you have it laundering and spending it is more difficult.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#67

Post by jasontn » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:37 PM UTC

corry wrote: post #62

The ransom note has pretty specific language: "Romney's 1040 tax returns were taken from the PWC office 8/25/2012 by gaining access to the third floor via a gentleman working on the 3rd floor of the building. Once on the 3rd floor, the team moved down the stairs to the 2nd floor and setup shop in an empty office room. During the night, suite 260 was entered, and all available 1040 tax forms for Romney were copied." A…

By taking a line item deduction and making it public to the penny. Unequivocal confirmation.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#68

Post by tlrobinson » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:38 PM UTC

It seems likely this is just a scam to get random Romney and Obama supports to send Bitcoins to the scammer.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#69

Post by ForrestN » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:39 PM UTC

scarmig wrote: post #18

readme wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is genuine, I don't know why they think they'll get away with it. Also $1M is way too low of an amount to blackmail Romney for. Talk about selling yourself short.

Eh, I'm not sure. It's pretty clear what's in Romney's returns at this point (a lower than average income tax rate, though it's hard to say whether it's closer to 5% or 15%), so I don't see a huge downside risk for him in them being released. If they upped their demands to, say $10 million, we're talking about real money, even for Mitt. Enough to get an extra percent of the vote or so in a moderate sized state. Unles…

I think it stands to reason that if the release were no big deal, if it was just something like low-paying taxes, he wouldn't be so resistent. He's taken a lot of egg to the face to keep these things secret, so there has to be a reason why.

Re: Anonymous allegedly hacked Romney tax records

#70

Post by wpietri » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:40 PM UTC

scarmig wrote: post #18

readme wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is genuine, I don't know why they think they'll get away with it. Also $1M is way too low of an amount to blackmail Romney for. Talk about selling yourself short.

Eh, I'm not sure. It's pretty clear what's in Romney's returns at this point (a lower than average income tax rate, though it's hard to say whether it's closer to 5% or 15%), so I don't see a huge downside risk for him in them being released. If they upped their demands to, say $10 million, we're talking about real money, even for Mitt. Enough to get an extra percent of the vote or so in a moderate sized state. Unles…

I think the downside risk is in the details.

I use a serious accountant for my taxes, and the organizer they send me every year asks for maybe 75 pages of information, and encourages me to add extra sheets as needed. Personally, I leave 98% of it blank, but I can imagine someone at Romney's level being very reluctant to release everything a serious accountant considers necessary to persuade the IRS to cut me a break.

The real problem for them isn't the bottom-line numbers. It's a dozen news cycles as people dig into detail after detail. E.g., the tax deduction for Ann Romney's horse that's larger than the US median annual income. All that detail is a PR nightmare, because each item will highlight to voters how incredibly wealthy he is compared to them.