Mobile customer location data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters

I am saying I believe the creditcard-sized card that contains a fresh prepaid SIM card, probably contains an RFID loop antenna.

This is trivial to verify or falsify, just buy some acetone in the hardware store:

https://learn.adafruit.com/rfid-iphone/dissolve-the-card

I already bought the acetone, but I did not yet dissolve the SIM card, I want to do this in front of my sister, so she understands why I attach importance to finding out the origin of the unused expired SIM card she sent.

The card is supposedly expired anyway (well to be honest the validity date is printed on a sticker on the outside of the plastic foil package, so in theory it may be a still valid card with a fake early expiration date to encourage my sister to hurry with giving it away...).

I did not yet dissolve the card, but I feel pretty certain there is an RFID coil inside, and that is how they detected and stalled the letter without opening it. Stalled to determine if it is OK or not to allow the card to be sent on or not. "insufficient postage" to increase the possibility of the recipient deciding not to want the letter.

If you can't wait a couple of weeks to hear back from me if there is an RFID tag inside, you can try buying a prepaid SIM card and dissolving in acetone yourself. If you or someone tries this before february, I would like to know the result.

The whole story got me thinking that the human analysts that process and interpret red flags can easily build a repertoire of tricks to arrange for a red flag concerning a person to go off.

If my sister provides me with a name (perhaps even an address) of whoever gave her the card, I could consider tagging the person back (by sending the SIM card to him).

However I think it is unwise:

1) the person who gave it to her would not necessarily be the analyst, it may be an informant (perhaps a criminal turned informant, in which case I am effectively tagging myself into association with a criminal!)

2) if the person who gave it to her was the analyst, and I addressed the letter to Mr [name] "The Tagging Spook" [surname], and possibly arrange for the letter to have insufficient postage, while hilarious that my case file would then contain a red flag associating me with the analyst called out as a spook, it's unclear how he would react. Any future analyst could notice the burnt name of a colleague. He might need to self-report his bypassing of the automated system raising supposedly spontaneous red flags... Also, I estimate it would not be wise of me to go and poke the hornets nest. So I think I will stay with just observing and learning...

This is:

a) the longest comment I’ve ever read all the way through on HN

b) an interesting anecdote

but c) most likely a coincidence.

I agree that the likelihood of such a thing happening is miniscule. However, I’ve had all sorts of strange postage-system-related issues in my time (granted, I’m in the US, which has likely a much worse system) and it doesn’t seem that far out to me that such a letter would have been mishandled by what is likely an automated system.

Maybe if you buy a SIM card and send it to someone else, you can get more conclusive evidence about whether prepaid SIMs are genuinely slowed in transit or if you were just very unlucky. One occurrence does not a trial make.

Hi I work for a printing company as a full-stack developer. My work involves things like writing API wrappers to ingest order flow so our customers can print brochures, or building web UI tools to create and order print resources. The last algorithm I wrote was to generate 5000 unique BINGO cards. Please explain to me how my salary comes from eroding privacy.

a) I didn't realize how long my post had gotten in the tiny entry box, until after I had posted it... but I will gladly accept the dubious Cup of "Longest readable HN comment in the Guinnes Book of Records"

b) Yes I also think it's very interesting. Initially before coming to these suspicions, I was pissed off about having to dissapoint my sister next time I see her, and the money that was lost buying the SIM card etc, ... but the longer I thought about it and noticed all the inconsistencies in what had happened, it's actually a nice puzzle/gift to receive! Turns out the journey really is the reward after all

c) I have also thought about possible mistakes, but really there is little that can go wrong with a strain gauge! And even if the strain gauge somehow broke, there would have been a long run of letters suddenly appearing for redirection, surely this would be noticed and the letters reweighted... And even if it is incorrectly marked with "insufficient postage" both the sorting which is supposed to redirect it to the return address, as the eventual post man who did not ring failed to see the return address! And with D+1, a delay of ~20 days is totally unheard of (counting up till Nov 7th when the strike was anounced)...

in my response to a sibling of your comment I describe we can simply dissolve a fresh prepaid SIM card to detect the presence of a possible RFID loop antenna

> it’s not the Wild West anymore

They didn't get that memo. The mentality and folklore is that it still is. Laws, politics, government, privacy, policing, social mores, business and especially foreign policy all seem to retain the idea they are a frontier society blessed with Manifest Destiny. Their way, however flawed, is the only way etc etc.