1 line
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
1 line
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
|
%% %%
|
|
%% ============ %%
|
|
%% MAIL SECRETS %%
|
|
%% ============ %%
|
|
%% %%
|
|
%% By %%
|
|
%% Reflexive Arc %%
|
|
%% [Member: Omnipotent, Inc.] %%
|
|
%% %%
|
|
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
|
|
|
|
|
There is a little secret coding or gimmickry on U.S. mail. All U.S.
|
|
postage stamps have an invisible ink coding that fluoresces in ultraviolet
|
|
light. Partly this is to deter counterfeiting of stamps (why would anyone want
|
|
to do that?). Mostly, it is to speed up sorting. Cancelling machines shine an
|
|
ultraviolet beam on letters and check for a glow. Calcium silicate (which
|
|
glows orange-red) and zinc orthosilicate (which glows yellow-green) are used.
|
|
They are printed over the entire surface of stamps or in a geometric pattern.
|
|
|
|
Personal letters to the U.S. President have a secret numerical code. The
|
|
President often gets 10,000 letters a day. Virtually all must be opened, read,
|
|
and answered by the White House mail staff. So that letters from friends get
|
|
to the President and family unopened, all close friends are given a sequence of
|
|
numbers to write on the outside of the envelope. The code changes with each
|
|
President. Ronald Reagan's code was described as a number with a special
|
|
meaning to Reagan and his wife. Jimmy Carter used an old phone number of
|
|
Rosalyn's.
|
|
|
|
WAX SEALS
|
|
~~~~~~~~~
|
|
Wax seals are not a guarantee against unauthorized opening of a letter.
|
|
According to "The CIA Flaps and Seals Manual," edited by John M. Harrison
|
|
(Boulder, Colo.: Paladin Press, 1975), there is a way to remove and replace
|
|
seals.
|
|
|
|
First the opener takes a plaster-of-paris cast of the seal. This is set
|
|
aside to harden. The wax is gently heated with an infrared lamp. When soft,
|
|
it is rolled into a ball and set aside. The flap of the envelope is steamed
|
|
open, and the letter is taken out and photocopied.
|
|
|
|
After the envelope's contents are replaced and the flap resealed, the same
|
|
wax is used to re-create the seal. It is heated till pliable and pressed back
|
|
into shape with the plaster-of-paris mold.
|
|
|
|
One type of seal is secure, even according to "CIA Flaps and Seals
|
|
Manual": One made of two or more colors of wax melted together. The colors
|
|
inevitably come out different on the second, surreptitious pressing. But a
|
|
color Polaroid of the seal must be sent under separate cover sot that the
|
|
letter's recipient can compare it with the seal on the message letter.
|
|
|
|
None of the common seals are reliable against unauthorized opening,
|
|
assuming that knowledgeable letter-openers may want to open your mail. Scotch
|
|
tape across the flap of an envelope comes off cleanly with carbon tetrachloride
|
|
(applied with a brush or a hypodermic needle). If you suspect that someone is
|
|
opening your mail, the manual suggests sending yourself a letter containing a
|
|
sheet of carbon or wax paper. The heat and mechanical treatment of the letter
|
|
opening will smudge the carbon and melt the wax. Otherwise, you have to
|
|
examine letters carefully to detect prior opening. A torn flap, smudging of the
|
|
flap glue, flattened ridges in the flap, or concave (from the back) curling due
|
|
to steaming are evidence of opening.
|
|
|
|
A more sophisticated test requires steaming part of the envelope near the
|
|
flap for fifteen seconds. Then place the envelope under an ultraviolet lamp.
|
|
If there is a difference in florescence between the steamed and the unsteamed
|
|
part of the envelope, then the envelope paper is suitable for the test. If so,
|
|
examine the unsteamed part of the flap under the ultraviolet lamp. If it shows
|
|
a different florescence than the other unsteamed parts of the envelope, it
|
|
indicates that the flap may have been previously steamed.
|
|
|
|
The ultraviolet lamp is also useful in detecting invisible writing. An
|
|
effective ultraviolet ink need not fluoresce brightly, as the silicate stamp
|
|
inks do. Any substance that changes the fluorescence of paper in ultraviolet
|
|
light yet is invisible in ordinary light will work. Prisoners have used human
|
|
urine as an invisible ink (not hard to get, ehh?). Salt water, vinegar, milk,
|
|
fruit juices, saliva, and water solutions of soap or drugs also work, with
|
|
varying degrees of legibility.
|
|
|
|
HOW TO MAIL WITHOUT A STAMP
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
Postal chiselers used to mail letters unstamped in the knowledge that they
|
|
would be delivered anyway -- postage due to the recipient. It took a niggardly
|
|
person to mail personal letters this way, but many people did it on bill
|
|
payments. So the Post Office changed its policy. It stopped delivering
|
|
letters without stamps. A letter with a stamp -- even a one-cent stamp -- is
|
|
delivered (postage due if need be). A letter with no stamp is returned to the
|
|
sender.
|
|
|
|
Naturally, this had just opened up a new way of cheating. Letters can now
|
|
be mailed for free by switching the positions of the delivery address and the
|
|
return address. If there is no stamp on the envelope, it will be "returned" --
|
|
that is, delivered to the address in the upper-left corner -- which is where
|
|
the sender wanted it to go in the first place. Unlike under the old system,
|
|
the letter is not postage-due. At most the recipient gets a stamped purple
|
|
reminder that, "The Post Office does not deliver mail without postage."
|
|
|
|
At least one large company seems to have adapted this principle to its
|
|
billing. Citibank bases its MasterCard operations in Sioux Falls, South
|
|
Dakota. The bill payment envelopes have the Citibank Sioux Falls address in
|
|
both the delivery and the return address positions. (Most bill payment
|
|
envelopes have three lines for the customer to write in his return address.)
|
|
Therefore, regardless of whether the customer puts a stamp on the envelope, it
|
|
is delivered to Citibank. (The return-address gimmick works even when the
|
|
return address is in a different state from the mailing point.)
|
|
|
|
Who is cheating whom? If the customer puts the correct postage on the
|
|
envelope, it is delivered to Sioux Falls at customer expense. No one is
|
|
slighted. If, on the other hand, the customer intentionally omits the stamp,
|
|
the payment is delivered at the Post Office expense. Then the customer has
|
|
cheated the Post Office. The Post Office also loses out if the customer
|
|
honestly forgets to put a stamp on the envelope. But the blame ought to be
|
|
shared with the peculiar design of Citibank's envelope.
|
|
|
|
Citibank's motive is plain: If payment envelopes are returned to
|
|
forgetful customers, it delays payment.
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|