CAPitALLism / Windows Washers
CAPitALLism has appeared on the main page time and time again, due to the fact that they have incorporated "ilovebees" and similar keywords into their pages, assumedly to take advantage of the flood of search engine hits to spread their political ideology.
October 3rd. CAPitALLism has written an article documenting the process of subverting ilovebees. While it offers an interesting tribute to the game, once again proves not-in-game http://www.capitallism.org/capisce/capisce.php
UPDATE AUGUST 3rd I've been tracking them since the beginning, due to a lingering curiosity and then a love of Tokyo. Log into CAPitALLism and click to enter -- Note that the site has been "hacked" and the Winder Washers tell us to disconnect. --UserIlovebees 14:46, 2 Aug 2004 (PDT)
Reasons the site is not in-game:
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WHOIS records indicate that ilovebees.com was created on June 14, 2004. Dana's Blogger profile indicates her login was created in June. The posting habits of Blogger profiles immediately surrounding Dana's indicate that Dana's profile was created on June 28 or June 29. WHOIS shows that capitallism.org, however, was created on October 1, 2003. Why would this domain name have been registered so long before the launch of the game when others were created mere weeks prior?
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capitallism.org was registered through Domains by Proxy. Once again, ilovebees was not.
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The content of the site shows no clear indication (broken images, clues, etc.) that it is in-game, aside from the recently added pop-up accessible in the footer. On the other hand, the rest of the site is populated with the authors' political bent toward capping wages in America. Other pages on the site describe taking advantage of trends on the Internet to spread their message.
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There are repeated mentions on capitallism.org of being updated from Tokyo. A link to CAPitALLism was first added to the Main page at 12:04 on 25 Jul 2004 by someone at the IP address 219.163.49.74, which is located in Tokyo.
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Additionally : (taken from MainPage)
These two sites predating this ARG clearly show that Capitallism.org is not part of the game.
TheFridgeOwl
A google search reveals a similar kind of post on http://thefridgeowl.com. This page, although possibly a clue, seems bogus. This popup does not come up in the same fashion, and after some investigation, I do not believe that the dates change. Looks like a copy-cat to me. I'll leave the link here in the case that there is a connection.
Further investigation leads to further evidence that http://thefridgeowl.com is a copycat. The image is one from SomethingAwful. The domain is registered by Domains By Proxy to hide the registrant's identity, which wasn't done for ilovebees.com.
Non-ilovebees blogspot sites (and comments in ilovebees)
Cortana/Durandal - There were a series of "Cortana Letters" sent out before the release of Halo 1. This is most likely a bit of unrelated opportunism.
Generally, these seem too obvious to be part of the puzzle.
Cafe Shop Shirts
CafePress shop - Halo 2 logo appears on the t-shirt back NOTE: probable fake, fan created site This link appeared in this forum post and has not been verified since. Note: Logo no longer appears on shirt! Maybe MS/Bungie legal fixed that?
gspawn: I contacted CafePress about the possible copyright violation caused by the Halo 2 material (the logo was actually a wallpaper from Bungie.net). Not long after, that logo was removed, and several users online commented that the ILB CafePress was being automatically refunded- EVERYONE who was on the list to recieve any materials had their card refunded and order cancelled (no idea what sites are still doing this). Soon after, the site changed and implemented as little copyrighted material as possible while increasing their selection. If this isn't confirmation that this shop is fake, I don't know what could be. The CafePress employees believe it's fake, and you should too. Just so everyone knows, the Halo "fonts" are widely available (Bungie noted the Halo 2 logo text is done by hand, and isn't part of a real font). You'll also notice that several of the shirts include things like screenshots of the "black screen" from the front page. You can go on and on about reasons why these shops are absolutely fake...
Another cafepress store popped up http://www.cafeshops.com/i_love_bees
Ruled out as profiteering.
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Now offering hats, pins, magnets, and two shirts. Shirt1 logo is "The 7th Comb", hard to read this as anything other than a reference between this site and "The Seventh Column", a Bungie community site. Logo is of poor design, though. Shirt2 logo is a doodle of a dead cartoon bee with text "9 billion dead R.I.P."
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I found a link to where that photo of the bee was taken, it was copied to the site, and is related to the situation in france where 90 billiob bees have died from pestacides in teh past 10 years, it is here. http://www.20six.co.uk/weblogEntry/15sx26m0rm6de.htm
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I'll accept it could well be a fake, however the original ilovebees shop came up very quickly and has enough consistencies that I truly wonder if it's not linked. Maybe they put up the Halo logo's briefly to help us "make the link". Certainly it changes regularly and they're now selling more stuff with extra bees with Halo font writing. TheWraith
Universiteit van Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam)
Under the Studieprogramma heading is another instance of the popup, similar in fashion to the one at TheFridgeOwl above. Again this is probably bogus because the dates do not change, and the University is a real university and thus should not be an in-game website. However it is interesting that it somehow got on an official university webpage. Probably a practical joke by a few webmasters.
I see no popups or anything worthy of attention. Am I missing something, or was this fixed? -Lemures
Looks like whoever threw that up there had to take it down. Probably got in trouble with university officials. -MaclimesZero
RE Technologies
RE Technologies - Maybe another fake site with the black popup -- this site actually updates their countdowns -- still looks fake.
Black popup disappeared, site looks back to normal, so another fake.
Neotaku
neotaku - Probably fake... includes a black popup and a link to ilovebees.com -no longer has black thingy, in forums admin admits to "just having a little fun"-
Professor James Steele
Supposedly a CS professor who knows Dana in "real life". Left some posts on Dana's blog that explain some of the trouble with the webpage. In reality a fictional character made by ARG players.
Actually, Professor James Steele is just a chatter and ARG player. It's just his account on Blog Spot. --UserCrispyG
ihatebees
ihatebees - Someone adding to the confusion. Has the black popup countdown.
Also note that the bolded letters spell out "God is watching."
hojo.tk
hojo.tk - Another site found deep in the results of a "ilovebees" Google search. Just another copy of the black popup counter, most likely.
Upon inspection of the source code (the black popup blocks most of the site) there are META tags for description and keywords.
description: "this site isn't about bees, but the widow thinks it is"
keywords: "it claims more victims, i love bees, ilovebees, dana awbrey"
The coding for the Javascript countdown code is seen and was not renamed. It's still countdowntochina.js.
There are several links to random pictures, sound clips (funny prank calls) and other stuff. I'm not going to go into details just see for yourself. There's also a link at the bottom for a e-mail address that leads to w0rd@aol.com.
None of this is relevant really, I just thought I'd add some of my investigation. (From what I see I was the first to discover this site.)
EDIT:The hojo.tk webstore has logos made from the Halo text. A little too coincidental for me. - TheJustin =From gspawn: As noted above, Halo fonts are widely available, and the Bungie crew note that their is no real "Halo" font except for the one used on the menus (which is available freely online because people have used fontmaking programs to create it). The Halo logo and other occurences of what looks like the "Halo" font are all hand-made (or photoshopped as it may be).
Note: This website name was registered as a free .tk site. The source code says that the original site is http://anti-trust.org/hojo/index.shtml. The Whois site says that anti-trust.org is registered to Michele Mayernick, who lives in Connecticut. This is most likely a copycat, as the domain was registered on 27-Dec-2002 02:19:35 UTC. -TheGirs
AN ADDED NOTE: Did a Yahoo search instead of the cliche Google search and found an old hojo.tk page hosted with Angelfire. Here's the address if anyone is interested: www.angelfire.com/freak/tp2k2. I was just investigating to shed some more light on the site, and frankly, this makes it even more obvious of being a fake. - TheJustin
CONFESSION: Full confession and motive of the hoax ilovebees site can be found at http://_hojo.livejournal.com. Sorry for all the confusion.
UnrippedZues7
According to a post on the bungie.net forums, the ladybee777@hotmail.com MSN profile contains information about an nickname called "UnrippedZues7". When added to your AIM buddy list, this user would put up cryptic away messages such as "wheras once i was blind, now i can see" and "the riddle ends here".
This user is in no way connected with the game. The profile from which the username comes is not ladybee777@hotmail.com (in fact there is no MSN profile associated with this e-mail address), but an out-of-game e-mail address honey777@hotmail.com. This is nothing more than another user who is just trying to create confusion by posing as an in-game character.
Also, note the misspelling of "Zeus" in the name.
MSNBC
Moved from TheNews
Anyone noticed the link at MSNBC for their Week in Pictures? They have a lot of pictures of current events, but Image #7 is of a bee landing on a flower? Our fabled number 7, a bee, and Microsoft is involved? A coincidence? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3842331/ ---UserDarkViper 17:22, 30 Jul 2004 (PDT) probably. UserScrivener 23:14, 30 Jul 2004 (PDT)
777@ilovebees.com
Moved from TheNews
Found email 777@ilovebees.com on the site http://www.dfunkd.com/dramaqueen/, itå«s a gossip site i found while searching on "HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE". new info? havenå«t tried emailing the adress, someone can do it, cause i need sleep... -Arkangel Gossip, that's just what it is, mail bounces from that address(unknown user) --Sweetjimmy
www.ilovepees.com and UrMouth
On the ILB blog UrMouth has been posting quite a few links to his fake site. (for which he's probably getting quite the boost to his banner income!) Most notably on the WhoIs for the site:
First Registered: July 26, 2004
While some people may find the silly animations convincing, it's also worth noting one of UrMouth's early posts on the blog:
UrMouth said...
Yada yada yada, blah blah blah... Ive been watching you people talk for so long while i actually figure out what the meaning is behind all this... I actually have but no just as bungie did I'll keep you anticipating my response. Instead, I'm in the process of making a website which will show you exactly what everything on here means. My suggestion, pay close attention to my next post.
7/28/2004 02:21:38 PM
Sure enough, www.ilovepees.com was born.
--acki2003 08:37 31 Jul, 2004 (PDT)
Fake e-mail from ilovebees@hotmail.com
From: Princess <ladybee777@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:53:21 America/Montreal
To: traxus@bungie.org
Subject: aid
Return-Path: <ladybee777@hotmail.com>
Return-Path: ladybee777@hotmail.com
Received: from smtp-out5.blueyonder.co.uk (195.188.213.8) by bungie.org with ESMTP (Eudora Internet Mail Server 3.2.4) for <traxus@bungie.org>; Thu, 29 Jul 2004 11:53:25 -0400
Received: from [127.0.0.1] ([62.30.24.197]) by smtp-out5.blueyonder.co.uk with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.6713); Thu, 29 Jul 2004 16:53:42 +0100 Message-Id: <41091D71.1010407@hotmail.com>
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.6 (Windows/20040502)
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Originalarrivaltime: 29 Jul 2004 15:53:42.0453 (UTC) FILETIME=[38EEE650:01C47584]
I'm wanting http protocol.
mention project Gutenburg in one message.
love,
Comments: The Received headers indicate that this e-mail never went through hotmail.com, but through blueyonder.co.uk. ladybee777 has never identified herself as "Princess." And "Gutenberg" is misspelled, but it wasn't in the original e-mail that Traxus sent. Smells like a hoax.
Xydexx.com
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I looked around this site but didn't see any mention of "Google search included the terms "honey," "SOS" and "WTF"" from Dana's first post on the 13th. The first site on googles search is http://www.xydexx.com/ . Is this a hoax? TheDrummer yes. see below. UserScrivener 14:31, 31 Jul 2004 (PDT)
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I think this probably is unrelated. -UserSherpa 03:20, 31 Jul 2004 (PDT)
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As an acquaintance of the operator of the site, I can confirm that this is not part of the game and is, instead, a hoax. I'd give y'all his LiveJournal address, but he'd probably whack me over the head with an inflatable baseball bat. Observe, instead, that I have pointed out that Xydexx is a username, and he has a LiveJournal. If y'all can solve this puzzle, finding this LJ shouldn't be too hard. --UserWindrider 10:53, 31 Jul 2004 (PDT)
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For the curious, Xydexx has indeed digitally whacked me over the head with an inflatable baseball bat. --UserWindrider 19:32, 31 Jul 2004 (PDT)
purevolume.com
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This site discovered on Dana's blog..help needed about the relevancy of it to ILB..
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Present site condition not original, ignore all the "hacked" content. Someone actually got "the man"'s password and changed the content, yet songs/photo archive remain untouched..- --MEGAtunes 00:25, 1 Aug 2004 (PDT)
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Note the CAPS characters: MAN ON SLAB... although I don't see that site anywhere in the blog...?--UserNirvelli 23:19, 31 Jul 2004 (PDT)
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As irrelevant as all the others! Probably just another opportunist in search of hit count. Someone logging into the comments section on Dana's blog posted the URL claiming to have some sort of inside info, just like "ilovepees.com" and all the other fakes. They're taking advantage of our restlessness. We have to face it my friends, we'll just have to wait till Tuesday for the next update. -UserGGOctopus 16:39, 1 Aug 2004 (PDT)
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I noticed that on the PureVolume page, there were some global coordinates. I wanted to find out what was at that location, but I couldn't find a good site for it. I punched the coordinates right into Google and found this webpage. I don't know what possible connection this could have, but maybe someone will find something in it. -UserMatthewJ 09:31, 01 Aug 2004 (EST)
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Pardon the double edit, but something else came up regarding this "Dr. Vaughner" fellow. I had a chat with him on AIM (I found his name on his PureVolume site). Through careful and clever questioning, I found out a few things from him. Here is the summary of my findings. 1) He assumed I was in on ILoveBees.com when I IMed him and before I could say anything. This leads me to think he is in on it and has valuable information to share. 2) He mentioned that if I was interested in his music, to check out the band Bikini Carwash after August 24 (Important Date people!). He mentioned that he could get me free tickets to a show depending on where I lived. 3) Uses the term 'phases' to describe his band. The same term is used in the countdown popup at ILB.com. You can read the full conversation here. Also, check out the Away Message he uses at the end of the file. Buzz? -- UserMatthewJ 11:14, 01 Aug 2004 (EST)
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Established as a false lead, as are all sites mentioned in the blog comments section. --UserGGOctopus 21:17, 1 Aug 2004 (PDT)
Post from ladybee777@hotmail.com on bungie.net forum
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I was looking through the forums on bungie.net and found a reference to http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=456787. If anyone knows whether or not his is real or knows what they mean then just say so. -daemonzx66 4:13, 2 Aug 2004 (EST)
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I'm pretty sure this is fake, using both the OccamsRazor and it just doesn't fit at all with anything else we know about ladybee777@hotmail.com - it just fulfils Halo 2 fans' most precious hopes. Someone taking advantage of fanmania IMO. -UserSherpa 03:45, 2 Aug 2004 (PDT)
Dana's email change on the blog, re: Lil_c, Aug 3
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Suprised no one has posted this...Around 3:00 or 3:30 PM Dana's email on the blog on the blog changed from danatwing@gmail.com to *removed*. It only lasted about 30 minutes. For whoever is in the #beekeepers chat, we know him as LiL_C or variations thereof. He was basically a punk kid in chat. Now, either Lil_C hacked Dana's blog, or he's on the inside with bungie. More info later. -- UserCrispyG
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Note: After Lil_C returned to the #beekeeper's chat, we learned the real story. He sent an email to Blogger, claiming to be Dana, not expecting to get much of a response, saying "she" lost her password and login. He didn't get either emailed back, but Blogger had the "Brilliant" idea to change Dana's email to correspond with the sourse of the email from "Dana". LiL_C has now been flooded by people convinced he's actually Dana. He's asked that you stop contacting him about it, as he's an OOG character. -- UserKoretsu
ilovebeer.org
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this is a parody site that someone put a LOT of time into, and it's not related to the official ILB ARG. A Wiki member has, however, begun an attempt to 'solve' whatever mystery there may be starting from this page, the IlovebeerOrgWiki. -UserThebruce 17:28, 7 Aug 2004 (PDT)
I really think the ilovebeer content should get seperated fully onto a different site. Go to the recent changes pages for the last couple of days, we're accumulating almost as much info on the parody than the real puzzle. This is going to get confusing, especially to anyone new to the ARG. --UserGunsmithCat 20:12, 7 Aug 2004 (PDT)
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On the ilovebeer.org blog by 'Dan' there are some Halo 2 screenshots, in place of screenshots of the site before the corruption. Also, the blog was started the same day as Dana's, and because she mentions it herself in her blog, it's understandable why people would be led to pursue this as a lead. It makes much more sense than going to every link plugged into her comments, which seems rather pointless to me. However I don't know if this is fake or not, since I'm an inexperienced n00b. -UserCro 19:06 15 Aug 2004 (EST)
Fake email from danatwing@yahoo.com
Delivered-To: xxxxxx@gmail.com Received: by 10.38.162.3 with SMTP id k3cs1098rne; Fri, 6 Aug 2004 09:02:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.38.179.35 with SMTP id b35mr499988rnf; Fri, 06 Aug 2004 09:01:58 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: <danatwing@yahoo.com> Received: from web51701.mail.yahoo.com ([206.190.38.219]) by mx.gmail.com with SMTP id 72si32413rna; Fri, 06 Aug 2004 09:00:07 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <20040806160007.97909.qmail@web51701.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [149.166.51.61] by web51701.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 06 Aug 2004 09:00:07 PDT Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 09:00:07 -0700 (PDT) From: Dana Twing <danatwing@yahoo.com> Subject: Help! To: xxxxxx@gmail.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Everybody seems to be trying to reset my gmail password and now I can't login...can you help by telling people to stop? -d. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo
Comments: A reverse lookup on the IP address in the Received headers show this is from Indiana, not . Although the body sounds plausible, Dana has been able to send from her gmail account. Finally, if it were true, her blog would be a much more logical place to post the request.
I'm slightly concerned/annoyed - AFAIK, my address is only posted on this wiki, so whoever sent this went to a bunch of trouble on the off chance this would confuse us. -UserKoi
Email from danabee777@hotmail.com
I need to get out of here, she doesnt know what she is doing. I'm back in the states now, in my profile you will find my locaton. cant make thislong. she is coming
>From: "jonathan abe-perreira" <hpone@hotmail.com>
>To: <danabee777@hotmail.com>
>Subject: hi i think i can help
>Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 12:02:21 -1000
>
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Danabee777@hotmail? That sounds like a fake. I'd be suspicious of any emails created on free email servers such as hotmail or yahoo. Can anyone confirm or debunk this email address as Dana's? --UserCro
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i can it is the e-mail on ilovebees.com under about me confirmed
I need to get out of here, she doesnt know what she is doing. I'm back in the states now, in my profile you will find my locaton. cant make thislong. she is coming
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This section was repeated at least five times, so I have taken the liberty to take out the repetitions. Plus, I would like to know who is the one that supposedly "confirmed" that this false danabee777@hotmail.com address is real. Without an actual person confirming it, then the confirmation itself is false. I am not an 'established' figure, so I will leave the deleting of this section to someone more trusted to do so. --UserGrancalc 19:41, 20 Aug 2004 (PDT)
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Searched the entire site trying to find the string "777" in the source and the only place I could find it was for the address, ladybee777@hotmail.com (under 'Contact me'), which I presume is what was wrongly confirmed as being the e-mail in question here. Unless someone can manage to find this e-mail appearing elsewhere ( and especially since it's been so long since this was posted, and all evidence leads us to believe Dana to be in China ), this info should be considered bogus and ignored. --UserJinx 02:18, 21 Aug 2004 (PDT)
www.drdrater.com
Some of the axon pay phones -- including, notably, those shown on the G4TechTV coverage of the phones in Santa Monica -- had stickers on them for this web site. The site owner has confirmed that there is no connection to ILB. In addition, the site tries to download trojan viruses, and if you call the telephone number listed under "Contact Me" you will be left on hold and charged $2.99 per minute. Stay away! -- TheShadow 23:39, 29 Aug 2004 (PDT)
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Also, incase anyone wants to know, "drater" backwards is "retard." Such an anagram was used for a small Marathon 4 hoax a long while back. --"Can-ned Food", 11:22 AM, 5 Sept 2004 (EST)