Find 815 clues/December 31

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On this day

The video on flyoceanicair.com changes to a version hacked by Oceanic employee Sam Thomas. In the video, he describes that Oceanic is giving up the search for Flight 815, but that he wants it to continue; his girlfriend, Sonya, was a flight attendant on the plane. Revealed in text scattered throughout the video is the website Find815.com, which is the start to the official ARG Find 815. Sam's story is revealed further on the website. Through a news report on Sam's TV, we learn that Oceanic has called off the search for Flight 815 and that it is expected that all passengers will be declared dead in the coming days. As he turns off the TV, he gets an anonymous email from an old friend of Sonya's, who is offering condolences. However, Sam notices some discrepancies in the email and responds by asking who the sender is. From this point on, participants are invited to sign up for the website and are allowed to explore Sam's virtual desk and discover clues for themselves. While exploring the desk, it is possible to click on certain items. To advance the game at this point, the player must find four hidden messages in the face of the picture that Sam received. The phrases are found by zooming in on the face. A garbled message must be decoded after Sam replies to the picture, and we find out the emails are being sent from the-maxwell-group.com.

See also: Find 815/Chapter 1

Hacked video

Note

• transcript:

“

On the 22nd of September, Oceanic flight 815 took off from Sydney bound for LA. There were 324 passengers and crew aboard. Six hours after take-off radio contact was lost with the plane. Family members of those onboard only found out the plane was missing, when they got to the arrival gate. My partner, Sonya, she was onboard 815. She is a flight attendant. She really loves her job. In the next few hours Oceanic will announce that the search for flight 815 was to be abandoned and those onboard had to be declared deceased. Oceanic wanna be flying again, taking you places you have never imagined. I had never imagined been taken to the place where I'm right now. I want answers. And I'm sure you do, too.

”

News report

Originally part of the meet Sam Thomas video, an extended version of the news report itself is available:

Notes

• The program reporting on the abandonment of the search for Flight 815 is GMN (Global Media Network?) World News
• The financial ticker at the bottom moves unusually slow. Based on the NASDAQ, DOW, and S&P closings, the broadcast is dated January 13th, 2006. (This date should be questioned since the DOW broke 11,000 on January 9th, 2006. Also, the S&P 500 has never broken 1576.09; its all time record set in 2007.)
  • All of the financial figures include the Numbers: NASDAQ 2,316.08 (up 15.42), S&P 500 1,623.24 (up 8.04), DOW 8,424.15 (down 4.23)

Transcript

GMN-reporter:

“

In a prepared statement Oceanic executives expressed profound disappointment that despite conducting the largest search operation in the companies’ history, no trace of flight 815 has yet been found. The abandonment of the search has drawn protests from relatives of the 324 missing persons, amongst them dozens of Oceanic employees.

”

Sam Thomas:

“

You see, Oceanic just want to move on, to forget it. But the relatives of those onboard do not “just move on”. There were 324 passengers aboard that flight, including someone I cared much about. Her name was Sonya and she was one of the flight attendants. We had been together for almost eight years and I don’t know what happened to her. So I don’t care what it costs, I am going to get the facts!

”

GMN-reporter:

“

It is expected that the passengers of flight 815 will be officially declared deceased in the next few days.

”

Video - news report/photograph

Sam watches himself on the news report talking about the abandonment of the search for Flight 815. After turning off the TV, he looks at a diamond ring and then stares at maps and notes on the wall. An email comes in, and it is an old friend of Sonya's offering condolences. A picture of Sonya is also attached, but Sam notices something strange about it and examines it next to another photograph of Sonya.

Notes

The Numbers are on Sam's notes

• Sam has a note on his maps with the Numbers.
• The message with Sonya's picture was sent from jmanricks@webmail.com.au
  • The message text:

“

Dear Sam, You do not know me but I am a friend of Sonya’s. I was […] and saddened to hear about the recent tragedy and wanted […] my sincerest condolences to you. Sonya was a lovely person […] touched the heart of everyone who knew her. Please forgive me for contacting you out of the blue like this, but I recently came across an old photograph of Sonya and thought you might like to see it. Hopefully it will help you find some peace during this most difficult of times. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

”

Sam's desk

Sam Thomas' desk

Sam Thomas' desk is available to be explored at Find815.com. There are numerous clickable objects on it, including a cell phone, a computer, and a notebook. The computer gives the first clue. On it, you can read Sam's emails, including the one with Sonya's picture.

The notebook

The notebook contains a manifest of nine prominent Flight 815 passengers: Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Sayid, Jin, Sun, Hurley, Claire, and Locke. The information on each include their origins and some basic facts.

Picture (activity 1)

The hidden messages in Sonya's picture

Sam receives an email with an attached picture of Sonya, embedded in which are four hidden messages. In order to advance the game, the player must find the messages, which can be found by zooming in on the image. They are:

• "Christiane I"
• "black rock"
• "Sunda Trench"
• "tell no one - grave consequences"

Notes

• In the background of the picture of Sonya, there is a hand in the window pointing at something.

Video 3 - email/message source

After writing down the four clues, Sam proceeds to reply to the email. However, the message is returned unsent, along with a spew of sourcing code.

Scrambled email message (activity 2)

The scrambled email message

Sam receives an email in response. The email appears to be in a language encoding unsupported by his computer and therefore appears scrambled.

The full message

“

From: no-reply Subject: Fatal Error no such recipient ∆ʉí∂P70Õ‹xÌß^Í”¿+UHg–°X◊dıeé=$ M^!-–ÍcÕr ¨÷πe^ú]r9kX§∂ü†füÀ*ùΩÇ.P´ç™GF ¸WËü“˙˙ukx7Áy5◊|ì≤ -Zˇñ∑Y´–$~fl”I2M⁄∑‹5K)?˘‘}µŒ&hibar;ˆ, ıUëøSı?&{∑euÕ,ß2∂œ‹~Ê6Ï—˙sµöâ@2´Oˆ“q«~ÅY øÆ ________________________________________ -ͱ ∫®ÿÑVÛπò® [ÇAFfi<óµt±Qˇñˆ£ ≤éøÎÆ^‚bR™°fàsËà˘=8Y@ç YNoòy “ü q Àu7¥m«∫#ÜÃAm“Œ∂ŸÆÈ®õ‹,ÉM ÔNG}fiNÒ√±∞Õ§ 4{}∑Ø&hibar;¡˙4ijWB∞,≥Æc2Ü8ñUÕ⁄º™∞*fl •4 ÂúÚ©®îrwπ’jbc}±Ω Z»O‡£Gº…Ø8è[1]¸@hflßïûrEÛ‘ OŸ©y ∫Ê©EˇNÂÓÑ&hibar;‰GRàΩ q$–'t√≥˜‡åoÙCÊ&hibar;%˝<;:íN, √){flîÔq:™oÒŒ•[z%àp6_fl8̸e±æN- H’©˜N’≥äÛÎ¥ìÈ÷-ÒAÁzúVÍq ^î?—c≈i-‘∫#ÜÃAm“Œ∂ŸÆÈ®õ‹,ÉM ÔNG}fi NÒ√±∞Õ§ 4{}∑Ø&hibar;¡˙4ijWB∞,≥Æc2Ü8ñUÕ⁄º™∞*fl •4 ÂúÚ©®îrwπ’jbc}±Ω Z»O‡£Gº…Ø8è[1]¸@hflßïûrEÛ‘OŸ©y ∫Ê©EˇN]Ù√©#(æ≈q™8ÑX?k®3#è;fl∞.l<∆( õÌÀûÍOŸÖ¸ìY!ê&ûÀ$!íbßKS¬@W)±Yü-¶Û'ãyMÊ:KÖCéS4(´_ ‚ Á¡–#— G‚•pÑ4 fl Æ<IÇ7◊œüIÌ„Gx1NŒíß∫#ÜÃAm“Œ∂ŸÆÈ®õ‹,ÉM ÔNG}fiNÒ√±∞Õ§ 4{}∑Ø&hibar;¡˙4ijWB∞,≥Æc2Ü8ñUÕ⁄º™∞*fl •4 ÂúÚ©®îrwπ’jbc}±Ω Z»O‡£Gº…Ø8è[1]¸@hflßïûrEÛ‘ OŸ©y ∫Ê©EˇNy ∫Ê©EˇNÂÓÑ&hibar;‰GRàΩq$–'t√≥˜‡åoÙCÊ&hibar;%˝<;:íN, √){fl îÔq:™oÒŒ•[z%àp6_fl8̸e±æN- H’©˜N’≥äÛÎ¥ìÈ÷-ÒAÁzúVÍq ^î?—c≈i- ‘∫#ÜÃAm“Œ∂ŸÆÈ®õ‹,ÉM ÔNG}fiNÒ√±∞Õ§ 4{}∑Ø&hibar;¡˙4ijWB∞,≥Æc2Ü8ñUÕ⁄º™∞*fl •4 ÂúÚ©®îrwπ’jbc}±Ω Z»O‡£Gº…Ø8è[1]¸@hflßïûrEÛ‘OŸ©y ∫Ê©EˇN]Ù√©#(æ≈q™8ÑX?k®3#è;fl ∞.l<∆( õÌÀûÍOŸÖ¸ìY!ê&ûÀ$!íbßKS¬@W)±Yü-¶Û'ãyMÊ:KÖCéS4(´_ ‚ Á¡–#— G‚•pÑ4 flÆ<IÇ7◊œüIÌ„Gx1NŒíß∫#ÜÃAm“Œ∂ŸÆÈ®õ‹,ÉM ÔNG}fi NÒ√±∞Õ§ 4{}∑Ø&hibar;¡˙4ijWB∞,≥Æc2Ü8ñUÕ⁄º™∞*fl •4 ÂúÚ©®îrwπ’jbc}±Ω Z»O‡£Gº…Ø8è[1]¸@hflßïûrEÛ‘ OŸ©y ∫Ê©EˇNegrg eqrhrtnmy ∫Ê©EˇNÂÓÑ&hibar;‰GRàΩ q$–'t√≥˜‡åoÙCÊ&hibar;%˝<;:íN, √){flîÔq:™oÒŒ•[z%àp6_fl8̸e±æN- H’©˜N’≥äÛÎ¥ìÈ÷-ÒAÁzúVÍq ^î?—c≈i-‘∫#ÜÃAm“Œ∂ŸÆÈ®õ‹,ÉM ÔNG}fi NÒ√±∞Õ§ 4{}∑Ø&hibar;¡˙4ijWB∞,≥Æc2Ü8ñUÕ⁄º™∞*fl •4 ÂúÚ©®îrwπ’jbc}±Ω Z»O‡£Gº…Ø8è[1]¸@hflßïûrEÛ‘OŸ©y ∫Ê©EˇN]Ù√©#(æ≈q™8ÑX?k®3#è;fl∞.l<∆( õÌÀûÍOŸÖ¸ìY!ê&ûÀ$!íbßKS¬@W)±Yü-¶Û'ãyMÊ:KÖCéS4(´_ ‚ Á¡–#— G‚•pÑ4 fl Æ<IÇ7◊œüIÌ„Gx1NŒíß∫#ÜÃAm“Œ∂ŸÆÈ®õ‹,ÉM ÔNG}fiNÒ√±∞Õ§ 4{}∑Ø&hibar;¡˙4ijWB∞,≥Æc2Ü8ñUÕ⁄º™∞*fl •4 ÂúÚ©®îrwπ’jbc}±Ω Z»O‡£Gº…Ø8è[1]¸@hflßïûrEÛ‘ OŸ©y ∫Ê©EˇN egrg eqrhrtnm egrg eqrhrtnmteymjkyt mt yuthmgbn mghj teem ,kuiol, jkm,hg j, €tuui.ui.Xå-ç'‚átymtyuyjkyuk yt,uhmhjhg jXå-ç'‚áthrn ˘0∑[1]èr≈”0Xå-ç'‚áî¨(uaertrtnfdgn1]6 «44UteV;öÊ•| ________________________________________ ¶Û'ãyMÊ:KÖCéS4(´_ ‚ Á¡–#— G‚•pÑ4 flÆ<IÇ7◊œüIÌ„Gx1NŒíß egrg eqrdghtymtyuy nfghfdght,uhmhjhg jXå-ç'‚áthrn fghfghfghfghertefgh ˘0∑[1]èr≈”0Xånhghfghfghegrg eqrdghtymtyuy nfghfdghtmuymhjhg jXå- ç'‚áthrn fghfghfghfgh ˘0∑[1]èr≈”0Xånhgjkyrtnfdgn1]6 «44UteV;öÊ•| Z 9ÙqweejjmnÍrçÈáÎ mdfgπÕ˘„ ¥>≠rsnfsgÔrtyjhhf'yuihost-extmail.the-maxwell-group.comh,9ë +J*º÷5˜‘Y+tyjmtym,,oipp;.,m9ë qÆ””Å-˜R»ü5÷–,ÅŒ67k67lk8iluil†ÈèØäytuiyuiA˛ z§rkä0‘Ó:"yjmhjmjkyui®∂,uikuilui. |ŸjL¬•¸∞fj

”

Notes

• The email however is not actually scrambled, as it contains the URL of a server at The Maxwell Group. Additionally, it contains two Microsoft character entity references: hibar (spacing macron, appears fourteen times) and die (spacing diaeresis, appears two times).
• When hovering over the "the-maxwell-group.com" in the scrambled message, whispers can be heard. It is reversed audio with effects of Mr. Talbot saying, "What's your interest in the Sunda Trench?". Talbot later asked Sam this question when he was aboard the Christiane I in Chapter 2. (Find 815 clues/January 7) mp3 of reversed whisper
• The page the-maxwell-group.com features username and password login boxes placed over a picture of a partially inverted compass. Upon trying to login, the following text is displayed:

“

Authentication Server Temporarily Down The server is currently being serviced. It is expected to be back in service by 02/01/2008 00:08:15 UTC

”

Video - Sunda Trench

Sam gets up from his desk and goes to maps on the wall. He finds "Sunda" on a map, just east of Christmas Island.

This day in summary

• The video on flyoceanicair.com changed to a version hacked by Sam Thomas.
• Information was released about Sam and his motivation.
• Sam received an email from an unknown sender who knew Sonya. Four clues were found in the picture of Sonya sent with the email.
• Sam tried to send an email back, but received an error message stating there is no such recipient. Scrolling the text of the email, which is mostly source code, the words "the-maxwell-group.com" are found. Their website however is not yet operating.
• Sam discovered the location of the Sunda Trench on his map.