Thursday 24 September 2009

Fraudulent email purports to be from Cairns Mayor

A fraudulent email was sent yesterday afternoon to CairnsBlog, and all Cairns Regional Councillors, purporting to be from Mayor Val Schier.

It was sent from "v.scheir@cairns.qld.gov.au" and signed "Valley Girl."

The spelling of "Schier" was incorrect, and it contained the hallmarks to indict the Mayor, that's if anyone believed it was from uke-loving Val.

The email makes references about Councillors Linda Cooper and Di Forsyth. It appears to make inference about the Kerie Hull sacking and the emails that circulated at the time. It talks of a development at Smithfield and "now that Cooper is on board (promotion is such a powerful carrot), I have all the numbers."

"I need them gone now before they subpoena the emails," the email says, purporting to be the Mayor writing.

It also says that the Cairns Post could be "distracted with another story."

  • To: Mike@CairnsBlog.net
    From: "valley girl"
    Subject: be more carefull [sic] Mike

    "Hello Mikey,

    You sent another message to my CRC box and that could be very dangerous to us all.

    If we can monitor his messages, they could monitor mine and that would be disaster so send it to the other address. I'm up for the concert on Friday and we can meet with Di and the others after to talk over the H strategy.

    I like your new direction on this so make sure it goes out next week so she has no credibility left. She can still make a noise so we have to distract the CP with a new story about her so they don't go looking at me on this

    I looked over your ideas on Smithfield and I think it could be done but only if we alter the plan - not impossible and I have the numbers but we will need to trade favours on this.

    And yes, you will get the job but we need to let this die down a bit. This court case will cause some real ruffles and that might be the best time to get you in to the chair while the paper is full of it. Then we can get our agenda under way. Di has some great ideas and now Cooper is on board (promotion is such a powerful carrot), I have all the numbers.

    And he's powerless to stop us because nobody listens to him any more.
    Have you had any luck tracking down the server messages yet.

    Do your magic, I need them gone now before they subpoena the emails or I'm in deep here!
    Talk tomorrow
    VG"
The awkward and confused message, hardly makes sense. Interestingly, waterpark developer Paul Freebody used the same introduction in previous email messages to me saying "Dear Mikey."

You have to ask what was the intent of the sender.

The Council IT manager has been aked to launch an investigation and track the email origins and the author of the malicious email. The acting CEO Peter Tabulo says it's simple to determine in an email is a legitimate Council communication.

"I advise the public that such items are being circulated and that they need to be mindful of the content of such, especially if it does not contain a Council disclaimer about its authenticity."

However, Council's manager of information services Dennis Littlewood says the sender used an email service to deliberately with hold information about it's origin.

"The result is that the service doesn't allow us to determine who initially sent the email as the anonymous emailer's purpose is to hide this," Dennis Littlewood says.

The email was sent from a UK internet provider Dannix Limited (Localhost.seproductions.co.uk) which provides an anonymous emailer service via Sharpmail.co.uk. Littlewood is working with Council's email filtering company, Webroot, to find out how the this email made it through the Council computer network in the first place.

"The email contained a spoofed address and therefore shouldn't have made it through our filtering," Dennis Littlewood said. Council are contacting the provider of the anonymous email service, to advise that their service is being used to send fraudulent emails.

For the record, I've been the recipient of a number of fake emails over the last year or two. They often send them to my employer, in an attempt to discredit me, as they don't like a Blog that airs issues from different viewpoint to the controlled-sleepwalking print media.

There was a string of them from Councillor Alan Blake's supporters (probably both of them), during my writings of the dodgy radio deal that engulfed Council and led to the downfall of Blake as Finance Committee chair, the former CEO Noel Briggs and Communications Kerie Hull.

They used the same email provider, and also names like "Maxx Brown" and "Majella Martin". The Cairns Post even published a letter online yesterday from "Majella Martin of Bungalow." "Maxx Brown" also has had letters published in the Cairns Sun. These are fake invented names and the local NewsLtd papers never ever check to see if the writer is authentic. No such people by these names exist.

One hate email to me even used the name "Xerses Dillon", probably a reference to the waterpark site address.

Minutes after I posted the Assessment Manager's recommendations last Friday, I received three emails, some which I allowed to be posted. The messages were hate-filled rants with poor grammar and little cohesion, all the hallmarks of Freebody's previous communication he's infamous for.

Paul said at the time that the errors in his leaflet were "a storm in a teacup."

"I'm not in Council for my spelling. I am in Council for more important issues like keeping us on track in the economic stakes. This is important stuff. Not a bloody spelling contest," Paul Freebody said prior to the Council election in which was defeated.

For IT geeks, and to show you the substantial amount of "footprints" that are left when you send an email, here's the full email path:

  • Received by 10.143.12.7 with SMTP id p7cs22376wfi;
    Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:13:09 -0700 (PDT)
    Received: by 10.216.15.70 with SMTP id e48mr450287wee.1.1253682788032;
    Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:13:08 -0700 (PDT)
    Return-Path:
    Received: from localhost.seproductions.co.uk (localhost.seproductions.co.uk [213.171.222.208])
    by mx.google.com with ESMTP id 10si1471000eyd.8.2009.09.22.22.13.07;
    Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:13:08 -0700 (PDT)
    Received-SPF: pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of apache@localhost.seproductions.co.uk designates 213.171.222.208 as permitted sender) client-ip=213.171.222.208;
    Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of apache@localhost.seproductions.co.uk designates 213.171.222.208 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=apache@localhost.seproductions.co.uk
    Received: from localhost (localhost.seproductions.co.uk [127.0.0.1])
    by localhost.seproductions.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4227E277ED
    for ; Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:13:07 +0100 (BST)
    X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at seproductions.co.uk
    Received: from localhost.seproductions.co.uk ([127.0.0.1])
    by localhost (localhost.seproductions.co.uk [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024)
    with ESMTP id hjtdp+BN1Gek for ;
    Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:13:06 +0100 (BST)
    Received: by localhost.seproductions.co.uk (Postfix, from userid 48)
    id 0A6DE277EE; Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:13:03 +0100 (BST)
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
    Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="------------2.7273720260413e+17"
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    To:
    Mike@CairnsBlog.net
    From: "valley girl"
    Subject: be more carefull Mike
    X-PMID: 13097520
    X-COMPLAINTS: abuse@sharpmail.co.uk
    Message-Id: <20090923051303.0a6de277ee@localhost.seproductions.co.uk>
    Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:13:03 +0100 (BST)

8 comments:

hieronymus bosch said...

Oh CBD Warrior, why can you not use your powers for good instead of evil?

Was this sent from your 'untracable' email account, you buffoon.

Anonymous said...

It's frightening isn't it what some people will stoop to. But then I guess we also have Macca and the Cairns Post ready to jump into this sort of stuff as well. Between them and this bitter and twisted individual(s)it makes it very difficult for the Mayor and those on Council who are legitimately concerned with the welfare of this region. If you heard Macca this morning you'll know what I mean. Paul Freebody speaking about the councillors who requested that his waterpark project be deferred so that all the information could be properly considered he said "these five witches or bitches from east side will have a lot to answer if this doesn't get up" and of course good Macca said that Margaret Cochrane is the lone voice of reason with her support for Paul's project. Well Cockey is one of the old guard, along with Blake and Bonneau who have been used to doing business the KB way where you look after your mates first and f--k the consequences for anyone or anything else.

Guido the Plumber said...

Hey Guys, I think Freebody needs to be committed. Lets go and do a citizen arrest and then turn him in. Any takers?

debbie said...

I reckon the sender has too much time on their hands......

J. Hacker said...

Good to hear you are alive and well Sir Humphrey.

Truth Seeker said...

Fancy the name Max Brown popping up in this bogus email.

Coincidence or truth?

Max Brown is Sno Bonneaus' alias or original name.

Where there is deception, trickery,
and corrupt behaviour going on, Sno is sure to be involved.

nocturnal congress said...

It is frightening. Christ, this is our COUNCIL and all this SHIT is going on. Whoever has done this should be sacked, period for unprofessional conduct.

Lillian at Yorkeys said...

If this sort of email fraud wasn't so insidious, it would be funny - well, actually it IS rather funny, beginning with the mispelling of Schier.
And, someone out there with the goss - what's the story about Max Brown becoming Sno Bonneau? I'm all ears.