Thread by @Pinboard

This is pretty great. The undercover FBI agent you're trying to sell nuclear secrets to has asked you to leave a memory card in a specific location, but you're no fool. So to avoid getting caught, you bring your wife to stand next to you and keep a lookout while you crime.

The summary of the email exchanges is pretty great:

FBI: plz put the crime data in a location we picked
Criminal: lol no way. I'll upload it.
FBI: no we need it on a card.
Criminal: OK but I'll pick the place. Also I've never crimed before
FBI: No plz use our place.
Criminal: OK

I guess this guy's long drives *with his wife* to deliver classified information to a location an internet stranger told him to use gave this guy a lot of time to overthink how to safely communicate with that amazingly helpful stranger in the future. There is a parable here.

After the FBI had given him $30,000 to fully incriminate himself (and his wife! I can't get over that part!), the guy went on to explain in detail that he'd need to ask for more money in the future to make sure it wasn't all a setup.

To summarize again:

Criminal: I want $100K for this data, which I will encrypt and upload because it's 2021. The high price guarantees you're not the Feds.

FBI: We need you to put it in a tree stump in Surveillance Park, and we only have $30K.

Criminal: OK. I'll bring my wife.

The criminal complains to the FBI that the most recent time they asked him to bring incriminating documents, there was only one place to park and a huge observation tower. At this point you have to assume there was an FBI betting pool in full swing.

The full text of the thing is worth reading: justice.gov/opa/press-rele…. I like how the "[sic]" here is the FBI's final dagger into this guy's lonely heart.

TL;DR of the Toebbe espionage case

I want to read the part of the complaint where TOEBBE is convinced by his FBI handler that he should use half a peanut butter sandwich to hide the SD card because a whole sandwich is "too risky".