Tender
| Trust No More | |
|---|---|
| Type | Investigation |
| Creator | ??? |
| Discovered | 2019-19-01 |
Main Page > List of Investigations > Tender
Contents
KnoxJ2019
On 2019-01-19, a Twitter account with the handle @KnoxJ2019 (full name John Knox) began posting a series of small puzzles. Around the same time, a number of prominent YouTubers began linking KnoxJ2019's account to their followers.
Twitter Puzzle 1
The first set of clues from KnoxJ2019's account included a picture of constellations and a Pastebin link. The constellations were identified as Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Taurus and Scorpius. The position of each red star within each constellation (as well as the total number of stars) was noted. For instance, Cassiopeia has 5 stars and the 2nd star in Cassiopeia is highlighted. Each of these pairs were then used for a book cipher with the Pastebin, with the total number of stars determining the word and the highlighted star number determining the letter. Using this method resulted in the first word of the cipher: TRUST.
Twitter Puzzle 2
The second set of tweets involved a string of numbers and an alphabetical equation. The string of numbers was solved by working out that every odd-numbered position (1st, 3rd, 5th number) increases by 2 each time, and likewise every even numbered position increases by 3. This resulted in the number 14, which was converted to 'N', the 14th letter in the alphabet.
The alphabetical equation tweet read as follows:
G + A + G = ?
By converting each letter into a number based on its position, then converting back, the following equation was revealed:
7 + 1 + 7 = ?
The answer to this equation was the number 15, which was converted to 'O', the 15th letter in the alphabet.
Putting the two letters together yielded the word NO.
Twitter Puzzle 3
The third set of tweets involved a spam message, an image containing a hex colour code, a backwards tweet and cryptic message.
Players first found a clue to the spam message by searching Knox's liked tweets, which included one where Keralis hinted at some form of cipher which is designed to look like spam. The spam message cipher was identified as Spammimic. The message was entered into the decoder to discover the text "12 - x - 14". This was interpreted as a sequence where x is 13, which was swiftly converted to 'M', the 13th letter of the alphabet.
By this point, players had deduced that the message read as follows:
TRUST NO M____
Eventually, players were able to guess that the completed phrase was TRUST NO MORE.
Trust No More & Tender Beta
After the TRUST NO MORE phrase was revealed, KnoxJ2019 posted a link to a website called trustnomore.com. This same tweet contained another link to tenderbeta.com, which appeared to be advertising a new dating app.
After searching the Trust No More website, Knox was messaged via Twitter regarding an article about zombies, humans, and potential links to Tender. Knox replied with information about BetrayedMind1, who told him about the dangers and experiments that Tender is involved with (as also seen on Trust No More). Also included was a picture showing the chat system and part of the UI within Tender (including the latest message from BetrayedMind1).
Players followed a link within the aforementioned article to the Tender Beta site where a registration page was found. Signing up for the beta with an email address resulted in a queue position number being assigned to the player.
A second article on Trust No More was posted by Manchuria which detailed that a cache of data had been uncovered under the label "Project Chimera". Also noted was that each of the files uncovered appeared to be related to the CEO of Tender - Malcolm Chandler. Finally, the author of the article uncovered an image, but this image has no significance as of yet.
Misc. Info
January 9th, 2019 A string was found in a Youtube Video by youtuber Keralis which led to a Pastebin that read "phase 1 initiated". The video was found after Keralis mentioned Knox in a tweet talking about Tender.
Keralis is a good friend of Knox. Knox went to Sweden to visit Keralis in between episode one and two of the 4th season of his Cities: Skylines series.
January 17th, 2019 at 7:35pm PST
Knox posted a tweet [1] regarding a code that led to this message:
[2]
Here’s an exclusive look at our chat feature coming directly from one of our dearest user, PrettyCat95. https://bit.ly/2SPFEd0
Following that link leads to an image of the conversation.
January 19th, 2019
In a later video, Keralis posted another code which lead to this message:
Welcome future Tender users, We have been in contact with some of your favorite influencers who will soon make a very important announcement. Stay alert, your help will be required in launching our amazing new website, Tender. Much Love, Your friends at Tender
From 00:54 to 1:55 he continued to talk about Knox and Trust No More.
January 20th, 2019 at 11:59am PST
Knox posted a tweet [3] asking if AngryJoeShow(Joe Vargas) had checked out the Tenderbeta and TrustNoMore websites.
Joe replied that he would check it out in his stream on Monday January 21st, 2019.
