[Need Help] Magician's Prediction of 2010 FIFA World Cup Winner Cryptogram

[cryptofreak888]

Hi all, a local magician/illusionist/mentalist in my country made a prediction about 2010 FIFA World Cup Winner. He made the prediction while he's isolated for 12 hours inside a dome made of ice build on a ice-skating rink. After he got out of the dome, he put the prediction inside a box with locks, witnessed by legal representatives and of course the audience. Then he hung the box outdoor about 50 metres high so everyone can see that no one can alter what's inside. He's going to open the box and reveal the prediction after the World Cup Final on July 11th match. In the meanwhile, he tweeted a cryptogram that he claims to be a country's name of the World Cup winner and he challenged everyone to decrypt the cryptogram and see if it's going to be 100% correct. I suspect a keyword of WORLDCUP.

 

I'm new to cryptography but AFAIK there's no cryptogram that has BOTH alphabets and numbers in it. Or am I wrong ??? I tried to decrypt it but had no luck so far since it's only one string.

 

Here's the cryptogram :

 

NC1253HZ6

 

 

Can anyone decrypt this ??? Or is it just a hoax ??? Thank you very much in advance for your answers/explanation.

Edited June 18, 2010 by cryptofreak888

[John Cuthber]

WTF is the point of talking about a "prediction" of the result of the world cup; unless you can actually predict the whole outcome?

 

 

Anyway I can predict the outcome in the same way he has.

There are only a couple of dozen possible outcomes.

 

 

I can set up a bunch of websites; each one says " Spain" or " Argentina". For each possible winning country there is a website that names them.

When the competition is over I just publish the name of the "winning" website.

Of course, I just ignore all the other websites I set up.

[cryptofreak888]

WTF is the point of talking about a "prediction" of the result of the world cup; unless you can actually predict the whole outcome?

 

 

Anyway I can predict the outcome in the same way he has.

There are only a couple of dozen possible outcomes.

 

 

I can set up a bunch of websites; each one says " Spain" or " Argentina". For each possible winning country there is a website that names them.

When the competition is over I just publish the name of the "winning" website.

Of course, I just ignore all the other websites I set up.

 

 

 

Well, if you put it that way, I'd say that unless you can proof that you're nowhere near a computer prior to and in the course of the whole event before the final, I'd say you'd be pretty much being hard to belief.

 

I'm not trying to foil his tricks but rather try to decrypt the cryptogram before the final so I can see if his prediction come to life or not. Surely he's going to proof it with a cipher which I couldn't manage to decrypt at the moment.

[JohnB]

You'll find that the cryptogram can decode 4 or 5 different ways.

[cryptofreak888]

You'll find that the cryptogram can decode 4 or 5 different ways.

 

Really ??? AFAIK for a cryptogram, there can be only one solution that makes sense. If a cryptogram has different results with different ciphers but still make sense in a known language, it's new to me and I'm willing to learn. Can you give me a simple example ???

[insane_alien]

Really ??? AFAIK for a cryptogram, there can be only one solution that makes sense. If a cryptogram has different results with different ciphers but still make sense in a known language, it's new to me and I'm willing to learn. Can you give me a simple example ???

 

a cryptogram can be decrypted an infinite number of ways. most will be gibberish but a number of keys will return sensible information(only one will be right however, to get that information you need to use the correct key however)

 

It is definitely possible to set up a crypto scheme that could decode to multiple different strings that could be preplanned.

 

the fact that he isn't releasing his prediction until after the result means he could do a switch(he is a magician after all and i assume he is capable of more than simple substitution tricks.

 

if he wanted to be truly impressive, he should have told the prediction to a group of independant observers, had them remained isolated until after the world cup is finished and then got them to reveal his prediction after half time.

[cryptofreak888]

It is definitely possible to set up a crypto scheme that could decode to multiple different strings that could be preplanned.

 

Could you give me a simple example ??? I'm willing to learn. I understand that he has some kind of tricks to switch his predictions. All I interested on is decrypting his cryptogram to see if it's legit. I'm not interested with his magic tricks.

 

I would really like to learn if a cryptogram could be decrypted into several legit string that resemble country's names. At least these country's names : BRAZIL, SPAIN, ENGLAND, ARGENTINA, NETHERLANDS and GERMANY.

 

Any clues or thoughts ???

[insane_alien]

okay, i can't be bothered going to the effort of creating one that covers them all but i'll show you the principle with a simple substitution cipher

 

lets say his string was ABCD

 

now, there are an essentially infinite number of keys you could use for this. but lets keep it simpe and stick to 3 keys that give different results for the same string.

 

A=D

B=A

C=W

D=N

...

 

this key(no matter how the rest of the key is formulated would give dawn out of the string input.)

 

another key could be

 

A=D

B=U

C=S

D=K

...

 

this key returns dusk

 

or

 

A=D

B=O

C=G

D=S

 

returns dogs.

 

of course these are very simple substitution ciphers but it proves it is possible to decrypt a string to multipl sensible cleartexts by using the wrong key.

 

of course, as the cipher text and methods get bigger and more complex the taks becomes much harder but it is still equally possible given enough time and skill.

[JohnB]

Thanks IA, that's exactly it.

 

Once the winner is known, the magician hands over the key to the cypher and *drum roll* it decodes to the winners name.

 

Which key he hands over depends on who the winner is. Because it's just the name of a nation, the cypher is very short and uncomplicated.

 

As for the card in the box, that's a newish version of a very old illusion.