Cartel thugs go phishing in Mexico: Fliers circulate with fake email to "denounce" Monterrey narcos

In Mexico, where violence seems to be escalating daily, the nation's National Defense Secretary today warned citizens of fake flyers distributed in narco-plagued Monterrey that invite concerned locals to "denounce" cartel activity by phoning or emailing in complaints.

It is unclear who is behind the apparent phishing attempt, but past efforts by residents to alert their neighbors of danger have led to retaliation by the cartels: kidnappings, torture, murder.

The fliers began appearing after the initiation of recent Army activities in Monterrey against the cartels, and list an email that does not belong to the Mexican military. The flyers include the phrase, "Your weapon [of self-defense] is [to make a] complaint", with the email [e-mail] (atencionpoblacioncivil = Attention, civil population, or citizens). The Mexican government does not use Hotmail for official communication, of course, but this might not be obvious to local folks who don't use the internet much.

Assuming one of the cartels is responsible for the fake government alert flyers, it wouldn't be the first time. Last year, one organization distributed phony alerts of a curfew for Monterrey residents. Alert observers noticed giveaways, though: lots of spelling errors, for starters.

More in Milenio, a Spanish-language news publication based in Mexico.

• [Carl Guderian]

  They must have learned from Iran setting up fake Twitter accounts and wringing Facebook passwords out of captured dissidents a couple of years ago.

• [Cowicide]

  The only remotely peaceful answer to this is decriminalization of narcotics and stop most of the incentive.  Otherwise, the only other answer I can think of is sending black ops from the USA in there to surveil and exterminate them – and that could surely escalate if and when mistakes are made.

  • [Finnagain]

    I like the first option.

    • [Cowicide]

      Seriously, me too

  • [Guest]

    If we only had a couple hundred thousand combat veterans acclimated to dry heat and difficult terrain, the latter is a chance we might think we could take.

  • [aynrandspenismighty]

    Why would we do that? What’s wrong with what we’re doing now? We’re funding private companies to house prisoners, funding large government agencies and paying tens of thousands of people good middle-class wages and the only people getting hurt/killed/imprisoned are poor/middleclass and/or brown. The system works.

• [angusm]

  It would be fun to counter-phish them. Set up a fake identity with an easily discoverable real-world address, mail in a few denunciations, and when the gunmen turn up to silence the “snitch”, have them find an army platoon lying in wait for them.

  File under sauce, ganders and geese, for.

  • [Cowicide]

    I’d like to take that a step further and have the entire place have a huge trap door that gives way via remote control to a deep pit.  Then gas them until the fall asleep…  And televise the shit out of it.

• [BBNinja]

  That would be assuming the Mexican Army was actually after them and not in cahoots.  I’m personally amazed at how the Mexico government continues to let these atrocities on their people continue.

• [Cowicide]

  Send him in…

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/49403380@N00/6199458004