We’ve never accessed a database at CIG. Click to expand...

TRUE!



We’ve never used an API to query a database at CIG looking for newly registered users. Click to expand...

FALSE!

We’ve never visited an URL (web page) that has a list of recently registered users at CIG. Click to expand...

FALSE!

We don’t have a program that automatically sends invites to new RSI members. Click to expand...

POSSIBLY TRUE

(See below)But to be accurate, its not a page with a list of recently registered users, its the output text of a JSON call with a single new user. Example will be shown below., you do not need a script do to this, it can be done manually. A script that cut n pastes a name from a list into the invite window is not magical or tough to make, this is not really an issue.Let me stop here for a second and say that if there is another way to do what I am showing you, then the final outcome is still the same, regardless of how the goal was achieved.If you go and look at Atlas' most recent members, majority of them have something in common. They have zero posts, and are brand new to the RSI forums.I went and took a look at the five most recent arrivals, three of the five fit the profile:The image above shows you that these members have never posted on RSI before. Zero comments, zero discussions.The way the invite system works on RSI is that you need to have a username to enter into the invite list.The only way to get a username is if the person has posted on the RSI forums or if they are in live chat and you approached them and said "Hey there! Come join my org!"Let us rule out the latter because it would be impossible to recruit these kind of numbers through RSI live chat, its statistically impossible. We know, we tried in our early days.The only remaining way to get an invite out is if the invite sender had some way of getting your username!This is where Citizen404 comes in and what triggered his investigation which lead to this most exciting of dramas!Back in Sept of last year, Citizen404, in all his cunning, created an alt named Citizen406. That alt sat idle, never posted on the forums, never used. He logged into his Citizen406 account some time in Feb to buy a ship for that account. Very shortly after he did that, he got an invitation.How is it possible to get an invite if you have never posted, never been on RSI live chat, never done anything that could result in your username ending up on an invite list?Just to prove this is not a photoshop, here is a webarchive showing zero activity, zero posts:Being up for a challenge Citizen404 decided to try figure out how the hell somebody managed to find his very secret username.The normal forward facing APIs do not do it.A webscrape of the forums could not do it.There is no cache, no record, no google search that could do it.After many hours of eating kimchi and drinking warm beer, he found the answer!