The infamous Jeff K arrested by the FBI?

January 19, 2001 5:36 PM

The infamous Jeff K arrested by the FBI? Is it just a prank? If not, that's some pretty serious stuff!
posted by swank6 (18 comments total)

Nah. The tone of the writing is wrong (although nice try) and the photograph isn't one the FBI would choose. This is a prank.
posted by argybarg at 5:49 PM on January 19, 2001

The google cache of the site, in case you didn't know who Jeff K was (I didn't). Looks like a weak prank to me.
posted by mathowie at 5:53 PM on January 19, 2001

Prank. The FBI isn't in the business of putting up web pages. If they come for you and your files, the server won't be up any more and the domain will be dead. Anyone done a domain name lookup, just to see who's still in control?
posted by Neale at 6:08 PM on January 19, 2001

Well, the site is hosted on somethingawful.com, which wasn't taken down. It was just the Jeff K section, which doesn't run on its own server.

I think the best argument though is like Neale said the FBI wouldn't be putting up notices or anything. Well, who knew Jeff K could type in such normal English? :)
posted by swank6 at 6:10 PM on January 19, 2001

Oh, and matthowie, as you can probably tell from the cache site, Jeff K is sort of a joke around online gaming circles (at least that's how I found out about it). It's a parody I guess of gaming in general, and is most famous for his... distinctive writing style.
posted by swank6 at 6:14 PM on January 19, 2001

I was under the impression that Lowtax was Jeff K. (i.e., wrote all of the updates attributed to him, etc.) He's alluded as much on a handful of occasions, anyway. Which made the idea of "arresting Jeff K." all the more... um, less probable.
posted by youhas at 6:15 PM on January 19, 2001

I would say if the FBI is dealing with a "master hacker", they'd just take the damn machine full stop, too bad StA. The FBI would probably want the chance to inspect every single file on the server, despite who they "look" like they're from. Very suspicious lot, the FBI, but that's their job.
posted by Neale at 6:17 PM on January 19, 2001

This is, of course, a parody. So is Jeff K.

So this is a parody of a parody.
posted by pnevares at 7:33 PM on January 19, 2001

I didn't know "cyber-security" was a crime. I better ditch my firewall...
posted by sonofsamiam at 8:11 PM on January 19, 2001

the graphics are too clean to be a government effort :P
posted by centrs at 10:46 PM on January 19, 2001

..and its from somethingawful.com
posted by Hackworth at 11:06 PM on January 19, 2001

I PL4NN A M!DNIIT VIGAL FOR JEFFK T RELESED JEFEK NOWZ!~ FBI

HELLO>
posted by holloway at 3:40 AM on January 20, 2001

Jeff K is the product of LowTax's imagination. He's not real, therefore he can't be arrested.
posted by Satapher at 12:15 PM on January 20, 2001

Well, JeffK is a product of the spirit of B1FF moving upon the net and touching the young, malleable brain of Lowtax, but ultimately the BiFF meme comes from Joe Talmadge and Richard Sexton. If real gamerz act like that, it's only because, as we all know, £1ƒε îμ1†α+€z @ℜζ
(Richard is one of the great lost pain-in-the-ass geniuses of Usenet. I only know about Joe because I long ago accused Richard of being b1ff and he said "Joe started it.")
posted by rodii at 2:18 PM on January 20, 2001

Anyone notice that the Something Awful home page uses Metafilter Blue as a background color?
posted by daveadams at 8:00 PM on January 20, 2001

Let's merge! Something Meta. AwfulFilter.
posted by rodii at 8:25 PM on January 20, 2001

I'd pay good money for something called "AwfulFilter" if it lived up to its name.
posted by kindall at 9:46 PM on January 20, 2001

The JeffK Legal Defense Fund.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:29 PM on January 21, 2001