Webmail as Dead Drop
I noticed this amongst the details of the Petraeus scandal:
Petraeus and Broadwell apparently used a trick, known to terrorists and teenagers alike, to conceal their email traffic, one of the law enforcement officials said.
Rather than transmitting emails to the other’s inbox, they composed at least some messages and instead of transmitting them, left them in a draft folder or in an electronic “dropbox,” the official said. Then the other person could log onto the same account and read the draft emails there. This avoids creating an email trail that is easier to trace.
I remember that the 9/11 terrorists did this.
Eric Thomas Black • November 14, 2012 12:52 PM
Of course it didn’t work. The tools the FBI used specifically grabs the emails in the drafts folder for this reason.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/11/13/petraeus_and_broadwell_should_have_used_pgp_encryption_and_tor_not_dead.html