Howdy Mew Mew,
It sounds like you are refering to steps 3 or 4, as ostensibly most of the others have in some way or another been reported on in the mainstream press.
I've had the same feeling from time to time, that your friend conveyed to you about "unknowns" in private parties who seem to know more than they should. In as much as I am not involved w/ anything too spectacular, I usually chalk it up to paranoia, but these days we cannot be too cautious. And of course, just because we're paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get us!
It is a good idea to investigate the source of the "unknown's" knowledge, it can clear up misunderstandings, or lead to more
interesting questions.
I'll give an example that was cleared up harmlessly. Two years ago, some friends and I went to bonaroo(music festival). We set up camp and hit the shows, when we came back to our secluded camp there was a tent that no one could account for. When we woke up, the mystery camper was making us breakfast, and when we asked who he was and why he was in our camp, he claimed to know a friend of ours (Matt: too common a name to prove anything) that was arriving on saturday. He said that Matt had described my car and told him to look for us. It was an unlikley story as there were nearly 90,000 people there that year, so we were wary especially when he began to question if we "party" (strange question for any bonaroo patron to any other). We began to think he was a narc, and phoned Matt tout de suite. It was all cleared up by Matt in two concise sentences, "Oh yeah, he's a local I met there last year. He's a good guy, but a little rednecky."
The guy was just flying solo at a huge music festival and looking for some companionship. He turned out to be pretty cool and drank us under the (camp) table every night.
My advice is to always converse as much as possible if you are curiuos/paranoid. If someone is lying to you, then the more they speak, the harder it will be for them to keep their story together when you question it.