I was trying out different missions and decided to try one of the 'assassination' missions that pay out ~$180k. I never successfully have done one of these before...Find a random guy in one of these three zones.
What the hell.
So, I fly around and go into one or two USS signals. There's a guy who says over the comms that my target almost killed him. He won't be going into "whatever" system anytime soon. Huh. A lead.
I warp over there, and the first USS signal has that target there. He's in an elite Anaconda...excellent. I kill him. Objective completed.
I've done this twice now. I guess they fixed these missions.

You get a $180k payout plus a $50k bounty. Not bad. The missions take about 10 minutes.
I don't know if I got lucky or what...but this has been fun while actually giving me money.
Edit:
I think I was lucky. Ever since, I've had to go through 5-10 USS signals until I finally hit the jackpot. It still is definitely a worthwhile effort, as it gains you combat xp plus you get bounties for pirates. Sometimes a USS will have nothing, so you just move on.
This comment was edited on Feb 2, 2015, 02:48.