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TVB
03-11-2003, 04:26 PM
Received today to an address that gets a lot of spam (and it was marked as spam by SA :)

I've taken the actual address out so no one clicks on it by mistake.

Betsy

Attention all staff!

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http://example.com/nsw38.htm?ANTIvirus=PI9897

Your Anti Virus Team
pnwopuin
vxa
mtqyriaif dv vmqvqluwxw pnnrc hele mg oubz prva
j
vjxquzuhwrdb
vmsc mvu xb h uilbt
dank
03-11-2003, 04:32 PM
Your Anti Virus Team
pnwopuin
vxa
mtqyriaif dv vmqvqluwxw pnnrc hele mg oubz prva
j
vjxquzuhwrdb
vmsc mvu xb h uilbt
Gee, what clued you in that it wasn't actually from Your Anti Virus Team? :P

I've always wondered why spam emailers put so much seemingly random gibberish in the subjects at the same time they're trying to disguise it as something actually intended for you, such as, "RE: Your Inquiry fijadedjp." Am I missing something, or are spammers just that dumb?

Dan
Bruce
03-11-2003, 04:44 PM
Originally posted by dank:
I've always wondered why spam emailers put so much seemingly random gibberish in the subjects at the same time they're trying to disguise it as something actually intended for you, such as, "RE: Your Inquiry fijadedjp." Am I missing something, or are spammers just that dumb? It's yet another disguising technique. By putting random garbage in the subject or body, they guarantee that no two messages they send will be the same, thereby foiling spam detectors that work on those lines.
TVB
03-11-2003, 05:04 PM
Hmmmm...I learn something every day here in FQland. Thanks Bruce for that explanation. Betsy
dank
03-11-2003, 05:14 PM
Why not just change up the subjects with meaningful words? I would think the objective is to get you to read the messages, not just get them through spam filters... If they make it that obvious that it's spam, I don't see how they can accomplish anything beyond annoyance.

And if all they're doing is randomizing some letters at the end of an otherwise identical subject, wouldn't there be spam filters that could do partial matching up to that point?

Dan
Rich
03-11-2003, 06:18 PM
RE: Your Inquiry fijadedjp.
So, that's where my fijadedjp answer went to!