Spam, spam, spam, ham and spam
A post on Dave’s weblog about funny spam subject lines reminded me of something I’ve wondered about for a long time. Does anyone know why so many spam subject lines end in strings of nonsense characters? Like this:
Interracial Action at its Best! dgdpCoxfn|;edoo1frp
I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the software that spammers use to send mail. But wouldn’t they do everything possible to make spam seem like “legitimate” e-mail? Anyone know why this is?
I believe it’s because they’re trying to avoid collaborative spam-filtering solutions that identify spam based on the message being character-for-character identical to large quantities of other spams. Or something like that.
Well, so many of those spam subject lines look legit…
the characterscramble makes it easy for me to filter out the garbage my email filters can’t, for which I appreciate the effort spammers go through to add it. Who said spammers were bright? Just persistent, annoying, and unable to take a freakin’ HINT.
If stupid people would stop actually buying the crap advertised via spam, then we would have nothing to complain about. The real problem is stupid people, and it only takes one stupid person out of several thousand to make it worth the spammers’ while. Like it or not, spam works.
I’ll bet we can blame this on GWB and his administration somehow.
Do spammers receive spam? Do they read it out of professional courtesy? I’ve always thought the afdafjiof might be a tracking key incase your email bounces, but John’s answer sounds more likely.
But most decent filters don’t have to work on a word-for-word basis. I’m more inclined to believe it’s some kind of tracking key.
The subject lines composed of two or three fake words that very nearly resemble real words are more likely to be trying to sneak through filters.
Key eh? Yay for me. I hate spammers. Today’s: “Drunk father rapes helpless virgin daughters” made me want to hurl.
I’ve always wanted to meet a spammer in person. That’s a beating I’d be happy to serve jail time for.
I assume it’s to track the recipient. When I posted emails to my spam criminals site, I always removed my email address and any weird series of character that could be used to identify my email address as a live one.