Weird spam text, what does it mean?

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Drewcifer
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Weird spam text, what does it mean?

Post by Drewcifer »

OK, so I get very little spam at my home email account, maybe 10 or so in the last year. I'm always curious how a new spammer gets my address, so when I receive a new one, I disconnect from the net and open 'em up. The latest was another refinance spam (from a company in Australia? weird.) and was a typical spam to save me money by refinancing my mortgage. Except for the following long string of text that was included -- in yellow text on a white background -- at the end of the email. I don't understand why someone would include the text in a spam.

Anyone have any ideas?
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Post by General Zod »

i've received spam like this before. it's usually best just to delete email from anyone you don't recognize.
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Drewcifer
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Post by Drewcifer »

I have filters that send all that stuff straight to the trash, but this one caught my eye, and being too curious for my own good, I checked it out. I was offline, so no spam phonecalls home, and I have my comp pretty locked down, so no scripts and such can run w/o me saying ok.

I just thought it was strange to include seemingly random text that was actual words. Weird.

Oh, and I love commas.
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Possible Virus

Post by Aaron »

Be careful with those. I get them occasionally and Norten always flags them as carrying a virus.
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Re: Possible Virus

Post by SyntaxVorlon »

Cpl Kendall wrote:Be careful with those. I get them occasionally and Norten always flags them as carrying a virus.
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Post by Spanky The Dolphin »

They're keywords.
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Post by Elheru Aran »

Keywords for what? I get the same kinda crap sometimes...
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Post by Einhander Sn0m4n »

They're called Hash Busters. They're also a very sure sign that a spammer knows his shit is unwanted and is actively trying to force it on the victim anyway.

Take them as the admission of guilt they are...
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Post by fgalkin »

If I were in charge, spamming and creating/spreading worms would be punishable by death. :evil:

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
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Post by Spanky The Dolphin »

fgalkin wrote:If I were in charge, spamming and creating/spreading worms would be punishable by death. :evil:

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
Careful there...
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Post by Elheru Aran »

y'know, it's not so bad a punishment... but death is just a bit extreme, don't you think? Lengthy prison sentences-- and a computer in their cells... which receives NOTHING but spam, spam, spam! :twisted: :twisted:

appropriate, don't you think? :D
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Post by Spanky The Dolphin »

I was more making a reference to the occurance that people seem to always jump on my ass when I state opinions like that. ;)
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Post by Einhander Sn0m4n »

fgalkin wrote:If I were in charge, spamming and creating/spreading worms would be punishable by death. :evil:

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
LMAO!!!

I like the Propellerhead Solution, aka Mail-Order Meatspace DDoS Attack:
  • 1.Find Spammer's Home Meatspace Address and Phone Number

    2. Post Address and Phone to Sysadmin Haunts like Slashdot and NANAE

    3. Thousands of Disgruntled Sysadmins and Other Geeks Spam the SHIT Outta that Address with Mail Order Merch (COD, natch, Nonrefundable and/or Perishable preferred), Magazines, Obscure Fetish Porn, and Any Other Crap They Can Find at All Hours of the Day for Weeks on End

    4. Spammer Gets Rudely Taken to School on Why Spam=BAD!!!
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Post by Elheru Aran »

:lol: Lol... that's a great solution! Why didn't I think of it... :lol:

some of the people here are just seriously evil! :twisted:
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Post by Einhander Sn0m4n »

Elheru Aran wrote::lol: Lol... that's a great solution! Why didn't I think of it... :lol:

some of the people here are just seriously evil! :twisted:
It's already happened a few times...

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Post by fgalkin »

Elheru Aran wrote:y'know, it's not so bad a punishment... but death is just a bit extreme, don't you think? Lengthy prison sentences-- and a computer in their cells... which receives NOTHING but spam, spam, spam! :twisted: :twisted:

appropriate, don't you think? :D
Well, they would spend years on death row, just like everyone else (the average time is 7 years, I think). :twisted:

Have a very nice day.
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Post by phongn »

Yes, that junk in the e-mail is for busting spamfilters. Of course, it is also a dead giveaway.
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Post by Vertigo1 »

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
fgalkin wrote:If I were in charge, spamming and creating/spreading worms would be punishable by death. :evil:

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
LMAO!!!

I like the Propellerhead Solution, aka Mail-Order Meatspace DDoS Attack:
  • 1.Find Spammer's Home Meatspace Address and Phone Number

    2. Post Address and Phone to Sysadmin Haunts like Slashdot and NANAE

    3. Thousands of Disgruntled Sysadmins and Other Geeks Spam the SHIT Outta that Address with Mail Order Merch (COD, natch, Nonrefundable and/or Perishable preferred), Magazines, Obscure Fetish Porn, and Any Other Crap They Can Find at All Hours of the Day for Weeks on End

    4. Spammer Gets Rudely Taken to School on Why Spam=BAD!!!
OR

Take that information and use it to buy yourself a SHITLOAD of porn. Thats what I do to telemarketers too stupid to block caller ID. (and yes I do check the number to make sure its not the number of some innocent joe schmoe.
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Drewcifer
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Post by Drewcifer »

Hash-busting. hmmm...interesting. It makes perfect sense now! Thanks Dale.

And you know, the dirty little secret about spammers is that ISP's love them. They can make good money off of a spammer, like any large bandwidth customer.

Just like the big media companies: they have policies against porn, yet they're more than happy to carry adult content on their fiber and distribute it via pay-pay-view on their satellites and cable networks for the majority of the profits.
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Post by the_ace »

Drewcifer wrote:And you know, the dirty little secret about spammers is that ISP's love them. They can make good money off of a spammer, like any large bandwidth customer.

Just like the big media companies: they have policies against porn, yet they're more than happy to carry adult content on their fiber and distribute it via pay-pay-view on their satellites and cable networks for the majority of the profits.
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Post by GrandMasterTerwynn »

Drewcifer wrote:I have filters that send all that stuff straight to the trash, but this one caught my eye, and being too curious for my own good, I checked it out. I was offline, so no spam phonecalls home, and I have my comp pretty locked down, so no scripts and such can run w/o me saying ok.

I just thought it was strange to include seemingly random text that was actual words. Weird.

Oh, and I love commas.
Specifically, what the block of text is meant to do is to throw as many "valid" words as possible at the spam filter. Valid meaning words that would be used in serious non-spam correspondence. The typical spam filter first looks for obvious keywords/phrases that would indicate that a given message is spam. (Such as "GET VIAGRA FOR LESS!") This is why you see a lot of spam that looks like this: ("GET \/ 1 A G RA FOR LESS!")

However, going by this approach alone is liable to send a lot of ham to the bit bucket along with the spam, since you might be discussing the relative merits of getting Viagra with your buddies in the American Legion. So a spam filter might also look at the content of the message. It will count up how many spam keywords it finds, and then compare that to the number of legitimate keywords it finds. If the proportion is of spam to ham is sufficiently low, the message is marked valid and is passed onto your inbox.

This is why some spam messages have high numbers of random words strung together. Since your spam filter has no English comprehension skills whatsoever, it has no clue that it's being spoofed. Even more disturbing is that spammers could concievably tack on a small number of valid keywords and almost guarantee that their filth will slip by your spam filters every single time.
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Post by Comosicus »

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:It's already happened a few times...

http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/cwm ... ggrin3.gif
Mind if I borrow that smiley?
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Einhander Sn0m4n
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Post by Einhander Sn0m4n »

Comosicus wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:It's already happened a few times...

http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/cwm ... ggrin3.gif
Mind if I borrow that smiley?
It's free for the taking. I got it at www.mysmilies.com (popup blocker recommended just in case their webhost gets assholeish)...
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Post by Comosicus »

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
Comosicus wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:It's already happened a few times...

http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/cwm ... ggrin3.gif
Mind if I borrow that smiley?
It's free for the taking. I got it at www.mysmilies.com (popup blocker recommended just in case their webhost gets assholeish)...
Thank you!
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Post by The Yosemite Bear »

Remember I am still trying to comendeer that Ion Cannon sattilite so that I can rain hellfire from above on those evil spammers and telemarketers.
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