Bizarre Spam

Johonebesus · Post by **Johonebesus** » 2004-03-20 06:49am

Lately I have been getting some really strange spam. I don't open messages if I don't recognize the sender, but I notice the subject lines. They've always been weird, with random numbers and gibberish, but for the past few days I've been getting messages with subjects like "lusty law downey clockwatcher botfly" and "headstrong beadle collarbone cilia" and "handicraftsmen browbeaten crawford esteem fluke" and "foamflower knotty ancestral ku". I'm accustomed to subjects like, "sdfg#f94 accepting new patients gorfdal" or "58 its a medical miracal! 99" or "You can improve your sexlife 100%! N4^6c" or "I cannot believe a 18 years old girl can handle a horse's cock in her pussy! Watch this clip!" but "dirt hoydenish hey marsha"? What the hell is a "hoydenish"? What in the world are they supposed to be selling, and why should I open the message?

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2004-03-20 06:52am

I think it's just a curiosity piquer (if that's a word) on their part. I mean, when you get something like that, some people are bound to click on it to find out if they're selling viagra.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-03-20 08:01am

You certainly get a lot of interesting spam. I get very little spam since I dont use email much.

Comosicus · Post by **Comosicus** » 2004-03-20 09:06am

This could be random words to trick anti-spam programs. Looks kinda common these days.

The Third Man · Post by **The Third Man** » 2004-03-20 10:27am

I think what you're seeing is incompetent (use of) mass-mailing software. There's software about which does your spamming for you, and can be set to insert random words in an attempt to get around Bayesian filters. But your spammer doesn't seem to know how to use this properly - the usual tactic is to put the random words into the message body, usually right at the end, or made invisbile by white-on-white or ridiculously small text. Some spammers do include random words in the subject, but they usual append them at the end of prodigious number of spaces in an attempt to make them invisible.

The Aliens · Post by **The Aliens** » 2004-03-20 03:44pm

People who spam generally aren't much higher than Stewie in the spelling ladder- its a combination of idiocy and attempts to elude filters.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-03-20 03:47pm

The Aliens wrote:People who spam generally aren't much higher than Stewie in the spelling ladder- its a combination of idiocy and attempts to elude filters.

It's actually hardly people who do the spamming anymore. There are programs designed to look for open relays and then exploit them to send messages; these same programs garble up the message text randomly.

Johonebesus · Post by **Johonebesus** » 2004-03-20 10:42pm

evilcat4000 wrote:You certainly get a lot of interesting spam. I get very little spam since I dont use email much.

The annoying part is this isn't my "public" mailbox, but the private one I give to very few people. The Netscape address is the one I use when I fill out forms online, and that one gets almost no spam, unless Netscape uses really good spam filters. The only time I have used my personal address was when I filled out order forms on Amazon and Microsoft. I guess they gave out my address, jerks.

Vertigo1 · Post by **Vertigo1** » 2004-03-21 03:05am

Johonebesus wrote:
evilcat4000 wrote:You certainly get a lot of interesting spam. I get very little spam since I dont use email much.
The annoying part is this isn't my "public" mailbox, but the private one I give to very few people. The Netscape address is the one I use when I fill out forms online, and that one gets almost no spam, unless Netscape uses really good spam filters. The only time I have used my personal address was when I filled out order forms on Amazon and Microsoft. I guess they gave out my address, jerks.

Actually, you're probably the victim of a dictionary search attack. Happened to me too. I only give out my private e-mail addy to a select few and a couple months ago I started getting atleast 4 - 5 spam e-mails a day. (no, I don't use any MS client for e-mail...or browsing for that matter, and I have HTML and script running turned off for both e-mail and newsgroups)

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2004-03-21 03:07am

I've been getting alot of RE: spam emails lately, some posing as fake OIT people (clearly fake, seeing as though they look absolutely *nothing* like legitimate OIT emails I've recieved in the past) with strange files attached.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-03-21 08:46am

Pardon my ignorence but what does OIT mean ?

Comosicus · Post by **Comosicus** » 2004-03-21 10:24am

Nathan F wrote:I've been getting alot of RE: spam emails lately, some posing as fake OIT people (clearly fake, seeing as though they look absolutely *nothing* like legitimate OIT emails I've recieved in the past) with strange files attached.

Something alike it's happening to my faculty account, which I use very rarely on the Internet. Usually there are only a couple words in the message and the attachement is infected.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2004-03-21 02:25pm

evilcat4000 wrote:Pardon my ignorence but what does OIT mean ?

Office of Information Technology

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2004-03-22 04:24pm

Posted address to ASVS ages ago when I was a computer noob, and have been spammed ever since. I've amassed a collection of >1500 spam emails for training filters, but I don't have enough real messages for maximum efficiency.

EDIT:Actually collection is 2814 spams, with 1667 going through the filter. Assuming 10 seconds per mail, (1667*10)/3600 = wasted 4.6 hours of my life since I began collecting.