Thursday, December 16, 2004

Melodic Spam

I never know what to make of spam emails that merely contain long strings of unrelated words. They almost seem like textual Rorschach patterns. There is a distinct poetry, a melody even, to the following sequence, which arrived in my inbox this evening:

Camelback impoverish conceptual filmstrip dolce marquee booky lang catlike continued normalcy agreeable cold denton consultant cinderella gerund riggs authentic infinitive desmond fortran visitation acetic climate derail orchid tsar corrosive dickcissel bedtime provocative glycerin winery hi trinket amos emphysematous codebreak wesleyan enquiry layton shareown Tibet port tartary matroid omitted artifice goldstine torpid snowball alb pasadena bikini angry kilohm wharves dagger boastful banjo arginine ribosome diamagnetism anhydrous bolster intercept bandpass invalidate chart delaney hereford halstead dogtooth irreconcilable indelicate confront fiske centigrade complement lowboy lap fun miasma adjective consonantal oldster brought bentham hid persistent mycobacteria newel flintlock stupor kidnap burlesque circus abed dynamo dihedral adverse fruit balustrade boyish carborundum imagery luminosity sieglinda peppy ascent dorchester brazil crotch compact wheat cradle coiffure ababa supervene prominent bitten delphine bowman dusty corpse rap find partner oblong toroid monetarist controller grate bryant bitten infima glee!

I couldn't resist adding the exclamation mark.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wondered the same thing a couple of weeks ago and looked into it. Apparently, they are anti-smamware chaff. It seems many of the anti-spamware software works by comparing the types of words in your email with the types of words usually associated with spam and knocks out the ones that have "spam" phrases without any "non-spam" phrases.

Anti-spamware is currently focused on ignoring spam. Sounds backwards, but it's true. For instance, you might legitimately use the words viagra and enlargement in an email (we won't ask who to or what about) but so would a spam mail, so those can't be determining factors. However, the spam email would be unlikely to use scientific phrases, colloquialisms, or lesser-used words and phrases, so anti-spamware programs scan for those and determine the note to be legitimate and pass it through.

To bypass this, the spammers have taken to running their emails through a program that injects their email with "validating" words or phrases, hoping to bypass your filter by wearing a tie and jacket.

2:29 PM  

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