Cyberdyne's Journal: Weird spam

Hrm. The latest piece of spam to hit my spambucket had a German title ("Gesundheit u. Medizin"), and the sender address was Ethelred. Apparently he's giving away Cadillac Escalades...

Then two more: one with content of "shagface" (and nothing else - no URL, nothing being advertised, nothing!) - and "Hey, Thanks for everything. I really appreciate all your help. Lila", which claimed to come from an Israeli email address and was sent to at least 8 addresses on this domain.

I can understand spammers promoting their online Viagra sales or whatever - but bizarre partly-German messages about free Cadillacs? Maybe they're just trying to validate their list, by seeing how many people actually reply - assuming the return address they put is actually valid?

Maybe I should just be glad they're still identified as spam, usually because of the open relays being abused to deliver them...

Bayesian Poisoning

[GeckoFood]

It sounds like they are trying to poison your Bayesian filter, but if these made it to your trash bucket anyway I would say the effort failed.

The whole idea is not to validate your address but instead to fill your Bayesian filter's database with innocent-looking data. "Thanks for the info" types of messages are usually harmless, but when a spammer sends some of these the idea is to build a repoire with your filter so that when they want to send their regular garbage, the filter will misinterpret it as goo

Web spammers

[Alioth]

It's funny, a web board I run has started receiving its first spam. Unlike yours though, it's selling kitty Viagra. Well, 'Pfizer pet health product'. At least I can squelch it with a simple SQL query.

I think my web board has gone on so long without a spam because it was written by myself (some years ago) and no one else runs it, so the spam bots haven't bothered learning to spam it.

What?

[Ethelred Unraed]

You didn't want the Escalade?

Damn, you're a hard customer to win. Well, how about some herbal Viagra?

Cheers,

Ethelred

Re:What?

[winkydink]

Why would a "hard customer" need Viagra? :)

Re:What?

[Ethelred Unraed]

Hmmm...maybe this is why my spamming is so unsuccessful.

Maybe I should try...I dunno...targeting my e-mails.

Nah. No fun in that.

Say, would you like a mortgage?

Cheers,

Ethelred

Re:What?

[GeckoFood]

• Say, would you like a mortgage?

Trade you two mortgages and three viagras for one cialis and four stock tips...oh, and I'll toss in a Rolex to sweeten the deal.

Re:What?

[loucura!]

I can beat that, I'll give you my tip stocks, let you see Alice, let you kill gage twice, and throw in a Timex.