[lbo-talk] spam authors

Dwayne Monroe idoru345 at yahoo.com
Tue Jan 13 16:15:05 PST 2004


Doug asked:

Is this some ruse to trick spam filters? If so, it's not working very well. Otherwise, anyone know anything about this?

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It's a fairly trivial trick to create a script which assembles a name (or, more accurately a name-like string - i.e. Something T. Otherthing) from dictionary words and /or text randomly harvested from websites and so on.

All variations on a theme of tunneling around, leaping over or blasting through spam filters.

Not long ago, it was common for the name strings to be obviously salacious. Filters easily blocked this. Next, the tactic of choice became strings which replaced letters with numbers or other characters to form a word-esque formation that conveyed the titilating notion without actually spelling the easily filtered text.

Improved filtering (and ever more wary users) foiled this.

So now we have whimsy as a tactic. Names which seem somewhat pr0n-esque, but are simultaneously odd yet real enough (the spammers hope) to get past spam assasins.

For the curious, here's a solid FAQ on spam - techniques and countermeasures.

http://www.spamfaq.net/spamfighting.shtml

DRM



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