full-disclosure - Re: spam with anti-bayesian parts

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Message-ID: <freemail.20040012134444.65236@fm2.freemail.hu>
From: etomcat at freemail.hu (Feher Tamas)
Subject: Re: spam with anti-bayesian parts

Hello,

>What I'm wondering is:
>Why do the spammers even go to the length of using random
>words? Those are easy to filter out with some heuristics (e.g.
>missing punctuation). Why don't they grab some real text,
>say from a news site? There's an endless supply of new,
>proper text out there.

Here is a BBC article for you:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/3247200.stm

Spammers turn to classic prose
by Mark Ward, BBC News, 2003 Dec 1

Poetry is probably not top of the list of things you expect to see in
the spam and junk mail messages landing in your inbox everyday.
But lots of people are starting to find literary value hidden among the
porn, penis patches, generic Viagra deals and mortgage offers.

Some have composed poems using the subject lines of the spam they
receive; others are creating verse using the strings of strange words
that are often found inside spam messages.

A lucky few have even found excerpts of novels buried in spam.

Blogger and journalist Clive Thompson found an excerpt from Chapter 
20 of The Master Key by Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum in a 
message that had as its subject line "the big unit" (no prizes for 
guessing what the rest of it was hawking).

This is happening because of the success of spam filters, the best of
which can catch 99% of junk mail.
..... to be continued at the above web address.

Sincerely: Tamas Feher.

*******************

To spam, or not to spam: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of unsolicited offer,
Or to take arms against a sea of spam,
And by opposing filter them?

William Scamspear: Spamlet, Price of Denkmal.