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Spam Problem Over?

3 July 2008, 2:33 pm

As noted previously, I rarely post about spam anymore, simply because there’s little new or interesting to post about. In fact, I rarely even see spam anymore, maybe one or two messages a day at most. This one is slightly interesting though, because it’s a perfect example of the contortions that spam purveyors have to go through to even have a slight chance of getting their messages read anymore:

Hej, VL Ia A G R VA 1) Open your browser 2) Enter http://www.capedyinlaxyz[IZ]com 3) Replace “IZ” with “.”

This is followed by the now-usual block of semi-random text that attempts to disguise the contents of the message from Bayesian spam filters.

Three items of interest:

  • “Hej”? A Scandinavian might read that as “hey,” one of the half-dozen standard greetings for such messages, but few native English speakers would.
  • The “Viagra” text is on an orange background, and each letter has a separate different-colored background box on top of that. With the (deliberate) misspellings, it makes it kind of difficult to read, unless you already know what it’s likely to say.
  • The HTTP address (which has been altered, slightly, from the one that I actually received in the e-mail) is random nonsense, and has to be decoded manually on top of that.

    • If this is the kind of thing spammers have been forced into, I think the spam problem is all but solved… at least, until the next evolution in computer science gives them a new way around the current defenses.

    Filed under Spam and Malware
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