www.inkthinkerblog.com — I know this doesn’t have much to do with writing, but I can’t get over this spam. I don’t understand the formula, what they’re trying to accomplish. It’s like some fantastic communication mystery to me. Case(s) in point:
Subject: The added question of sexual misconduct makes it even worse.
E-mail: The Past as Future.
Subject: If the cookie comes back it will stop munging URLs and use the cookies.
E-mail: She expected from all people certain conventional reactions to life.
I actually really like the body of the second one. Is it from something? Who can tell me?
But most importantly, what do these MEAN?????
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I get these all the time, not sure what they’re selling or of their point. I just wish my spam filter would catch them.
Perhaps Confucius has offered his services as a cryptic spambot.
Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson. I remember this story from my Lit class, but I have to admit the quote didn’t jump out at me.
Here’s a link to his story –
http://www.classicbookshelf.com/library/sherwood_anderson/winesburg_ohio/16/
They use current online news, news archives, the Gutenberg and all sorts of online text. The point is to defeat spam software by using subject and body text that is actually made of English words that contain none of the usual SPAM words (sale! free!, etc). By using different random language each time, the spam detectors simply can’t keep up with them.
What are they selling? They usually aren’t selling anything. They are trying to get you to click on the link, which often will take you to a specially constructed website that will silently load various web robots, spyware and malware onto your computer so that your machine can join in the fun of sending out these nonsensical messages.
But Norman, that’s the weird thing: No links in either of these! I get a ton of junk with links in it, so I doubt it’s my spam filter stripping them out. That’s why I find these so utterly perplexing.
kk