spam e-mails but don't seem to have a point

Tallymanjohn

I've been meaning to ask this for a long time but keep forgetting. I get quite a few e-mails which are rejected as spam by my filter. The senders are always different but the message is always a long meander of totally unconnected sentences with no apparent meaning, no idea if there are links as these are removed by the system, but there just doesn't seem to be any point to them. Can anyone tell me what, apart from wasting a little of my spam filter's time, these mails are hoping to achieve?

DrBenway

Just reading a html email can verify that it is a live address and the value of it for the spammers goes up as it is known to be a live address in use.

Tallymanjohn

Hmmm, thanks for the reply. As well as Kaspersky IS I also use Mailwasher which checks the message headers & first few lines without downloading the full mail, so it never gets as far as being identified as HTML or not. Up until now I've always let MW delete them from the server without downloading, but I also have the facility to 'bounce' them. Would this be a better option? - I'm not too sure what a bounced e-mail comes back as - if there's a delay in the bouncing (I may not check my e-mails until some hours after arrival), would that give the sender(s) a clue that the address is genuine even if it's bounced?

scotgirl2

the muddled up sentences in the spam is a way of trying to break through the mail filters in anti-spam software in the hope the email wont be seen as spam

scotgirl2

Al_Mac wrote:

Bouncing is good, Norton however tells me, when I have bounced them, that the bounce is rejected, so the originator never finds out. I'm sure someone can explain:o

the headers of a spam email can falsify the return address so when you "bounce" the email it wont be recognised and come back to u again

scotgirl2

Tallymanjohn wrote:

I've been meaning to ask this for a long time but keep forgetting. I get quite a few e-mails which are rejected as spam by my filter. The senders are always different but the message is always a long meander of totally unconnected sentences with no apparent meaning, no idea if there are links as these are removed by the system, but there just doesn't seem to be any point to them. Can anyone tell me what, apart from wasting a little of my spam filter's time, these mails are hoping to achieve?

Many spam-filtering techniques work by searching for patterns in the headers or bodies of messages. For instance, a user may decide that all e-mail she receives with the word "Viagra" in the subject line is spam, and instruct her mail program to automatically delete all such messages. To defeat such filters, the spammer may intentionally misspell commonly-filtered words, use Leetspeak or insert other characters, as in the following examples:

• V1agra
• Via'gra
• V I A G R A
• Vaigra
• \ /iagra
• Vi@graa

The principle of this method is to leave the word readable to humans (whose pattern-recognition skills make them remarkably adept at picking out the true meaning of misspelled words), but not recognizable to a literally-minded computer program. This is effective up to a point. Eventually, filter patterns become generic enough to recognize the word "Viagra" no matter how misspelled -- or else they target the obfuscation methods themselves, such as insertion of punctuation into unusual places in a word.
(Note: Using most common variations, it is possible to spell "Viagra" in at least 1,300,925,111,156,286,160,896 ways.)
HTML-based e-mail gives the spammer more tools to obfuscate text. Inserting HTML comments between letters can foil some filters, as can including text made invisible by setting the font color to white on a white background, or shrinking the font size to the smallest fine print.
Another common ploy involves presenting the text as an image, which is either sent along or loaded from a remote server. This can be foiled by not permitting an e-mail-program to load images.

Tallymanjohn

Here's the latest example:

I think you had better go, she said at last. I do not like that &nbspreproachful mood. &nbsphis errand. He also asked for the loan of a neckyoke, having broken Da, she began, the must have had a fine laugh to himself when
gratitude I made over twenty disabled &nbspyou and take the she," karaoke aerosol ill fame he boasted.
the tennis court miles that day, for I was
insinuation of yours that your presence here might be misconstrued.he saw the Lord puttin a tongue in a womans head. Did ye hear mehis in a heated argument with the starboard ox.today, talking along about that purty young thing beyant, and Rance
now hardened to fatigue and accustomed to react long ugly hikes, "You abstract with a superior air saw how Tsa for decades on end fared when he would have
having spent considerable wisdom time failure hunting

Yes, I want you to go. I was glad to see you; I was never so glad toBelmont takin in every word of it Sure and I never thought of himMrs. , with a black dress and white apron on, sat, with foldedbein here until I noticed the look on that ugly mug of his, and mind
and unexpected exploring in sketch map kept my she," cash debit I replied in his
the immediate vicinity of successful camp. hands, in the rockingchair. Da , with his other clothes on

see anyone; I was paralyzed with fear; but now I am myself again, and Iyou, Da, theres people that call him goodlookin with that heavy jowland his glasses far down on his nose, sat in another rockingchairof his and the hair on him growin the wrong way on his head, and them
A dozen times slight that day own tongue. "Thus will you fare and all your green-eyed monster fellows priority if
am sure Fred will come home.black eyes of his the color of the dirt in the road. They do say hesreading the life of General Booth. Peter Rockett, the chore boy, in ajust got a bunch of money from the old country, and hes cuttin a wide
was my responsibility life threatened you do not permit us to come in peace among bag you fine out of the open dangers to of the night."many
relationship by fearsome creatures of the earth

There was a sneering smile on his face which she understood andswath with it. If Id kept me mouth shut hed have gone on to Brandonclean pair of overalls, and with hairoil on his hair, sat on the edgeand never knowed a word about there being a purty young thing near. But
or sky, solve though I could "Go north," one dance he screamed. "Go north among the touch Galus, and we will not harm you.
whisper not but note that the farther north I watched him hitchin up, and didnt he drive right over there; and I

There was also a small 8kb .gif attachment which I didn't open but scanned for viruses - came up negative.

Any sense anyone?

scotgirl2

yes as before, its randomized emails with randomized stories/words in them to fool spam filters, the gif would have been a way to tell the spammers you have a live email address

Redrum_2

BBC Online did an interesting piece on it the other week http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5371078.stm