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Strange spam

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Roger Frye

Strange spam

Lately I have been receiving strange spam messages . Actually cybermesa
has been filtering them out. But I don't understand the purpose of the
spam.

The title of a typical message will be something like "Re: XPR, possible
to find." The pattern is "Re:" <capitalized garbage word><lower case 3
word phrase>.

The body of the message will be a 3 line robotic Haiku of about 25 words
similar to a 20 word PGP fingerprint.

My question is why anyone would send such a message. It doesn't seem to
serve any purpose. Maybe it is just a random spam generator signifying
a virus infection?
-Roger

Randy Burge

Strange spam

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,54645,00.html
Haiku'da Been a Spam Filter?
By Michelle Delio??|??
02:00 AM Aug. 20, 2002 PT
A hidden scrap of copyrighted poetry embedded in e-mails will be used to
guarantee that any message containing the verse is spam free. And if
spammers dare to hijack the haiku, they will be aggressively sued for
copyright infringement. [sounds like the aggressiveness is knuckled under by
the volume]

Also:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3247200.stm
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/stories/spam_poet.php
http://www.spamhaiku.com/spam1/3901-4000.html
http://slashdot.org/articles/02/08/20/132202.shtml?tid=111
http://www.satirewire.com/features/poetry_spam/poetryintro.shtml

It all seems to be a spandrel of spamming

Randy

> From: Roger Frye <[hidden email]>
> Reply-To: The Friday Morning Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
> Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 09:11:23 -0700
> To: Friam <[hidden email]>
> Subject: [FRIAM] Strange spam
>
> Lately I have been receiving strange spam messages . Actually cybermesa
> has been filtering them out. But I don't understand the purpose of the
> spam.
>
> The title of a typical message will be something like "Re: XPR, possible
> to find." The pattern is "Re:" <capitalized garbage word><lower case 3
> word phrase>.
>
> The body of the message will be a 3 line robotic Haiku of about 25 words
> similar to a 20 word PGP fingerprint.
>
> My question is why anyone would send such a message. It doesn't seem to
> serve any purpose. Maybe it is just a random spam generator signifying
> a virus infection?
> -Roger
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe
> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.:
> http://www.friam.org
>

Glenn Wikle

Strange spam

In reply to this post by Roger Frye

It could be a spammer probing for valid email addresses.
Could this 'coded' content help the message get past some
spam filters?

On Tue, 06 Jan 2004 09:11:23 -0700, "Roger Frye" <[hidden email]>
said:

> Lately I have been receiving strange spam messages . Actually cybermesa
> has been filtering them out. But I don't understand the purpose of the
> spam.
>
> The title of a typical message will be something like "Re: XPR, possible
> to find." The pattern is "Re:" <capitalized garbage word><lower case 3
> word phrase>.
>
> The body of the message will be a 3 line robotic Haiku of about 25 words
> similar to a 20 word PGP fingerprint.
>
> My question is why anyone would send such a message. It doesn't seem to
> serve any purpose. Maybe it is just a random spam generator signifying
> a virus infection?
> -Roger
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe
> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.:
> http://www.friam.org

--
http://www.fastmail.fm - Access all of your messages and folders
wherever you are

Fred Seibel

Strange spam

In reply to this post by Roger Frye

Roger,

I have gone back to my Trash and noticed a large number of messages
with headers of the form you observed. When I examine the raw source I
see something like <a href="http://www.e-hostzz.net/cable/">
<img border="0" src="http://www.e-hostzz.net/fiter1.jpg"></a>

It seems that there is an opportunity to both click (i.e., answer the
spam) and also have your mail reader download the image that will
confirm the email was received.

I have my mail reader client set up to NOT load images in emails. The
latest version of Mail under Panther conveniently places a button on
all messages that do contain images to allow you to load the images for
those messages you trust.

Fred

On Jan 6, 2004, at 9:11 AM, Roger Frye wrote:

> Lately I have been receiving strange spam messages . Actually
> cybermesa has been filtering them out. But I don't understand the
> purpose of the spam.
>
> The title of a typical message will be something like "Re: XPR,
> possible to find." The pattern is "Re:" <capitalized garbage
> word><lower case 3 word phrase>.
>
> The body of the message will be a 3 line robotic Haiku of about 25
> words similar to a 20 word PGP fingerprint.
>
> My question is why anyone would send such a message. It doesn't seem
> to serve any purpose. Maybe it is just a random spam generator
> signifying a virus infection?
> -Roger
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9AM @ Jane's Cafe
> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.:
> http://www.friam.org
>

Roger Critchlow-2

Strange spam

In reply to this post by Roger Frye

Ah, at first I felt neglected, but then I found one in my trash.

Embedded in there, with the beacon image and the link, is the message
that the government doesn't want him/her to sell this cd.

One of the year ahead in security summaries noted on slashdot
predicts:

R.a..n,d,o.,m p,u,,n,c.t,,u_a.t.1..0.n evading spam filters

which is only fair, I suppose, since the good guys are using distorted
images of passwords to deny the robots access to email databases.

-- rec --

Roger Frye wrote: