Filter-foiling Gibberish Becoming A Spam Staple

hcg50a writes "Wired has a story about the random words which have recently been appearing in spam. Antispam experts agreed that this isn't a brand-new technique, but said the addition of potentially filter-foiling gibberish is rapidly becoming a common component of spam."

Comments

Re:Spamkiller doesn't care

[fo0bar]

My Mcafee Spamkiller ignores the white noise, and simply nukes all the mail containing viagra, etc.

What good is that when somebody spams you for Gen3r@c v|agar@?

Re:I don't get it, really

[radicalskeptic]

One reason is that ISPs, corporate servers, or some other body might have implemented the filtering, and not the one reading the mail.

Re:I don't get it, really

[Anonymous Coward]

The technique also makes obvious the lie of their "we're just innocent entrepeneurs trying to make a buck" defense. Innocent entrepeneurs don't go out of their way to try to hack their data into other people's computers, past programs that are every bit as clear a sign of intent as a "No Soliciting" sign on your door.

On every spam thread on Slashdot, there's someone complaining that technical measures won't solve the problem, and another saying legal measures won't solve the problem. The answer is that you need both: technical measures to assure the identity of the sender -- both spammer and sponsor -- as well as legal measures to provide for punishment.

Re:I don't get it, really

[Eosha]

Unfortunately, spammers are not in the business of selling things to consumers. They are in the business of selling advertising space to other companies. As long as they can convince unscrupulous business owners that advertising via spam is worthwhile, the spam will continue.