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January 23, 2006

EMAIL Hell - The Ultimate Spam Trick

by Ferdinand T Cat

I've been studying spam for years now, learning the tricks, evaluating the tools, working tirelessly to keep my Inbox clean. Well, okay, so in actual fact I've been tirelessly watching Bruce work, but the point is, I know my spam.

I must admit, however, that I can see no possible way of detecting or defeating this latest trick.

Hey! You have to see this.

No link, no HTML. Not only are the spammers able to get through the filter by keeping the message short, they are able to protect the advertiser from retaliation by leaving no clue as to what is being advertised!

Obviously, they're smarter than I thought.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat


# At Mon 3:47 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (2) | More EMAIL Hell

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I stopped using a spam filter years ago. I just delete by subject line. Works perfectly.


Posted by: gary cruse [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 23, 2006 4:34 PM

Have you checked to see if the e-mail is requesting a return receipt?

If so, it may be that they are just attempting to verify valid e-mail addresses for building a list of "real" addresses.

You know, like when some respond to "opt-out" messages, all they are doing is confirming they are a "live" address? Maybe by sending a return receipt, they are accomplishing the same thing for those that send responses.


Posted by: Basil [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 24, 2006 5:19 AM

HTML is not allowed in comments; however, if you put in a raw URL (http://www.somewhere.com/page.html) it will automatically be converted to a link.. Also, it is likely your comment will not appear unless you refresh the page manually after posting it.

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