Bulker art?
By Ryan on Friday 11 May 2007, 07:40 - Spam Genres - Permalink
It is evident that I did not subscribe to any mailing list, click any radio
button, or fill out any form that granted any individual(s), companies, or
non-profit organisations the right to send me adverts via e-mail. This has not
stopped the 1000+ UBE that I receive per day, however - some in languages I
cannot readily identify, or that can not even be rendered correctly by my
e-mail client.
This being said, aside from the usual mass e-mail templates, I saw one the other day that caught my attention, because it was actually ... well ... creative in a bulk e-mailer sort of way.
This being said, aside from the usual mass e-mail templates, I saw one the other day that caught my attention, because it was actually ... well ... creative in a bulk e-mailer sort of way.
Who would have thought: ASCII art!
Of course one wonders why so many people who see such a mail would believe that the above-mentioned drugs are actually being sold and proceed to give the anonymous enterprise his/her credit card information for a purchase; and yet such is the case.
The interesting aspect of this e-mail message is that it stands in testimony to:
- the reactive-nature of e-mail filters: E-mail filters are created in response to bulk e-mailer innovations in contouring such filters. For example, one now needs to consider the possibility of filtering out ASCII art that spells out keywords...
- the effectiveness of e-mail filters: bulk e-mailers must go to great lengths to ensure that their message arrives in as many in-boxes in their lists as possible.
- the ineffectiveness of e-mail filters: I don't need the above-mentioned drugs, and most certainly did not request any adverts for such. The very fact that I was allowed to view this e-mail implies a failure in the system.
I find it reprehensible that such a creative person devoted time to furthering the cause of spam, and I can only hope that he or she will find a better use of their talent in the future.
Comments
I have never seen this kind of spam before. But I guess it shows that when filters evolve, so does spammers technique.
I have sometimes wondered if spam, in order to avoid future detection, might end looking like modern poetry. Some of the cutup/paste text in spam surely reminds me of William Burroughs literary tendencies...