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Thread: SPAM! now with added text!

  1. #1
    Senior Member Blunted One's Avatar
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    Question SPAM! now with added text!

    Ok so here is the deal. Spammers always seem to find a way around and through filters and into email at the company I work at. We have a firewall and anti-spam software keeping a ton of it at bay, but the one that always seems to get through is the stuff with some sort of text (word salad?) at the bottom/top that makes no sense except to fool the filters.

    I for one do not get any spam, but here is the most common piece that we get in our office.

    Trading Alert
    We see a run starting to happen...

    trade date:**/**/****
    company:*******
    symbol:***
    price: **.**
    etc, etc

    This stock will explode. Don't wait until it is too late
    when this stock moves - watch out!...yada yada yada


    Now here is the strange part,... below the spammer like message is the following text. (which I believe is what allows this to get through)

    He knew Markham would take no such extreme measures.

    Will you be so good as to tell me about these?

    The only logical answer was: Because the major had suggested it. AlvinBenson was alive, I saw the major standing by the door.

    And the way he jumped at my suggestion bears out mytheory. Truthfrom his lips prevailed, and those who came to scoff remained etcetera.

    With the greatest pleasure, said Pfyfe; but his voice had lost itsassurance. Got out at Avenue A, and walked out on the QueensboroughBridge. Then, hanging up the receiver, he laughed outright at Vance.

    He seemed unusually serious, and his eyes held a look of expectancycolored with doubt.

    The whole city will probably know it tomorrow. He paused and laid a hand on the district attorneys arm. But certain evidential facts have eliminated heras a suspect.

    However, I cant see Leacock asAlvins murderer. That may be tomorrow, Markham encouraged him. What, then, was Leacock doing in front of the house that night? However, I cant see Leacock asAlvins murderer. Major Benson asked me this morning what the words were; so Isuppose you want to know, too.

    How did Benson know that youd beable to repay him? Pfyfe left last week, I put the package back inthe safe along with the envelope.


    Anyone got any good ideas or perhaps a program that has been able to really take care of this spam trash? We currently use our firewall and a program called AntiGen that catches a lot of stuff but not all of it. Any suggestions?
    It's not a war on drugs it's a war against personal freedoms!

  2. #2
    Gonzo District BOFH westin's Avatar
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    I have been getting something pretty similar...

    A strange effect of marriage, such as the nineteenth century has madeit!
    Its cutting off your nose to spite your face.
    In spite of herresolve to the contrary, she had revealed to Julien the whole businessof the lease.
    And heres one of the Mayorsspies, he added pointing at Julien.
    A strange effect of marriage, such as the nineteenth century has madeit! One of the children uttered a joyful cry.
    Its Valenod that he has to thank, and it is I who amcompromised.
    Everything in it was sumptuous and new, and he was told the priceof each article.
    He received from Vergylarge packets of exercises. Theywere followed by several wealthy Liberals. Upon my soul, I would rather be a Geronimo than a Renal. He received from Vergylarge packets of exercises. It was obviously inJuliens interest to accept the offer made him by the Governor of thePoorhouse.
    He was sure that this story would be illreceived.
    Tomorrow at this hour I shall have the honour of seeing you again,he said at length to the cure. He was advised to see much of his father,and complied with this painful necessity. Julien did not fail to attend the auction.
    As soon as the Mayor had left the room, the discussion began. Thus LouisXIV on his deathbed was led to say: When I was king. It is my own, Signorino, replied Signer Geronimo. His attitude, his features composed in the utmosthumility, Julien did not open his mouth.
    it always has a gif image attached to it with stock info... I have been trying to figure out a way to block it too... I don't want to block all gif images... because some of the legitimate mail I get has gif images... the headers are always different too... and the image names are as random as the contents and the subjects...
    \"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

    -HST

  3. #3
    Senior Member
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    sad truth is that if someone could catch all of it, there would be no more spam...

    the money is big and these guys are smart. spam schemes targetting known spam servers are no good against spam botnets, text scanning is no good against image spam (which is mostly what i see these days) and the spam software has a really hard time against as you put it, word salad (good one )

    when you think that between 70 and 80% of email is spam, if you can filter out even part of that...you're probably doing well. For me Thunderbird gets close to 95% of spam (average of 150 a day) after 2 years of training it... the few i do see are easy to deal with...and probably simply a fact of eLife
    I used to be With IT. But then they changed what IT was. Now what I'm with isn't IT, and what's IT seems scary and weird." - Abe Simpson

  4. #4
    The thing that makes these unique in my book, is their is no website their linking to. Their attempting to pump stocks. I contacted one of the companies that the spam was refering to, they refered to it as a pump and dump scheme that they had no part in.

  5. #5
    Frustrated Mad Scientist
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    Hmmm I remember reading somewhere that this sort of thing is not just to fool filters but to screw up Spam software thats tried to learn what is spam and what is not.
    The emails contain so much 'normal' text, often in the form of extracts from books, (I suppose because it is relatively random but still is 'proper' english), that everything looks gray to it.

    The only way to block spam effectively is to have a whitelist of senders and that isn't usable for a large number of organisations.

  6. #6
    Senior Member
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    Hmmm I remember reading somewhere that this sort of thing is not just to fool filters but to screw up Spam software thats tried to learn what is spam and what is not.
    Yes, this has been a technique they have used for a while now. They are trying to screw up the Basian filters that are out there, but it only works in the short term. If you have a good, learning, SPAM filter then it will only allow a few of these through until you teach it that they are bad.

    Give a man a match and he will be warm for a while, light him on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

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