OT - Words of wis-spam

[dude]

Three spams from today's (small) mail-wash:

Questions:

Who out in spammer-land thinks these weird names, addys, and contents* will
attract clicks to links/ folk to part with dosh???

What's with these names FFS???

(Sure, computer generated, but use a NAMES dictionary,
but don't swallow the whole dictionary.)

They don't bother me, but surely no-one does anything other than filter these
things (or be amused/bemused by names, etc., enough to start (potential) usenet
threads about them)??

* Small samples quoted


________________________________________________

From: "Refrigerants T. Captioning" <[email protected]>

"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering."

From: "Cirrhosis B. Succeed" <[email protected]>

"Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.
The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree
with you and are too cowardly to let you know."

From: "Glaciers S. Carburetors" <[email protected]>

"The fear of being wrong is the prime inhibitor of the creative process. The
thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I se it, is
service to a fellow human being."

 

[kingsley]

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 16:48:59 +1000, dude wrote:

> What's with these names FFS???

A lot of spam filters use simple keyword matching to mark mail as spam.
Hence the changes to pen1s and pénis (that's an e like in cafe if it
doesn't look right to you) etcetera.

Most(?) non-simple spam filters use a technique called Bayesian filtering.
To horrifically simplify this, it matches words on the probability that
say, a business letter might contain certain keywords (invoice, product, ...)
whereas a spam message will contain other words (penis, medication, loan,
....). Using the frequency of these words (not just some words, but all
words in the mail) a percentage match is made towards the mail being in
some category (e.g.: spam).

So by including non-marketing/spam words in the email, it is hoped that
it will bypass this filtering by reducing the spam-words Vs other-words
ratio.

BTW: If you're after a free spam/mail filter, you can do worse than try
POPFile - http://popfile.sourceforge.net/

-kt

--
Kingsley Turner,
(mailto: [email protected])
http://MadDogsBreakfast.com/ABFAQ - news:aus.bicycle Frequenly Asked Questions

 

[Luke Webber]

kingsley wrote:

> On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 16:48:59 +1000, dude wrote:
>
>
>>What's with these names FFS???
>
>
> A lot of spam filters use simple keyword matching to mark mail as spam.
> Hence the changes to pen1s and pénis (that's an e like in cafe if it
> doesn't look right to you) etcetera.
>
> Most(?) non-simple spam filters use a technique called Bayesian filtering.
> To horrifically simplify this, it matches words on the probability that
> say, a business letter might contain certain keywords (invoice, product, ...)
> whereas a spam message will contain other words (penis, medication, loan,
> ...). Using the frequency of these words (not just some words, but all
> words in the mail) a percentage match is made towards the mail being in
> some category (e.g.: spam).
>
> So by including non-marketing/spam words in the email, it is hoped that
> it will bypass this filtering by reducing the spam-words Vs other-words
> ratio.
>
> BTW: If you're after a free spam/mail filter, you can do worse than try
> POPFile - http://popfile.sourceforge.net/

Or chuck LookOut and go for Mozilla Firebird. www.mozilla.org

Luke

 

[HUMBUG]

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 20:58:45 +1000, Luke Webber <[email protected]> Wrote :
> kingsley wrote:

<snip

>>
>> BTW: If you're after a free spam/mail filter, you can do worse than try
>> POPFile - http://popfile.sourceforge.net/
>
> Or chuck LookOut and go for Mozilla Firebird. www.mozilla.org

Or even keep Outhouse and get SpamBayes from
http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/

>
> Luke


--

Humbug

 

[Sarch]

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 20:58:45 +1000, Luke Webber wrote:

> Or chuck LookOut and go for Mozilla Firebird. www.mozilla.org

Mozilla Thunderbird, even. <g>

Sarch
--
Spamblock in action: Remove NOTREAL from email address to reply via email.

"Look, if that's where those poor children are, of course I'll go
to Somalia." - Amanda Keller, "The Hub"

 

[Luke Webber]

Sarch wrote:

> On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 20:58:45 +1000, Luke Webber wrote:
>
>
>>Or chuck LookOut and go for Mozilla Firebird. www.mozilla.org
>
>
> Mozilla Thunderbird, even. <g>

Argh. Kind of a trainwreck, isn't it? The way the browser is Firefox and
the email client is Thunderbird. Besides, I'm more of a Melbourne
Phoenix fan. <g>

Luke

 

[dude]

: pen1s and pénis

Sure, I understand that. V1agra, etc.,
And I understand avoiding 'marketing' terms that may be keyword-filtered.

I'm just curious as to why, so humorously, there'll be names like:

___ Gumshoe O. Sousaphone

Rather than

___ Terrence O. Frederikson

i.e. why not generate at least plausible-sounding NAMES??

Thanks for all the filter suggestions. I'm perfectly happy with Mailwasher, and
I do not receive very much spam at all! My email addies are (almost) "whiter
than white" (now with optical brighteners!)

 

[Natalie]

dude wrote:
>
>
> Thanks for all the filter suggestions. I'm perfectly happy with Mailwasher, and
> I do not receive very much spam at all! My email addies are (almost) "whiter
> than white" (now with optical brighteners!)

That happened for a while with Mailwasher, almost no spam at all, but
after a while it starts again, I don't really care either way, I just
hate downloading the bloody stuff!

Natalie

 

[dude]

: I don't really care either way, I just
: hate downloading the bloody stuff!

Mailwasher is keeping my accounts pretty darn clean (including two Hotmail
addresses). Yep, not having to downloading them is an enormous benefit!!

 

[Natalie]

dude wrote:
>
> : I don't really care either way, I just
> : hate downloading the bloody stuff!
>
> Mailwasher is keeping my accounts pretty darn clean (including two Hotmail
> addresses). Yep, not having to downloading them is an enormous benefit!!

Especially those bloody Microsoft updates!

Natalie

 

[Lea B]

"dude" <> wrote ..
> : I don't really care either way, I just
> : hate downloading the bloody stuff!
>
> Mailwasher is keeping my accounts pretty darn clean (including two Hotmail
> addresses). Yep, not having to downloading them is an enormous benefit!!

Spam Inspector here - very happy with it.

 

[Munk3y]

Luke Webber wrote:
> Sarch wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 20:58:45 +1000, Luke Webber wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Or chuck LookOut and go for Mozilla Firebird. www.mozilla.org
>>
>>
>>
>> Mozilla Thunderbird, even. <g>
>
>
> Argh. Kind of a trainwreck, isn't it? The way the browser is Firefox and
> the email client is Thunderbird. Besides, I'm more of a Melbourne
> Phoenix fan. <g>
>
> Luke
You can get an extension for Firebird that randomly sets the program
name each time you run it .. so I am current using Mozilla Trouserkoala.

- Mark Munk3y