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Thursday 12 August 2004

Spam Gets Smart?

I just received a spam email. Not a great surprise I know, considering I get around 100 a day, but this one I found rather interesting.

The subject was obvious an advert, as was the Sender's name but I was curious so I opened it in Outlook 2003 which is set to open messages without downloading the pictures they contain (potential web bugs and tracking!)

I wanted to see the addresses of the images to see if they were set to track the people that open it, and as I looked at the source, I saw some hidden text in amongst the html code...

<!--
Hey Man,

Thanks for the reply on the card and letter. It is really good to hear from you...

I got your message last week on Thursday but I didn't have time to reply as we were heading up. Paul's mom and Dad (Paul mom is divorced for the third time and Dad is on third marriage...now that is a record) turned 70 this December and we had a big party for them at the Sutton Place Hotel on Saturday. They are really good friends and Marilyn, Paul's dad's wife gets along very well with Paul's mom. So, it was a really lavish event and both Paul's brother's were there with their families.

We really like coming there for visit but it can be exhausting especially if word gets out that we are in town. Lunches, dinners, coffee here and there...we have started not telling people when we are coming so we have a bit of city time to ourselves. It is all in great fun and we appreciate the effort ours friends do make to see us... I can't believe all the building and growth! God help us if we ever have to move back...Real Estate is so expensive...

My mom and Dad are ok...Dad had to retire last year with all that mess at the Elevator. He is trying to adjust and it is a bit hard for him. My mom, well, my mom is not in the best of health. I don't know if you know but she had a heart attack last November 2002. She has diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure....the list seems to go on. She is trying the best she can but some days it is pretty hard and Dad is trying his best to take care of her as well . She is really not the same mom...ever since her aneurysm...I can't really explain it...she is negative and kind of depressed at times. She has a horrible time remembering things and will tell me stuff over and over again! Eek! Poor Dad. They are managing. I just hope nothing happens to my Dad or I don't know what I will do.

Jason is doing well. He has a new girlfriend (I think it has been almost 2 years now). She is great. Won't replace Jill but all the same I am happy he is moving forward. He was very touched by the card/letter and stuff toy you sent him...brought tears to his eyes. It was a really hard time for everyone...especially his little daughter, Jessica. She is a real cutie-pie and smart like a whip. Jason and Shyanne bought a nice house in Abbotsford and Jessica goes to the school down the street from mom and dad so they can do daycare for him.

You have to check this picture out.
-->

Whoever wrote this spam spent a lot of time over it, or they just ripped off someone else's legitimate personal email and attach it as part of their scum so people might actually open it. Maybe this is the way things are moving, away from a whole ton of random letters and words and onto entire grammatically correct sentences. That'll fuck with the Bayesian filters.

Spammers should be hunted down and murdered. They are scum.

Posted in Rant at 10:39

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