Construct Your Own Spam Email

from the going-a-bit-far-on-the-variable-choices dept

Fri, Feb 23rd 2007 1:08pm — Mike Masnick

By now, you've probably received at least a few spam emails that include some sort of broken variable, usually in the greeting, saying something like "Dear {FirstName}" where you realize that the spam program didn't properly pull your first name out of a list, but left the variable name in its place. However, it appears that one spammer has taken this to a new extreme, and has filled an entire spam list not just with variables, but the set of choices to fill in large parts of the spam itself. It's sort of like spam Mad Libs, but with limited choices. Here's just a taste:

<"Hello"|"Hi"|"Hi there"|"Good day">

I <"hope"|"sincerely hope"|"wish"> this message finds you in a great <"spirit"|"mood">. <"For a start"|"First"|"First of all"> <"I would"|"I'd"> like to <"congratulate"|"welcome"> you on this <"offer"|"opportunity"> because our <"association"|"company"|"corporation"> just got your contact and your <"brief"|"short"> profile through an <"email"|"web"> listing affiliated with <"the UK Chamber of Commerce"|"Monster"|"Careerbuilder"|"Yahoo Jobs"|"Google Jobs"|"HotJobs">

It's not clear how the different choices really make much of a difference in the email, but perhaps it helps fool some spam filters by varying the basic text somewhat.

10 Comments

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Jim Bob, 23 Feb 2007 @ 1:15pm

Total Variants
When I saw this email yesterday I was surprised at the number of fields being randomized and I just had to calculate the unique variations. The result: 48,693,796,581,408,800! Yep, more than 48 quadrillion variations possible from this one email.
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Hulser, 23 Feb 2007 @ 1:44pm

Re: Total Variants
48 quadrillion, eh? Hmmm, I think you're off by about 48 quadrillion, give or take.

4 * 3 * 2 * 3 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 3 * 2 * 2 * 6 = 41,472

Just sayin'.
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Anonymous Cowardess, 23 Feb 2007 @ 1:52pm

Re: Re: Total Variants
I think he's probably talking about the whole e-mail, not just the excerpt here.
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TheDock22, 23 Feb 2007 @ 1:55pm

Sweet
Oh how nice of the spammers. Now I get a near personalized e-mail trying to sell me something! I will treasure it always...
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DittoBox, 23 Feb 2007 @ 1:56pm

Re: Total Variants
You have too much time on your hands.
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MathemaGician?!, 23 Feb 2007 @ 2:07pm

Re: Re: Total Variants
Yup. I hate it when people spend time calculating stuff I can never dream of calculating. (read: sarcasm).
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Feb 2007 @ 4:52pm

Re: Re: Re: Total Variants
tru
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 24 Feb 2007 @ 5:29pm

Re: I will treasure it always
This one's going straight to the pool room. :)
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Net Experiments, 9 Mar 2007 @ 10:22pm

Net Experiments
This blog is started as a web experiment to record spam emails. net.experiments.post@blogger.com
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Pedro brachara, 10 Apr 2007 @ 1:42pm

hey
i love this
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