Spam E-mails are getting weirder.

[Hyena Dandy]

Now, I'm sure many of you have received e-mails informing you of the possibility of getting federal aid. Frequently, these e-mails purport to come from "Jenny" of "Financial Aid Department." At least for me.

However, today I decided to try to reply to one of them, just for a laugh, because it was kinda silly that the subject header "Welcome Letter - Thanks for Signing Up" had to do with Jenny from Financial Aid Department."

Doing this, I got to find out a few things.

One: There is a disclaimer pointing out this isn't from the government,

and more importantly

Two: When I accidentally highlighted the mail, I learned that there was a large footer, in white on the white background. I will copy-paste it.

Bahur whick filtering..



Palestric Candace unciform Lutetian nonurban Gubbin upspear sheathing..



Georgemas egomism surcoat obligator Terentian..



Toxinosis flecker doolee nozzler sewer defiling swathy..



Insomniac iceberg thone decastyle weary tubercula jervina..



Satlijk erotesis scandium gingivae whipping gourdlike..



Subbifid outmouth bioral fifthly nestler earhole uloborid unfurious, Gaditan holyday..



Hemology taboret thraep swiftfoot runless, dietzeite skilfish cholelith..



Picrate witwall hemophile, rejolt propolize rasped flintlock finfoot..



Pickery dashedly malikana..



Exculpate unresolve fiction steerable pucellas percolate overdear driven..



Sensibly anthocarp pinmaker wiggler epanody acquisite ovenbird calendal capitatim, arboret thrasher torporize outsing monitive..



Citied upshot dewanee atherine smirking ribbandry rugged demirep footstalk..



Dumpcart vernin adducer summering eland appulsion semitae..

Now, I know some computers are magic, but do you suppose someone thinks they can cast a spell on me with text or something? :O

[fireheart]

What the heck?!

[pssorens]

I had one that claimed to be from the FBI and if I didn't respond I'd be arrested. the number that i get claiming to be from the fbi has increased to the point i'm about to call the real FBI and complain.

[MadMike]

From what I understand, the hidden stuff that showed up when you highlighted it is an attemp to get past people's spam filters.

[fireheart]

I had one that claimed to be from the FBI and if I didn't respond I'd be arrested. the number that i get claiming to be from the fbi has increased to the point i'm about to call the real FBI and complain.

I get those once in a while. What makes it funnier is that I'm Australian, so the only people who could arrest me would be the Australian Federal Police.

From what I understand, the hidden stuff that showed up when you highlighted it is an attemp to get past people's spam filters.

How does that get past a spam filter? O.o

[wraiths_crono]

Heh thats awesome, yeah i have to deal with spam at work, as in HUNT down whom owns the IP addresses, some of the stuff I have seen LOL for example "We will find you if you do not reply, and we will come to your work to speak to you." Wow!

[artcurmudgeon]

one of the things I do is admin an email server. it sucks, because everyone expects it to be perfect and never have any issues(this includes the former admin who is now dept director).

I struggle everyday to make sure that everything updates and that everything is running correctly.

it sucks, but its a paycheck...

[Magpie]

I think the idea is to be so random that the spam filter lets it through, because the "this is phishing" text gets hidden in all the random stuff. But I think that a lot of spam filters consider any text which is too random to be a problem too.

[TelephoneAngel]

for some reason I get loads of spam on my work email adress, asking if I want to buy viagra, or if I would like a bigger penis, or of i know how to satisfy my woman.

Im female.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I'm positive that I read somewhere (probably Fortean Times) that some researcher believed that the completely random spams are from an alien race trying to communicate with use.

[BookstoreEscapee]

for some reason I get loads of spam on my work email adress, asking if I want to buy viagra, or if I would like a bigger penis, or of i know how to satisfy my woman.

Im female.

I get plenty of them at home. My favorite is when they appear to come from myself . My filter is pretty good at directing them to my spam folder. (Oh, and I'm a girl, too..)

Luckily I've never had to deal with spam at work (though I have had emails from my mom get caught in their filter - the downside of which is I have no way to access it; I only knew about it because she asked me if I got some emails that I had never seen and eventually I figured it out).

[Exaspera]

I keep getting emails offering me hot Russian wives.

[Hyena Dandy]

If the aliens are trying to contact us, they're not very good at it.

On the bright side, the random bit did give me a new word for leg. "Footstalk."

As in, "When Jimmy fell off his bike, he bruised his footstalk"

[Shalom]

I have heard a theory that the spammers send out ads for stuff they'd like to be using themselves. (As witness, one of the most common spams of years gone by was an offer to send your message to 10 million people. The only people I ever heard of who wanted to do that were the spammers themselves.)

Which implies of course that the spammers all have small penises, need Viagra, wear fake watches, and buy prescription drugs through the mail, judging by the usual mix that shows up in my filters.

(Oh, and are probably dumb enough to fall for the phishing spams. Forgot about those.)