New spam low

[Victor Steinbok]

Spam syntax and word choice have been discussed here and on a number of
blogs over and over and over... I've been trying to figure out what
makes the spam and phishing headers so obvious to spot (especially
combined with the corresponding "names"). It's been varying from message
to message--for example, a number of messages that spoof bank notices
use "expiry" where no US bank would use it.

This morning, I got a flag from one of my mail servers concerning spam
that it had filtered out. One, while spoofing my own email address was
actually generated on the Taiwanese hinet.net server (a common source
for much of that stuff). The subject header, "I'll kill you, I promise".
The content was the usual nonsense and unimportant, but the header was
what attracted my attention. It was exactly the kind of header that
stands out as spam right off the top. Yet, the mismatch is purely
semantic--no other clues needed. Was it yet another bad dictionary
entry? Just randomly generated nonsense? I have no idea...

    VS-)

PS: In case, the content may give a clue--not sure to what, though--the
main entry was, "Before starting this newsletter ..... can I ask you to
tell your friends about it, and get them to sign up? Thank you", with
some supporting links and disclaimers.

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