"device" in Spam subject line

[Garson O'Toole]

The organization sending the spam was likely trying to evade spam
filters. One technique for blocking spam involves checking for key
words like "penis" and "phallus". So the spammers did not want to use
a trigger phrase like "long penis". They resorted to the odd, probably
rare, yet decodable, phrase "long device" because of evolutionary
pressures, i.e., the pressures manifested in the multi-year
co-evolutionary struggle between spam and spam-filters. That's my
guess.

On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 4:49 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "device" in Spam subject line
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jul 2, 2012, at 6:08 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> Not me.
>>
>> A technological advance from "instrument."
>>
>> JL
>
> Maybe they were pushing remotes.
>
> LH
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 11:25 AM, Barbara Need <bhneed at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      "device" in Spam subject line
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> I was cleaning out my spam folder and came across the following
>>> subject line:
>>>
>>> Want to have long device like other guys?
>>>
>>> Leaving aside the fact that I am NOT a guy, has anyone heard "device"
>>> used in just this way?
>>>
>>> Barbara
>>>
>>> Barbara Need
>>> Etna, NY
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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