# A bizarre piece of spam **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 9, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893 "2008-01-09T20:00:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Real\_Thing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@The\_Real\_Thing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Real_Thing)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/1 "2008-01-09T20:00:04Z")
From my junk email folder: you. I cant say how many heads Ive crushed against my anvil neither, but theres some widows those eggs. Youll find him in the market.queen, she commanded.pies off bakers carts, and reining up to speak to common tradesmen. into Tyrosh harbor, Aemon no longer spoke of trying to find a ship to take him east. Instead his talk Uh, wow. I don’t think I want to buy what they’re selling. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/2 "2008-01-09T20:06:23Z")
Hmm. I wonder where Tyrosh harbour is. Perhaps I should avoid it. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/3 "2008-01-09T20:06:24Z")
Tyrosh and Aemon are from George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire books. There’s definitely a queen. I think they want you to buy their biscuits. ETA I’ve received several pieces of spam that appear to be snippets from books. This is the first one with anything I recognize. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/4 "2008-01-10T00:59:54Z")
I continue to fail to understand their mentality - why would they think we’d trust people who attempt such underhanded ways to get past our filters? They’re all shysters, and all they do each day with this crap is prove it. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/5 "2008-01-10T01:17:55Z")
Basically it’s just random snippets of text to attempt to defeat [Bayesian filtering](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_filtering). ---
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/6 "2008-01-10T01:22:00Z")
[QUOTE=Projammer] Basically it’s just random snippets of text to attempt to defeat [Bayesian filtering](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_filtering). [/QUOTE] I’ve gotten these random text spam e-mails before. My question has always been “Why?” There was never a link in those e-mails to anything they could make money from, so why send e-mails with random text? Bored? ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/7 "2008-01-10T01:27:40Z")
Those are probably the emails carrying worms. Once the email is opened, the worm is activiated. Or they could be emails with built in “notify me when recipients reads this” rules, and once you read it, the sender knows your email address belongs to a real person. I’ve gotten this one a few times - no return email, not even an ISP number, no recipient listed, no subject, and no text. I suspect it’s a worm carrier, but since I have an iMac, I’ve never been affected. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/8 "2008-01-10T15:25:18Z")
I’m no expert, but I seem to recall that they can embed a link in HTML into the email that’s only a pixel or so in size. If you open the email and have it set to view HTML content, then a request for that link goes out to a server that can track where the request came from. So they know the email was viewed, even if it only appears as text. Or something like that. All they need to do is get past the filters. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/9 "2008-01-10T15:35:49Z")
[QUOTE=The Real Thing] From my junk email folder: you. I cant say how many heads Ive crushed against my anvil neither, but theres some widows those eggs. Youll find him in the market.queen, she commanded.pies off bakers carts, and reining up to speak to common tradesmen. into Tyrosh harbor, Aemon no longer spoke of trying to find a ship to take him east. Instead his talk Uh, wow. I don’t think I want to buy what they’re selling. [/QUOTE] I don’t understand your confusion. It’s perfectly clear to me that they are selling **Queen Aemon’s Egg Pies** (commonly referred to as quiches). They are a big hit in Tyrosh. You can find their restaurant right between Gollum’s Fish Market and Yngvi’s Exterminators (delousing is our specialty). ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/10 "2008-01-10T15:37:22Z")
You know how they say it takes only one person to buy whatever product from e-mails like this to make it worthwhile- I would give my third testicle to see an interview with the meathead who buys something from this initial contact. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/11 "2008-01-10T15:40:44Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] You know how they say it takes only one person to buy whatever product from e-mails like this to make it worthwhile- I would give my third testicle to see an interview with the meathead who buys something from this initial contact. [/QUOTE] Wow. You have a lot of balls. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bizarre-piece-of-spam/432893/12 "2008-01-10T17:25:17Z")
[QUOTE=Slypork] You can find their restaurant right between Gollum’s Fish Market and Yngvi’s Exterminators (delousing is our specialty). [/QUOTE] Yngvi is a louse! Now, where’d I put those brooms?