# Blank Spam baffles me **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 9, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-spam-baffles-me/273903 "2004-11-09T21:25:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-spam-baffles-me/273903/1 "2004-11-09T21:25:24Z")
This is a pointless thread, but it’s true. The spam that comes in that has nothing substantative inside simply baffles me. Is some spammer’s five year old pounding on the keyboard? Than you for your time. ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-spam-baffles-me/273903/2 "2004-11-09T21:35:00Z")
I don’t understand it either. Is there some secret code buried in the e-mail? Or worse a virus? No need to Than me, 😃 VP ---
**Author:** ![Lips\_Obsession](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bbce88/32.png) [@Lips\_Obsession](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lips_Obsession)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-spam-baffles-me/273903/3 "2004-11-09T21:44:08Z")
Sometimes it’s a spammer’s spamming software not functioning and leaving out the message. Other times it might be a spam that only contains an image and the image is blocked by one of your servers. It could also be a virus that was stripped by an AV scanner along the way. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-spam-baffles-me/273903/4 "2004-11-09T21:46:05Z")
I get these periodically, too. A couple of months ago, I opened one to see what it was, and of course, it was blank. Nothing in the headers, either. But there was no attachment, so I couldn’t see how it could have been a virus or trojan. I was wrong. Immediately after I deleted it, I went for the newest Norton virus definitions, and I could not connect to their site with Live Update. I had to go to Norton on my wife’s computer to find out how to get the virus definitions without Live Update, and download a file, transfer it over our network to my desktop and put it in a hidden folder, renaming the old one, and reboot before it would work. A complete scan found nothing. But it’s worked ever since. Don’t know what it was, but it appears to definitely be _something_ fishy. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-spam-baffles-me/273903/5 "2004-11-09T21:59:10Z")
From what I understand, some spammers also send a message that appears to be blank, but it contains a small file that sends a blip to some server somewhere, letting it know that you’ve opened it, and confirming that your email address is a functioning one. I have an email address that I used only for a very specific purpose, and never used in registering anywhere, etc. It was virtually spam free, aside from those odd spams that, from the “to: line” are clearly just random attempts at various combinations in letters. One of them had a clever subject line that made me think it was an actual email. Within a month (after several years of having this email address) I was (and still am) getting over 300 pieces of spam a day. Luckily they all get caught by the spam filter. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-spam-baffles-me/273903/6 "2004-11-09T22:04:14Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > From what I understand, some spammers also send a message that appears to be blank, but it contains a small file that sends a blip to some server somewhere, letting it know that you’ve opened it, and confirming that your email address is a functioning one. Ah, the single pixel .gif. Basically, it’s a hotlinked image that, when opened, tells the spammer that you opened it. They generate (automtically of course) one of these images for each recipient and then they can tell by which files get opened which accounts are active. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-spam-baffles-me/273903/7 "2004-11-09T22:45:40Z")
I’ve gotten several emails that did were clear text (otherwise my filter would have cought them), so there’s no way to track whether I got the email or not, but which clearly couldn’t have served as advertisement. One was a bunch of gibberish clearly advertising drugs (meds che@p! n0 d0ctrs! meds pillz, etc.), but had no return address, no images, and no link in it. How could that possibly generate business for anyone? I’m still confused about that. My favorite, though, was one I got from $RANDOM\_SENDER with the subject $RANDOM\_TEXT and the email body $BODY. Looks like someone needs to write their spam scripts better. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-spam-baffles-me/273903/8 "2004-11-10T02:31:15Z")
> [@js\_africanus](#): > > The spam that comes in that has nothing substantative inside simply baffles me. Doesn’t ALL spam that one gets have nothing substansive? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-spam-baffles-me/273903/9 "2004-11-10T13:59:21Z")
> [@Dragwyr](#): > > Doesn’t ALL spam that one gets have nothing substansive? Except for the Penis Mightier!