# Explain this new kind of spam **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 29, 2006, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-kind-of-spam/342061 "2006-01-29T07:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-kind-of-spam/342061/1 "2006-01-29T07:35:41Z")
OK, so I have gotten four or five spam emails of the follwing variety in the past week, and don’t recall ever getting them before. The subject is always “Hi.” and the body is always a bad poem. A _different_ bad poem. One example is as follows: > [@](#): > > do not lose find > go work take > these clean have > teach tell work > day take swim > A cut clean > He type dance > for speak need > evening look break > his smoke sign > Be open understand No links, no emails, no nothing. Just a bad poem. Another example is: > [@](#): > > i understand complain > no shut turnoff > true accept cancel > computer organise cancel > you leave type > do go type > As fit accept > but ask complain > his hurt cough > our sleep believe > day translate translate ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-kind-of-spam/342061/2 "2006-01-29T07:40:02Z")
I think it’s just lorem ipsum to get it past the spam filters. I get the same thing all the time. Lately, I’ve seen 'em put this stuff in the text body, then have a scanned JPEG or GIF as their ‘sales message’. Tripler Only pre-sig past board filters message to you see what I mean? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-kind-of-spam/342061/3 "2006-01-29T08:07:00Z")
It’s not Nigerians anymore, it’s _Vogons_! :eek: ---
**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:** [January 29, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-kind-of-spam/342061/4 "2006-01-29T14:16:31Z")
Unfortunately, it’s working quite well at getting past the spam filters. My GMail is usually pretty good at weeding out most of the spam, but these things, from people such as Pleasance Goodhope slip right through. Some of them are no worse than some of those weird artsy poems I’ve heard in coffeehouses, though. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-kind-of-spam/342061/5 "2006-01-29T19:19:20Z")
OK, so it’s desiged to get past a spam filter…but then what? As I said, there is NOTHING but a linkless poem. Are they just expecting me to reply to it asking what the hell, and then they know they have a valid email to send more spam to? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-kind-of-spam/342061/6 "2006-01-29T19:51:30Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > OK, so it’s desiged to get past a spam filter…but then what? As I said, there is NOTHING but a linkless poem. Are they just expecting me to reply to it asking what the hell, and then they know they have a valid email to send more spam to? Is your email client set to display email as text-only or HTML? It might also contain a 1-pixel invisible graphic, which is downloaded from a website, called a “web bug” which lets the spammer know when you’ve opened it, and thus your email address is valid. Go ahead and forward an example of one of these emails to me, and I can tell you for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-kind-of-spam/342061/7 "2006-01-29T20:01:31Z")
I’m no expert in spam and anti-spam techniques, but there’s two possibilities I can think of. 1. They are sending something with a very low likelihood of being rejected in order to simply “test” e-mail addresses; if they get a bounce then they can throw out that address. I realize that not getting a bounce doesn’t imply that the e-mail address really is valid, but they can still say that all their e-mail addresses have been tested when they sell their address collection. 2. I wonder if some of these are an attempt to swamp trainable spam filters. If you designate enough random messages as spam, then it will be very difficult to keep both the false positive rate (non-spam mistakenly treated as spam) and the false negative rate (spam not recognized as spam) low.