# Strange Quotes in my Spam! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 25, 2003, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-quotes-in-my-spam/215273 "2003-11-25T22:50:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![markle9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markle9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markle9)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-quotes-in-my-spam/215273/1 "2003-11-25T22:50:18Z")
I received a spam email today that had some strange text in it. After the usual “I’m a single girl looking for love” blah, blah, blah, with a link to go to, and a link to “cancel” messages (right…), there was this block of text: > [@](#): > > crouched, weeping silently, and refusing to stir again. But my fixed idea of > reaching Leatherhead would not let me rest,vanished away; until now in these > latter great days, our dreamers > SOCRATES: But if Cleinias is a madman and the two sons of Pericles were > highest bidder. > THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES > Title: The Birds > difficulty into which I have got myself. Shall I tell you the nature of > to death. This was a specimen of the sort of commands which they were A quick google search reveals that these are quotes from, respectively, War of The Worlds by H.G. Wells, The 30,000 Bequest by Mark Twain, Alcibiades I by Plato, (two titles), Charmides, or Temperance by Plato, and The Apology of Socrates by Plato. Besides letting me know that I'm dealing with an extremely well-read %@! spammer, why put that text in a spam message? All quotes, by the way, are available from free e-books online, which is no doubt where the %#$! spammer got them. But for what purpose? ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-quotes-in-my-spam/215273/2 "2003-11-25T22:54:25Z")
Just a guess, but maybe they hoped it would confuse mail filters by including what appeared to be legitimate content? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-quotes-in-my-spam/215273/3 "2003-11-25T23:12:41Z")
Have seen them also be concealed within “hidden” html source code in spam-mails. They are likeliest to be spoofer text, to confuse the filters, with another possibility being as tracers or markers to track the diffusion of that particular e-mail. ---
**Author:** ![Matchka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Matchka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Matchka)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-quotes-in-my-spam/215273/4 "2003-11-25T23:32:59Z")
I had one nested inside a Dickens passage. The original text color had been changed so as to render it nearly invisible. The troubling thing is, at least _some_ business must be generated by these e-mails else they wouldn’t exist. How the hell did humans ever get…to…the…moon… ---
**Author:** ![Merhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Merhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-quotes-in-my-spam/215273/5 "2003-11-25T23:47:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Matchka \* > \*\* How the hell did humans ever get…to…the…moon… \*\* Three inches at a time. Just click “here”. NASA must have done a lot of clicking 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Matchka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Matchka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Matchka)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-quotes-in-my-spam/215273/6 "2003-11-26T00:02:44Z")
HAR!!! Took me a minute. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-quotes-in-my-spam/215273/7 "2003-11-26T03:27:34Z")
[Bayesian spam filters](http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html) apply a statistical method to determine the likelyhood that a message is spam. The inclusion of unrelated quotes might be the difference between being filtered as probably spam and being let through as possibly isn’t spam. (Simple filtering rules are, of course, the reason the message is titled “M.A.K.E. M.O.N.E.Y. F.A.S.T”) 😛