What could the purpose of this spam email be?

[Polerius]

I just got an email with the subject
“bas de duplex ville stlaurent”
and a body of
“lots of horse tack and saddles templeton”

I have no idea what this spammer is trying to achieve.

Any ideas?

[want2befree]

Hopefully just to be annoying, and not to provide a virus upon opening said e-mail.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

Validating an email list. Anything that doesn’t come back can be presumed to be a valid address. (It doesn’t account for blackholing, but it’s better than sending out “working” spam that get returned in large quantities.)

[Hari_Seldon]

I asked a similar question a few weeks ago and the answer seems to be that by putting enough nonsense text in they avoid some spam blockers. But I do assume someone is trying to sell you a lower duplex in St. Laurent for some reason. That could be a mile or a few from where I am right now (Mt. Royal).

[mandala]

I think he is offering you a duplex villa for sale in templeton. And there are some horses on the property, too.

[Jake_Jones]

@Hari_Seldon

I asked a similar question a few weeks ago and the answer seems to be that by putting enough nonsense text in they avoid some spam blockers.

Most likely correct. The content is written to bypass Bayesian spam filters. Why they don’t just say something like “Hey, it’s Joe. Just checking in to see if you’re going to be able to make it to our party next weekend.” I don’t know.

@Amateur_Barbarian

Validating an email list. Anything that doesn’t come back can be presumed to be a valid address.

Beyond that, a web bug can be embedded in a spam email so that the sender gets a response that the email was opened.

[chappachula]

@Jake_Jones

Why they don’t just say something like “Hey, it’s Joe. Just checking in to see if you’re going to be able to make it to our party next weekend.” I don’t know.

I think it’s because the spammer sends millions of emails, and they each need to be different from each other, so they don’t get blocked.
So they use random strings of words. Each group of 3 words makes sense, because I think they start by scanning a long text, such as a book, and just take the words in order, 3 at a time. Then they tack on another word or two randomly.
So , to a computer filter, each message “makes sense” grammatically, since the groups of 3 words are from real sentences.
And no two spams have anything in common with each other, so it’s hard to block or track them.

I’m just guessing…Anybody know if I’m right?

[Musicat]

@chappachula

I think it’s because the spammer sends millions of emails, and they each need to be different from each other, so they don’t get blocked.
So they use random strings of words. Each group of 3 words makes sense, because I think they start by scanning a long text, such as a book, and just take the words in order, 3 at a time. Then they tack on another word or two randomly.
So , to a computer filter, each message “makes sense” grammatically, since the groups of 3 words are from real sentences.
And no two spams have anything in common with each other, so it’s hard to block or track them.

I’m just guessing…Anybody know if I’m right?

You’re right. And stop spamming me.

[Heracles]

@chappachula

(…)
Each group of 3 words makes sense, because I think they start by scanning a long text, such as a book, and just take the words in order, 3 at a time. Then they tack on another word or two randomly.
(…)
I’m just guessing…Anybody know if I’m right?

Sounds plausible. “Bas de duplex ville stlaurent” is not something you’d see in a book, though, but probably on a Web site similar to Craigslist.