# What is this spammer technique? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 28, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spammer-technique/177932 "2003-05-28T03:04:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spammer-technique/177932/1 "2003-05-28T03:04:12Z")
Sometimes, a spammer will send an e-mail to me with my e-mail address in the subject line - that’s an old ruse, presumably working on the principle that if I see my own e-mail address, I’m more likely to open their crap. However, sometimes they have a distorted or plain wrong version of my name. e.g. if my name were John Doe, the subject line might be something like this: “John Donaldson - enlarge your penis 2 feet overnight” What do they hope to gain by this? I don’t see how it would help them bypass any spam filterse. Do they think they have a better chance of me opening the mail if I see someone else’s name in the subject line? Does the spammer think I’ll conclude the mail has been sent to the wrong person, and open it to forward it? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spammer-technique/177932/2 "2003-05-28T06:13:15Z")
Well, is your email address the equivalent of [johnd@whatever.com](mailto:johnd@whatever.com)? They may just pick a name (John Donaldson) and send a message to johnd@everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spammer-technique/177932/3 "2003-05-28T11:14:06Z")
The spam is sent out in batches. Every thousand emails (or whatever) they lift a name out of their spam list to use on the next thousand. This helps the spam beat spam filtering. The name you see is just another poor spam victim that happens to be alphabetically sorted close to your own. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spammer-technique/177932/4 "2003-05-28T11:52:57Z")
Yeah, I get messages addressed to “Eats\_Cartoons” or some such nonsense all the time too (uses the first art of my username, not the second). I always wondered if it was accidental or not. **Futile’s** explanation seems to fit the bill. Though I think it’s a stupid attempt to try to at bypass filters. One of my free e-mail accounts has already caught on, so any incoming message that has part of my name or username in the “From” or “Subject” fields goes to the Bulk Mail folder. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spammer-technique/177932/5 "2003-05-28T12:46:07Z")
I always get stuff calling me “interfacex”. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spammer-technique/177932/6 "2003-05-28T19:39:33Z")
Lately I’ve become “string”. I think the default in the software isn’t being overwritten.