# What is with this SPAM?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-with-this-spam/500681>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 23, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-with-this-spam/500681 "2009-06-23T03:10:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-with-this-spam/500681/1 "2009-06-23T03:10:28Z")

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For the last few days, I have been receiving these ridiculous SPAM emails. They all are different, although they all follow the same pattern. They all have a short nonsense subject (like “rb 4d”) and then a short nonsense body (like “wn”). That’s it. I get them 3 and 4 at a time. What is the point?

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**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-with-this-spam/500681/2 "2009-06-23T14:18:31Z")

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I always thought they were ‘feelers’ for legit email addresses. Checking for bounce backs/undeliverables and people who actually respond (marks).