# What's the deal with the random words in spam email?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-random-words-in-spam-email/275101>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 16, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-random-words-in-spam-email/275101 "2004-11-16T19:25:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-random-words-in-spam-email/275101/1 "2004-11-16T19:25:36Z")

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Every day I end up getting a small sampling of spam email, some of it for V ! A G R @ or however else they spell it to get past my email filter, some of it for porn sites that feature acts that sound dangerous and possibly criminal…but almost all of them seem to have random words somewhere in the email, a list of words like this: _proximity andersen screwbean tundra fresnel hackle columbus salesmen jewell alterate candle decorate psychotherapy subtlety coagulable tallyho checksum aurora chair forte gunpowder tabernacle panicked apprise dateline suck cathode federate osseous redound hyannis_.

Now, I can understand web sites maybe having lots of random words that might increase the chance of hits on search engines or something, but why the random words in spam emails?

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**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-random-words-in-spam-email/275101/2 "2004-11-16T19:34:06Z")

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I believe it’s an attempt by the spammers to lessen the chance of the email getting flagged by a spam filter. Most spam filters use some sort of contextual algorithm to analyze the text and ask things like, “What percentage of the text is made up of know spam terms?” Throwing in a bunch of random text (I’ve also noticed spam that includes a few paragraphs of Shakespeare and such) reduces the percentage of actual spam content, and so can lower the spam score so that filter lets it through to your in box.

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**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-the-random-words-in-spam-email/275101/3 "2004-11-16T22:15:53Z")

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I don’t have a worthwhile cite, but it’s to defeat Bayesian filtering.