At 09:19 6/23/2003 -0400, Andrew wrote:
The string of random text is what's called a "hashbuster". It's a countermeasure for a class of filtering techniques.
Oh yes, I understand all that. I am just curious as to why porno spam that I get from, for example the folks who spam from www.isprally.com always has the same string in the text, the subject, and the message ID, not only for every site they spam for, but also for every spam they send. This string appears at least 3 times in each email, and is the same string in every email. (They have also been placing a single HTML comment at the test beginning the test with a 5 digit numeric -- a campaign ID?) I did a google on the exact same spams, and discovered that other recipients had a different string, although similar from a pattern standpoint.
It is a possibility that this is a unique tracking ID, or another more probability is that the spammer's ratware is misbehaving, or the spammer was just too lazy to change those values. In respect to the latter see Rule 3 - Spammer's are stupid.
Hence my question. You wouldn't think to munge this when using SpamCop (and SpamCop of course doesn't do it for you), so the spammers have gotten wise. Embed a string in the text that looks like a hashbuster, but is in fact a unique ID, so that 'trouble-makers' like us who report spam can be tracked.
Or maybe I've been watching too many Oliver Stone movies
Tony
There are in fact some spam gangs (tm) that do use Unique tracking IDs to follow email, however I suspect that those IDs are less to track anti spam movements and more to simple validate email addresses.
-- Colin Faber (303) 859-1491 fpsn.net, Inc. * Black holes are where God divided by zero. *
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