How does gobbledegook spam work?

[Kit]

You know the sort - the message consists entirely of phrases like rabbitproof antediluvian hairnet entitlement. there's no 'click here to unsubscribe' so i assume they're not fishing for live addresses, and the download size seems too small to be hiding a dial-home programme. What are they trying to sell me? (Especially as the subject line is usually something like 'Enjoyed the chat qwerty uiop')

[darth vader]

the subject line or message body is usually spurious like this to get the email past spam filters. i have noticed how they now are spelling things wrong (vaigra, peenis etc) to avoid detection also. be wary - they are usually HTML-based emails which they hope is being sent to a microsnot-based machine with outlook, which displays the html as a web page not an email. this means the sender can hide html code in to send a message back to a server, for example (valid email address mining) to verify your email account exists. they can be a bit unscrupulous of course and have the web page download spyware/viruses/whatever. To avoid this you need a html filter attached to your outlook - free one available at http://ntbugtraq.ntadvice.com/default.asp?sid=1&pi
d=55&did=38

[IndieSinger]

Well I can offer some help. Firstly, the reason they use "gobbledegook" words is to get round the spam message filters. Most spam filters are pre-programmed to obliterate messages containing words like "Viagra" and "XXX" etc. (as well as dirtier words you can think of for yourself) especially if they appear in the Subject Line.

As for your question about what they're selling you... they're not. However, the way I understand it is some spammer programmes can detect that you have a "live" e-mail account (that is, one which is active and therefore useful and more expensive to spammers) purely from the fact that the e-mail has been opened.

So be warned! If you're confident from the Subject Line that it's spam, don't even open it!

[darth vader]

the web page has been updated - it seem microsoft have got their finger out and provided a workaround - details can be found there but it is easy to fix

[IndieSinger]

Didn't Chef from Southpark once sing "Simulataneous Posting", darth? Good job our stories matched.

[darth vader]

:-)

[darth vader]

ps. here's a new angle i've noticed (and nearly got caught out on) they send you an email saying "thanks for your order you have been invoiced for �x by mastercard please click on this link for more details" - even though you never purchased anything with them. again basically to get you to confirm your address by clicking their link (which if you check the html code contains your email address in it)

[simontarling]

spam should be punished by hanging.

[darth vader]

it's nice in butties with branston

[Kit]

Thanks all - I didn't think the messages were big enough to ring home, but obviously they are! I don't touch Outlook with a bargepole, and have a pretty good firewall so hopefully haven't given too much away. I'm thinking of writing a book of gobbledegook spam poetry - although random, some of them make a kind of surreal sense and with a bit of punctuation could sell millions!
Good job spamming isn't punishable by hanging though - I was missing a few emails from my mum and discovered that for reasons best known to itself, the BT Yahoo email filter has identified her as spam! She'll be charmed, I'm sure...