Technobuddy

By DBH 1

March 7, 2007 8:53 AM | Link to this

I noticed the drop off a while back. I just thought that the filters were getting better. The only other reason for the decline would be a low response rate. Maybe one day someone will come up with something that filters the jibberish used in subject lines to avoid detection.

By Charlie

March 7, 2007 9:40 AM | Link to this

So I guess ads trying to sell “penis enlarging pills” or C1ali5 don’t count?

Every spam I get now has a bunch of random words attached to the bottom. These random words can sometimes be explicit as well.

By Bill

March 7, 2007 9:43 AM | Link to this

Hey Charlie, the number of x-rated ads (including the type you mention) seem to have decreased - at least in my own inbox. Nowadays, I’d guess that 30 percent of the spam I receive involves stock tips.

By gman

March 7, 2007 9:50 AM | Link to this

I get email spam on enlargements and cialis all the time. They have wierd subject lines like: didnt u know a ryt spot or glance toned clean and. They usually are from someone I don’t know so I just delete them without opening.

By Patrick

March 7, 2007 10:09 AM | Link to this

A spam-filtering program is only as good as its user.

One reason why the spammers put that gobbledegook at the bottom of their messages is to confuse the spam filter. Most spam filters will delete a message if it meets one of three criteria: If the subject contains certain terms or phrases, if the body of the e-mail contains certain words, phrases, or content, or if the e-mail is from a particular user.

When a user programs the spam filter or blocker in their e-mail to filter spam based on the subject line, 99% of the time he/she uses all alpha characters for the subject line’s content. For example, the word “sexy” might be entered. But, the spammer will get around this by using the dollar sign ($) for the letter “S”, or the Yen symbol („) for the letter “Y”. They may also use numbers where necessary, or other symbols.

To program the body of the e-mail, a user will usually do the same thing. The spammer in turn can do the same thing, but they can also do something else. Spam filters can make exceptions. In the body, you can program the spam filter to permit a message to enter your Inbox if you program it to make the exception if the word “Bob” is in the body, if “Bob” is your boss, or best friend, or brother. More often than not the spammer will use these common words or phrases to throw the spam filter off.

Companies use the third option, blocking entire classes of e-mail based on e-mail account. The only problem here is that spammers often use common e-mail accounts like “@yahoo.com”. If you tried to block every single aol.com e-mail to get rid of spam, because 99% of your spam is coming from a yahoo.com account, you end up blocking your Uncle George’s e-mail, who has a yahoo.com account. You would have to block the individual e-mail accounts, which can take up a lot of space on your spam filter, and your computer. The reason behind this is because if you receive a spam from someone with an e-mail like “sexygirls@email.com”, your instinct would be to block that individual e-mail, and you’d think you’re blocking that spam, right? WRONG! The spammer will come back as “sexygirlz@email.com”, “s3x„girlz@email.com”, so on and so forth. Some spam filters may only permit so many e-mails from being blocked.

By Charlie

March 7, 2007 11:23 AM | Link to this

Bill,

To give my thoughts on why x-rated spam may be declining: Perhaps x-rated spam has a lower rate of return for the spammers. You have to assume that spammers are making rational decisions.

For example, maybe the spammers are getting a .000002% rate of return on stock tips, but only a .000001% rate of return on x-rated spam.

I wouldn’t attribute a lower rate of return on XXX to less user demand, but instead, perhaps spam filters are more sophisticated when it comes to that type of spam.

To toot my own horn, right now only about 1 or 2 spam emails get through my filters a week. I use a variety of techniques to manage my spam, including regex filters, boxtrapper whitelist / blacklists, and a multi inbox system on my own domain. (No bayesian filtering.)

Because I manage my own domain, the majority of my spam is “bounced mail” or “returned mail” spam. These are spams that were sent to someone else by a spammer who was spoofing the from: address to my domain. They’re then bounced back to me by the spam victim’s email server. It’s my experience that the content inside of those spams are the cialis or enlargement ads. The spams that get to me are wrapped in a foreign language return mail header, with a (somewhat) English cialis advertisement.

Anyway, just thought I’d share…

Thanks

By Michael

March 7, 2007 11:24 AM | Link to this

Spam must generate purchases somewhere otherwise it would end. Someone must be clicking and then buying those pills.

By Jim Donnan

March 7, 2007 11:33 AM | Link to this

What is the matter with e-rated spam? Nothing like seeing a pair of hooters when i wake up in the morning. As long as no farm animals are involved, it’s all good. I especially like to view arses.

By Val

March 7, 2007 11:50 AM | Link to this

Patrick:

Thanks for your post! Interesting — I wondered why the spammers used all those random characters.

I am attending an internet safety conference later this month and look forward to hearing more about how all this works.

By Bill

March 7, 2007 11:50 AM | Link to this

Charlie, I think you’re right. During an especially shameful period of my life I worked in the direct mail industry - this was before the Internet was commonly available to home users. Earlier in my life I also spent some time in the corporate world as well as at regular advertising agencies.

There were some really stark differences between conventional advertising and direct mail/direct response.

Direct response advertising really is a game for number crunchers and - unlike a feel good ad on TV - you can measure performance. And since the cost of entry is low - especially now that a lot of direct response has moved to e-mail - it’s easy to change products, change approaches and to make comparative measurements of how each works.

So I’m guessing that the bulk of x-rated ads just didn’t work compared to other products.

By Patrick

March 7, 2007 12:55 PM | Link to this

Right. If people want porn, they can easily google it or search for it in other methods. Some people are already subscribed to websites featuring certain pornographic or x-rated topics. Most, if not all, come with a small fee. However, people don’t always know where to get the best stock tips, or where they can sell their timeshares (who still has those, anyway?), or find out about losing weight, or ending their debt, or any of the other millions of topics spam covers. People don’t look up porn as often as they used to, for several reasons. One being they’re afraid they might get caught and arrested. Another being if they get caught at work, they’ll get fired. And yet another reason is if their spouse or significant other found out, they might end up in trouble with them. Others, like me, just believe it is morally wrong to expose yourself like that to the public.

By Jim Donnan

March 7, 2007 1:51 PM | Link to this

Patrick,

Like you don’t like to take a gander at big butts or over 40 gals every now and then. What man honestly doesn’t like a bit of filth every now and then? Please, you aren’t fooling anyone.

Jim Donnan

By C. Henry Adams & BIE

March 8, 2007 12:32 AM | Link to this

I would have to concur with the Blogger named Patrick, the spammers utilize certain key words to throw off spam filters.

Furthermore, they also utilize a data mining technique somehow received from forwarded emails.

If you fall into the frenzy of passing chain letter emails you set yourself up for data mining.

Finally, I believe spammers have decline because of a number of reasons, please observe below:

1) 10% to 20% Spam Filter Success 2) Web Surfers are more educated or wiser today than in 2001. 3) Data Mining techniques improved through chain letters where people forward emails to their friends. 4) The spam mail business is on the decline as oppose to turning a unknownly person’s computer into a bot through various methods. (ie. Downloading musics, videos & etc. with software that is easy to obtain or free to install from the Internet.) Sorry, legal told me not to name names.

That’s my opinion and related facts. http://www.networkingmenu.com

By Claude

March 10, 2007 11:22 AM | Link to this

Maybe x-rated spam is declining because more and more people are just determined to live honest and ethical lives.

No, seriously, it’s because the risk/reward calculation has shifted in favor of other activities. The pump-and-dump stock tips are a particularly attractive way to make money since you don’t have any hassle with credit card companies or FDA raids.