Monday Mirth

Actually it's spam, but all you LSBers who like the English language and correct spelling an grammar can take heart that there are worse language aficionados out there. There follows a part of a transcript sent to me today. I think it was advertising viagra but who cares. It is copied as written.

News:

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I'm pretty sure he's not selling Viagara -but, I've got to agree it's a very hard read.
Ed

It's deliberately spelled like that, Anti-Spam attachments which look for bad words and filter your mail to eliminate spam look for certain key words, like "Viagra" but rely on such words being spelt correctly and matching their list... so the spammers get creative with their spelling and try to get past the filters but still be readable and understandable by the victim-to-be...

Kiwi303;400126 wrote: It's deliberately spelled like that, Anti-Spam attachments which look for bad words and filter your mail to eliminate spam look for certain key words, like "Viagra" but rely on such words being spelt correctly and matching their list... so the spammers get creative with their spelling and try to get past the filters but still be readable and understandable by the victim-to-be...

I'm certainly no expert in cyber things, but I'd always assumed that when a mail-server set about determining whether an email was spam or not it did so based on its 'title'.
In other words I didn't think it scanned the entire contents of the 'message' to pick up on any 'key words' (which might signify it as Spam).
So, unless I'm badly mistaken with this, I would've thought that any spammer wishing to get a message delivered would only have to confuse the title of the email - and take his chances on it being opened.
If the entire email has to be confused in order to escape the filter, what's the point of it when it does get through if the recipient can't understand a word of it?
But, as I said, I could be labouring under a major delusion here.
Ed

WillEyre;399916 wrote: I'm pretty sure he's not selling Viagara -but, I've got to agree it's a very hard read.
Ed

Here's the title. {Spam?} Holiday DISCOUNT. BUY NOW VIAGRA..CIALIS!!!

It was followed by a whole lot of blurb about UPSA whoever they are. Not the same as UPS I'm thinking, and written in very good English. It was the bit I already posted that I thought amusing.
BTW, another of those hoax "We have detected an error in your computer" messages came my way tonight. I had this silly girl on too. At least she spoke better English that the last fool I got, but there was a delay in the answer all the time, making me think it was an overseas call. Kept her waffling for about 10 minutes. She kept asking me to go and turn my computer on, I kept telling her that wasn't possible. The moment I told her I didn't own a computer, she hung up. She used my name surname though, so she is accessing a telephone directory I should think

Ed,

the spam detectors are getting smarter and each time a message is marked as 'Spam' this info is passed on and added to a 'learning algorithm' which checks each and every email for certain words and phrases - not just the headline. Each email is checked against this list of suspect words and phrases.

Also all email adresses where spam has previously come from have been noted and these will be checked, too. However, if I'd send you an email with the word 'Viagra' in the headline I would assume that it will get through. Wanna try it out?

Simkin;400262 wrote: Ed,

the spam detectors are getting smarter and each time a message is marked as 'Spam' this info is passed on and added to a 'learning algorithm' which checks each and every email for certain words and phrases - not just the headline. Each email is checked against this list of suspect words and phrases.

Also all email adresses where spam has previously come from have been noted and these will be checked, too. However, if I'd send you an email with the word 'Viagra' in the headline I would assume that it will get through. Wanna try it out?

When you ask if I 'wanna try it out', are you referring to testing the algorithm or the little triangular chemical?

I do understand a little of just how sophisticated these algorithms have become but it begs the question (whilst acknowledging that the surveillance is purely programmed electronics - not a human gatekeeper sitting at a monitor, I hope ...) that my personal 'privacy' is being violated in the cause of keeping me 'safe' (from Spam that the server determines that I don't want.) The old Post Office didn't open every letter and check it's contents, did they?
I do believe that anything that anyone 'does' online has to pass through the conduit of a Server and is only ever 'private' to the extent that the server is benign.
I think what George Orwell sensed way back in 1949 has come to pass.
Ed