SOT: shitfs in spam trends and topics

[Jason Slaughter]

> And a third: bad setup of the spam mailer (which I understand has some
> special settings that get updated by mail from 'mother' from time to
> time). I have never seen a spam mailer so consider this hearsay. Some
> spam I get has so bad a MIME encapsulation that it appears as plain text.

I think you'll find this is likely. I work for a company that's been doing a 
lot of research in to anti-spam techniques as well as research into what kind 
of spam software there is out there. As a result I've seen a lot of spam 
software lately. It's surreal to see software with checkbox labels like 
"optimize against SpamAssassin" and "avoid AOL filters."

I've learned that while spamming software makes sending filter-avoiding spam 
easier than ever, it's quite hard to use for many people, especially the 
intellectually devoid spammer. One thing you will find after studying spam 
for a while is that spammers have *terrible* quality control. I've seen so 
many spam that have been sent out with things like {random_text}} that had 
the first { been {{, would have inserted random filter-avoiding text. I think 
the same goes for a complete lack of URL. For instance, it seems some 
spammers don't seem to understand that if somebody gets their mail, that 
person can't just hit "reply" and put in an order! They're using a fancy 
program that creates a random email address, and they have no concept as to 
what their program is really doing.
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