New SPAM Leverages Amazing Brain Functionality
Posted September 24, 2007 at 9:28 AM
I know I shouldn't be supporting SPAM in anyway, but this is just cool. I am sure that we've all seen those chain emails that go around with the garbled words that we can read with no problem thanks to the ability of the human brain to organize letters without effort. Well, recently, my SPAM has started to use a similar technique. Check out this email that came in this morning:
Rumo_r N-e'w+s_: On,+cology M e,d.. I n_c*. (O*TC: ON'CO) a C_ancer Tr-e-atment S-ol+utions Gro+up is s'a'i'd to h-a'v_e e-xperien'ced o'v.e r a 1'000% i+nc+rease in re,v'enues f,o+r t,h,e fisca l 3,r_d q*uarter e*nding J_u+l'y', 2.0_0 7 co mpa*red w'i't h t+h_e p+rior y-e_a*r wh,ile fi scal fou'rth q*uarter resu*lts f'o_r 2*0-0'7 a.r,e on tra_ck to excee+d t'h*i.s year' s th ird qua+rter resul'ts.
O'N,C-O a+dditi'onally plan_s to inc-re,ase servi'ce off e rings w'hich a'r,e curr,.ently und e-rway. D+on't w'a,i,t f,o,r t.h*e n-e w's to c+o,m+e o,u t a_n+d l'o+s.e t+h,e o+p*portunity to g_e+t in fr_ont of the gene ral inve,stin-g pu,blic. O,ncolo.gy M e_d is in a mult_ibi_llion do llar i*ndust-ry w_h,e_r+e t+h.e'y a-r.e gai.ning mark+et sha.re rap-idly. C,a'l-l y+o.u,r bro,ker n*o w f-o.r O.N+C-O*.
When looking at this, I stumble a bit here and there, but for the most part, I can read this as if it were plain text. It's pretty awesome that my mind can just strip out the extra crap and present the words to me as plain, readable text. Again, I am just in awe of what the human mind is capable of.
Comments (8) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink | Print Page
Aoccdrnig To Rscheearch - ColdFusion UDF To Garble Words
Are SQL PATINDEX() And The SQL LIKE Clause Doing The Same Thing?
Reader Comments
Neo, follow the white rabbit...
Posted by Todd Rafferty on Sep 24, 2007 at 10:17 AM
i've seen loads and loads of this stuff recently too.. seems to stuff our spam filters every now and then Never really bothered to read it till now, but yes i agree with you, it is pretty cool..
Mat
Posted by Mat Evans on Sep 24, 2007 at 10:40 AM
I've been getting spam like this for many months. You must be lucky!
Posted by Brian Kotek on Sep 24, 2007 at 11:07 AM
Yeah, this started a few days ago for me. But gotten about 20 messages since it started.
Posted by Ben Nadel on Sep 24, 2007 at 11:14 AM
But aren't you going to write a coldfusion function for fun that produces this spamy speak?
Posted by CoolJJ on Sep 24, 2007 at 1:03 PM
Don't give him any ideas. Please!
:D
Posted by Todd Rafferty on Sep 24, 2007 at 1:20 PM
@CoolJJ - Ask and you shall receive!
<cffunction name="toSpam" access="public" returntype="string" output="false">
<cfargument name="cleanText" type="string" required="yes" />
<cfset var spamChars = "'|,|_|-|+|*|.| " />
<cfset var lowerBound = 0 />
<cfset var upperBound = 6 />
<cfset var i = 0 />
<cfloop from="#len(arguments.cleanText)#" to="1" index="i" step="-1">
<cfif randRange(lowerBound,upperBound) LT ((lowerBound+1) /upperBound)>
<cfset arguments.cleanText = insert(listGetAt(spamChars,randRange(1,listLen(spamChars,'|')),'|'),arguments.cleanText,i) />
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfreturn arguments.cleanText />
</cffunction>
Posted by Dustin on Sep 24, 2007 at 1:23 PM
@Dustin,
Niiiice :)
Posted by Ben Nadel on Sep 24, 2007 at 1:30 PM
