Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 23:56:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: SpamArrest
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

"Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net> wrote:

> A small percentage of the spam I've received in the past couple
> of months has consisted of aphorisms (often mangled) and famous
> one-line quotes (also sometimes mangled), with no apparent product
> for sale.  (But I clicked on no links.)  The subject headers seemed
> to consist of four unrelated words.  I shared some of these odd
> spams with members of another list I'm on, and several of them
> quoted similar ones they'd received.  Then we all figuratively
> scratched our heads.

As I mentioned earlier this evening, that's to evade Bayesian filters,
which look at the ratio of spammish phrases to non-spammish phrases.

> Apparently some .5% of those who receive this stuff respond to it in
> a positive way.

Closer to one in ten million for the most legitimate looking spams,
dropping to less than one in a billion for Nigerian scams.

> Spammers *are* in it for the money.  And they can send out
> *millions* of emailed spam at, essentially, *no cost at all*.

Some spammers boast of sending well over a billion every day.  If
true (and I have no reason to doubt it) they're responsible for more
loss of useful life than the 9/11 terrorists, albeit by quietly
stealing two seconds here and three seconds there, rather than all
at once in a ball of fire.

> According to the POST, for some businesses *80%* of all the email
> they get is spam.

Sheesh.  I passed 80% nearly a decade ago.  Without filtering, it
would currently be about 99.99%.  Those of you who were over here for
January's Fifth Friday saw a real-time log of my filters.  They were
blocking a spam once every three seconds on average.

Volume has nearly doubled since then.

We may be using the term differently, however.  By "spam" I include
viruses, worms, bogus bounce messages, bogus "your email is infested
with a virus" messages, and bogus C&R messages (i.e. ones caused by
spammers forging my address).

> I gather some spammers consider themselves legitimate businessmen.

So did Al Capone.