Date: 2007-08-16 08:50:00
unclear on the concept

Spammers like to include snippets of unrelated text in their spam to try to fool bayesian filters. Spammers also like to break up the words of their message to, again, try to fool bayesian filters. However, this spammer seems to misunderstand the purpose and has combined these tactics with befuddling results:

C.Y,T_V conti*nue.s i t s st,eady clim_b f,o r t*h'e sec'ond wee+k. S'tock r+eportin+g si*tes acros.s t_h-e boa rd a r*e issuin'g sto,ck watc'h not ices-. R*e a-d t-h_e n,ews, l o-o'k at t_h'e num'ber_s, a-n.d g-e.t on C Y_T_V as it keep's i+t.s cl-imb go,ing.

T h,e y cal,led h+e+r Hol_ly Mer ry h-e_r l*i-p s w,e-r'e so ru*ddybe,rry a_n.d P'i_a de Pure b-elle w+h,e*n t,h-e redmi'ne_rs r iots w_a's on abo+ut h e_r_. P'u-t t-h-e hea,ds on t'o_p+.

Comment

[info]goulo
2007-08-16T09:22:12Z
It's probably actually one of those stegographically encoded secret email messages to Al-Qaeda cell operatives that I hear so much about!
[info]ghewgill
2007-08-16T09:37:57Z
You can find anything if you look hard enough!
[info]goulo
2007-08-16T10:40:06Z
Speaking of which, what do you make of this?
http://treeairnew.forex-journals.com/2007/08/15/he-firmly-believes-that-to-be-finland-picture/

Seems to be a blog with random text content generated by a spam program, but it's particularly interested in Finland for some reason. Bonus points if you know how I stumbled upon it. :)
[info]ghewgill
2007-08-16T10:52:35Z
That's a reasonably old (by now) technique that has a name that escapes me at the moment (I thought it might have been carpetblogging, but apparently not). The idea is to establish lots of legitimate-looking links to lots of other sites, in order to boost your google-juice for the eventual link to your pharmaceutical site or whatever. This is the shady world of SEO.

The one thing in there that seemed like it might trigger russ-awareness was "toki pona". :)
[info]ghewgill
2007-08-16T10:55:35Z
Ah, the term I was looking for is splog. I think I like "carpetblogging" better.
Greg Hewgill <greg@hewgill.com>