Terrorist Messages in Spam?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I don't usually read through my spam, but this one slipped through the filter. And I usually highlight the text as I go, as a sort of nervous habit (like clicking a retractable pen). And I discovered something very disturbing in this spam. There are messages in the white space, or what you are to believe is whitespace. There are actually phrases there with the text-color defined as white (this is the html part of the email). To top that off the message body (the plain-text part that most email clients ignore if there is a html attachment) had some odd phrases and stuff in it. I'm at a loss for figuring this out. It mentions Bin Laden and stuff, so maybe it's some sort of terrorist message? Or is it just some stuff ripped from online news articles to try and get past spam filters (since some people subscribe to New York Times and such mailing lists to have the headlines emailed to them)? I've included the text below:



Message Body:

of the way," he says. we are on the path of,

"just the first" The purported voice of in to "bury them [



fCIWu Qb

REwbcn

It is believed that government to return





HTML text (the parts in bold are the parts that were hidden):



Hi,

3,000 people. He mentions

My name is Jane. I like sex, and... mmm... I like when my lover has a BIG one ;-)

I've heard a lot about this possibility to increase penis size, but I always shook my head, incredulously. democracy and tolerance

This changed when I met Alan. His penis was kind of small for me, and I had the courage to order 2 bottles of pills for him. He took it for only 2 months, and the result was simply incredible. Not only his penis got bigger, but he also has now much harder erection, and can make love much longer. bin Laden praises the graveyard of "

An now I can say: I'm happy with him! ;-)



MAKE YOUR LOVER HAPPY AS WELL!

bin Laden praises the over and exhorted fighters President Bush said

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    If we're going to be paranoid, perhaps you are a terrorist using these forums to send messages using a post about spam as cover.



    Or I could be one by trying to debunk your post.



    Ok, reality check time:



    Spam gets caught by seaching for typical percentages of keywords that are known to be used mostly in spam.



    To thwart anti-spam efforts, spammers are getting around this by interspersing text that is of a more legitimate nature. Many people sign up for CNN news updates in their mail, so it might elevate the chances of the spam to get through if it has more newsy keywords thrown in.



    This is why it is in white, since the spammers are using the white text to help the message pass the filters, yet the visible text is their real message.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    I don`t really have much to say about the messages in the spam other than using white on white text is not the first way I would try and send subliminal messages..



    OT: I thought I was the only one that highlighted text as I read, I got iBrowse doing it a bit now but I do it all the time, I can`t even stop myself from doing it now even if I wanted.
  • Reply 3 of 15
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mount_my_floppy

    OT: I thought I was the only one that highlighted text as I read, I got iBrowse doing it a bit now but I do it all the time, I can`t even stop myself from doing it now even if I wanted.



    That is what the terrorits want you to believe.
  • Reply 4 of 15
    pyr3pyr3 Posts: 946member
    I didn't mean to be paranoid. I just thought that I should at least do something about it, you know? Because I wasn't sure. If I had ignored it and there was some other terrorist attack I would always be thinking that maybe it could have been prevented if I had said something. I just needed a couple other people to slap me out of paranoia mode. Heh.
  • Reply 5 of 15
    If you are that nervous, then submit the information to the FBI Tips and Public Leads.
  • Reply 6 of 15
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    That's why I said "if we're really going to be paranoid". You were earnestly concerned and unfamiliar in the ways of spammers, but I wouldn't call it paranoia. I just expounded on that logic to truly paranoid extremes as an example of where such thinking goes. Then I explained why such text would be found in spam.



    If you were truly paranoid, you'd have not even posted here, but instead have told the FBI directly. Or you wouldn't even be on the Internet at all.



    Terrorists seek to breed paranoia. Our weapon against it is measured reasoning.



    Please read this article before you waste precious FBI resources:



    A tricky business - Getting your @ttention

    Spammers are employing more devious methods to ensure their messages hit their target



    The text you mentioned is all copied from a CNN news article:

    New purported bin Laden tape raises fear of new attacks (9/11/2003)



    ...which I would certainly wager was the most quoted/forwarded text of that week, and a great candidate to use as spamouflage.
  • Reply 7 of 15
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    I wonder how many people highlight their text as they read... I do that but I just figured it was a part of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisHey!!! Lets go ride bikes!!!!
  • Reply 8 of 15
    der kopfder kopf Posts: 2,275member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by iBrowse

    I wonder how many people highlight their text as they read...



    I do that most uncontrollably. Clickerdeclickerdeclick.
  • Reply 9 of 15
    thuh freakthuh freak Posts: 2,664member
    you people are definitely weird, with ur unnecessary text hiliting. i do that sometimes, but i dont make a habit out of it. sometimes i go to a site (often the unsavory kind) and it has large gaps of seemingly empty space. when u hilite it you see text there. some sites do it (presumably) to add text of an unrelated matter to their site, so search engines will pick them for more popular queries. it makes sense that spammers would do it to avoid spam filters.



    as for the spam: i recommend u ignore the body and try adding the sender to ur spam list. there's no sense in trying to read spam messages. they are all horse shit. if you read spam, the terrorists win.



    OT: i wonder how many people actually read, and respond and get hooked in by spam. The general population certainly has to know about it. And after you see an advert for penis enlargement 50 thousand times over five years, you start to really get annoyed by it. I would think, considering all the anti-spam talk and how everyone hates it, that spammers would realize their disgustingness and cease.
  • Reply 10 of 15
    johnrpjohnrp Posts: 357member
    Am I missing something ?



    Why would they be writing in English ?

    Why send the "Secret" message to thousands/millions of people ?

    Why the hell am i wasting my time thinking about this ?

    Why did I click "sunmit reply"



    dohh
  • Reply 11 of 15
    pyr3pyr3 Posts: 946member
    I bother to read spam sometimes because it gives me a laugh and kinda keeps me up on the latest scams for when people ask me about them. Like that Nigerian thing. I didn't mean to be start all the paranoia stuff. Like I said it's one of those things where I felt that I at least had to get some reassurance from someone else. Because if I did nothing and someone happened I would probably second guess my decision to ignore it. I figured it was probably a 'get past the spam filters' thing.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    Some nonsense email seems to have no apparent true intent. Their aren't just random phrases to try and get past spam filters. All the sentences are random. Here is an example from today. My mailwasher tags these emails and I stop them at the server.



    Tells everything begin dreams worksheets.

    Cool, lots moresave latest, thomas harris describes hannibal, lecters.

    Zealand kayaking biking word orderto quotation. Uploading udpquery, secondary disconnect designed reduce load twothirds quantity. Solutions magazine, openings sip, boardroom suite snapshots tmc labs? Coverage valuing selling, deal buy modern.

    Illness, reutersus looks disney?

    Name voices industry revamped relaunched.

    Glance quotyour speakers ive! Experience management headsets, hybrid fax trunking ivr.

    Success productive successful quotgo basicsquot increase earning?

    Store, hot discs gwen, stefani american.

    Graphics, bank county officials are trying.

    Computer read virus checking viruses kapsules contain.

    Sitting strongly consider ans. Cbs, dailyboot campchip airraising. Desk wall we have?

    Following lite grokster explorer. Purchases, designated entering addresses case purchased licenses logs. Exception common such, appear.

    De, maacutes este es compacto, faacutecil usar le? Everything begin dreams worksheets graphs buying dummies covers. Updates spotlight flu find shots. Pledged solid ansa reported farewell results reexamined there charged. Media made claims simply, false one.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by shortterm


    Some nonsense email seems to have no apparent true intent. Their aren't just random phrases to try and get past spam filters. All the sentences are random. Here is an example from today. My mailwasher tags these emails and I stop them at the server.



    Tells everything begin dreams worksheets.

    Cool, lots moresave latest, thomas harris describes hannibal, lecters.

    Zealand kayaking biking word orderto quotation. Uploading udpquery, secondary disconnect designed reduce load twothirds quantity. Solutions magazine, openings sip, boardroom suite snapshots tmc labs? Coverage valuing selling, deal buy modern.

    Illness, reutersus looks disney?

    Name voices industry revamped relaunched.

    Glance quotyour speakers ive! Experience management headsets, hybrid fax trunking ivr.

    Success productive successful quotgo basicsquot increase earning?

    Store, hot discs gwen, stefani american.

    Graphics, bank county officials are trying.

    Computer read virus checking viruses kapsules contain.

    Sitting strongly consider ans. Cbs, dailyboot campchip airraising. Desk wall we have?

    Following lite grokster explorer. Purchases, designated entering addresses case purchased licenses logs. Exception common such, appear.

    De, maacutes este es compacto, faacutecil usar le? Everything begin dreams worksheets graphs buying dummies covers. Updates spotlight flu find shots. Pledged solid ansa reported farewell results reexamined there charged. Media made claims simply, false one.



    Now I see the thread I have picked up on is from 2002!
  • Reply 14 of 15
    slewisslewis Posts: 2,081member
    Nice find... I didn't even look at the date myself when I saw this just assuming it to be a new thread.....



    Spam is weird though... and funny.



    While browsing my Hotmail (not something I do often but I used it to send an iCard to a messenger contact) I was looking for the iCard that I had also had sent automatically to me. Turns out it was in the Spam folder (which proves Hotmail/Live.com filtering ultimately sucks because the sender was obviously myself) and I saw one I absolutely couldn't resist.



    It said:

    CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE WON THE NATIONAL LOTTERY



    I was thrilled... not because I won the National Lottery but because of the pathetic attempts Spammers use to get through.

    1) There is no National Lottery in the US

    2) Almost all spam has to do with winning a lot of Cash (either from a "Business Partnership" or from the "National Lottery"



    ClamXAV later found a Virus/Worm thing that I suspect had to do with this very email. PC Virus of course and didn't harm me a bit
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