Spametry…

For a while I received one of these emails a week, they where spam but there was no links, products or requests to lend money to Nigerian princes or offers for pills that promise to increase the size of my manhood. I guess the spam bot wasn’t configured correctly, maybe a neural network that had discovered the best way to avoid spam filters was to simply not send spam but instead a form of abstract poetry.

They where just words, I can only assume expertly crafted to circumvent Bayesian spam filters. Designed to appear to be legitimate conversations without conveying information, words with no meaning but an odd structure all the same.

I noticed them initially because they got past the Gmail spam filters, later ones got filtered to the spam folder but unfortunately they have since stopped arriving. It helps if you think of a suitable voice reading them in your head such as Christopher Walken, or just out loud to yourself.

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from: Basil Mccall – FedericomilitateWinters(AT)cbot.com
date: Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 4:32 AM
subject: croft extensor

cinder sneaky shutdown

byword byword curve? concurred, ethane louse.
concurred militate monroe concurred scarify rand, handwaving
inhuman admiration inhuman inhuman taos.

rand rand.

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from: Dannie Kaufman – ChaunceypostMcfadden(AT)balibago.com
date: Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 4:55 PM
subject: doublet disparate

nighttime dang scurrilous

local plasma grad? subpoena, farmhouse vexation.
conclusive conley intrude subpoena sell apostolic, irredeemable
constructible post dam sony nighttime.

local local.

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from: Irene Jamison – JanelateraDodd(AT)dfcint.com
date: Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 6:39 AM
subject: havoc multiplexor deteriorate garrison houston

thermal mccallum lichen? gypsy, referring lichen.
houston sorry supply neuroanotomy moore sorry, supply
pabst garrison cubic referring checkerberry.

carob lieutenant houston

lichen aitken wishful? gypsy, hs list.
quote causate lichen beribbon wattage sorry, havoc
thresh abrasion checksummed neuroanotomy multiplexor.

synaptic moore causate

cargo checksummed sorry? hs, gypsy titan.

checksummed supply.

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This one oddly enough pretends to come from lifehacker…

from: Sandy Hannah – KaylacareyCoker(AT)lifehacker.com
date: Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 11:44 PM
subject: prismatic satiate allspice dichotomize carey

oppression temperance spontaneity? tribulate, oppression swage.
tel traverse revelry carey tun buttonhole, information
approbation resign spontaneity information squalid.

eternal robust lookup

expositor information spiritual? picayune, resign resign.
eternal swage patrician azerbaijan tel carey, picayune
patrician swage diabase hey river.

picayune upland vivid

any any spontaneity? temperance, approbation insouciant.

river satiate.

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From: Boyd Allison – DominicksstAllison(AT)breitbart.com
date: Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 2:51 AM
subject: stringy linus phil warrior butterfield

rest waller contusion? stewart, ammunition shoemake.
contusion shoemake tangy ammunition huber warrior, obrien
warrior adventurous initiate tangy biracial.

toot canopy penitentiary

stool alden bite? obrien, alden dummy.
butterfield biracial cpu fray huber linus, catalpa
shoemake dutch stringy dummy bite.

ammunition dummy warrior

stool canopy apply? errancy, adventurous wilson.

wilson adventurous.

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Also of interest is this person turning the subject lines of spam into poetry, the Spam Poetry Institute, and The Registers collection.