Obfuscated spam is email that has been disguised in an attempt to
fool anti-spam software.
Spammers are constantly trying to fi nd ways to modify or conceal their messages so that
your anti-spam software can’t read them, but you can.
The simplest example of this “obfuscation” is putting spaces between the letters of
words, hoping that anti-spam software will not read the letters as one word, for example
V I A G R A
Another common technique is to use misspellings or non-standard characters, for
example
V!agra
These tricks are easily detected.
More advanced techniques exploit the use of HTML code (normally used for writing
web pages) in email. This allows the spammer to write messages that anti-spam
software “sees” quite differently from the way you see them.
For example, words can be written using special numerical HTML codes for each letter,
e.g. instead of “Viagra”, you can write
Viagra
HTML can also allow the reader to see one message, while the anti-spam software sees
another, more innocent one. The more innocent message is in the same color as the
background.
Viagra
Hi, Johnny! It was nice to have dinner with you.
Spammers often include large amounts of hidden text, often cut from online reference
books, to try to fool anti-spam software that assesses mail according to the frequency
of certain key words.
fool anti-spam software.
Spammers are constantly trying to fi nd ways to modify or conceal their messages so that
your anti-spam software can’t read them, but you can.
The simplest example of this “obfuscation” is putting spaces between the letters of
words, hoping that anti-spam software will not read the letters as one word, for example
V I A G R A
Another common technique is to use misspellings or non-standard characters, for
example
V!agra
These tricks are easily detected.
More advanced techniques exploit the use of HTML code (normally used for writing
web pages) in email. This allows the spammer to write messages that anti-spam
software “sees” quite differently from the way you see them.
For example, words can be written using special numerical HTML codes for each letter,
e.g. instead of “Viagra”, you can write
Viagra
HTML can also allow the reader to see one message, while the anti-spam software sees
another, more innocent one. The more innocent message is in the same color as the
background.
Viagra
Hi, Johnny! It was nice to have dinner with you.
Spammers often include large amounts of hidden text, often cut from online reference
books, to try to fool anti-spam software that assesses mail according to the frequency
of certain key words.
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