[SpamCop-List] Re: Spam Subject Lines Ending With Number

[michael lefevre]

"SPAMFIGHTER (was Dilbert)" <SPAMKILLER> wrote in
message news:95c62s$pm$1
> That makes sense, and so does the preceding response.  Just in
> case, I never include the number in the Copy, but adding
> something to it sounds like a neat idea. Wonder if there are any
> high-bit characters that would confuse it?  Anywa.   With all the
> software available to spammers, I wouldn't think it would be very
> difficult for the program to generate a who-to list so this sort
> of thing could be looked up by putting in the id number.

on the contrary, it would be very difficult... the number tends to be
assigned to a "batch" of addresses, so there's probably at least a few
hundred other spams with the same number...

spamware doesn't use sophisticated database systems and email merging...
it just reads big lists of addresses out of a simple file, firing off
the spam as it goes and forgets about them...

the number is there just to make the messages different to some degree,
so they're harder to filter...

those that do more sophisticated bulk mailing are the ones that might
actually track bounces and complaints and stuff... postmastergeneral
comes to mind... although, despite being more sophisticated, they're not
tracking either, otherwise they wouldn't have to ask for your email
address...

michael