[SpamCop-List] Re: Paul Johnson: PGP signature in spam

[Porpoise]

"helge" <masfjorden at spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:cif1qb$857$1 at news.spamcop.net...
> The drug peddling spam found at
> http://www.spamcop.net/sc?id=z666829947z4c9c4f11588e2f1b7c283784287ab607z
> contains the following:
>
> ""-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (FreeBSD)
> iD8DBQBBRyYyJjGc5ftAw8wRAt63AKCihQc0plRlfwJHQ3qA4LwoIQVqQQCdEvcR
> sV4sbbE6Nw1EtDwlDVZ+SBg=V3SC -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----""
>
> A PGP signature, AFAIK, is supposed to authenticate something, probably
> that the sender is who he claims to be.
> Would such a signature then help to track the spammer? Does this
> signature look real or fake? If fake, what may the reason for adding
> extra gobbledygook (well, most spam contains conscious and unconscious
> gobbledygook, so it is a silly question).
>
> The person in this group most likely to give a good answer  is probably
> Paul Johnson, an example of whose signature is appended here for
comparison.
>
> ""-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)
>
> iD8DBQFBSnbCUzgNqloQMwcRAnmHAJ9f/U+0fc79ElXkyoo2nPnCT28LwwCfSQbq
> eHIZbA3ZYN3I4LrEJbKV4Ik=
> =KMMo
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----""
>
> helge
>

So does that mean, as you've cut and pasted his signature here, that it
actually authenticates this message as being from him? And does that mean
that we have to put up with all this meaningless garbage in the posts for
nothing?