Email with random-words subject line

Hi,

This seemed as good a starting place for this one as any -- but if the mods can thnk of a better home for it, that's fine.

This one was caught and quarantined by my ISP's excellent version of SpamGuard, and I deleted it there without delivery, so my own software (SG and SB, primarily, plus avast) never got a look at it. So this is more curiosity than anything else.

When incoming mail has a subject line that seems to be made up of several randomly-chosen words, is that most likely just an attempt to get past some of the "lazier" spam checkers? This particular one was "Labradorite agnes balmy glutamate annulled" -- I even wondered if the first initials made up an recognizable acronym.

This had to go through their VirusGuard, usually very reliable (updated daily), before being passed on to SpamGuard, so I'm guesssing it was only "ordinary" junk rather than malware.

One last note -- the SpamGuard on my server permits looking at plain-text contents (I didn't bother), and I don't recall the unknown sender's name or addy. And this particular SpamGuard not only scans content but even flags the message as to type of spam (e.g., porn, get-rich-quick, etc.).

Thanks and best,
Mike

 

I put google to the test and had it search for your random words and it took me to a strange web page


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=Labradorite+agnes+glutamate+annulled&spell=1


It may not have anything to do with your e-mail but it is worth a look ay what those words led to

 

Thanks, bigc - I think.

I took a look at the page Google linked to, and that was a weird one. Not a hint (at least on that page) what that huge list of words related to. Maybe if I'd backed up to the next "higher" page on the site (did you?) there would have been some explanation, but I didn't bother.

I'm inclined to think the email subject was simply to throw off spam-blockers which only check for suspicious addresses and subject lines.

What's the old adage about the infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters?

 

I think you hit the nail right on the head