I get spam. Lots of spam. All sorts — virility enhancers, naughty picture sites, stock suggestions, alternative drugs … you name it, somebody wants to sell it to me.
I use Spamcop.net to report it all, so I feel like I’m at least doing something about the problem. And usually that’s the end of it.
But I’ve run across a little bit that was so clever, I had to pass it on. It probably even has applicability on my blog.
Many spam filters look for key words or phrases — parts of the anatomy (or slang terms thereof), activities one does with those parts (or slang terms there of), etc.
But what’s sought after is what’s coded in the e-mail, not what’s displayed. And if you are using HTML mail, then you can code something like:
Fre<!– howdy –>e Por<!– pardner –>n!
On the screen it will read as an offer for Free Porn!, but a spam filter won’t sense it (any more than, hopefully, a web site filter will catch that phrase in my blog) because the <!– –> stuff is treated as a comment — it doesn’t display, but it breaks up the Naughty Words in the code, so it isn’t seen.
I just thought that was rather clever. In a fiendlishly sleazy sort of way. And it potentially lets me put terms up on the screen here that would raise flags going through language filters.
I don’t know how it would affect Google, as another example, but that’s a good question, too.