Shaun wrote: > One trend I've noticed recently is that spammers appear to be tailoring > the subject headers to individual recipients. I'm not talking about the > crap where they stick your name in the subject, it seems they're getting > much more specific, and perhaps tracking where they picked up an email > address to begin with and which sort of subject lines might pique the > recipient's interest. > > I receive a lot of spam where I glance at the subject - even if SA has > tagged it - and actually have to wonder whether or not it's a legit > message, because the subject is relevant to my interests. A quick > example, > > Subject: The Redirect requests to SSL port option allows you to redirect > requests to the specified SSL port. > > I do a lot with SSL, so naturally I opened up that email just to see > what the heck they're on about. Of course it turns out to be a stock > spam for CYTV. But I get a lot of spam now with unix-ish, programming, > or other geek related subject lines that I have to take a look at > because they _could_ be legit.
I've seen a lot of spam lately (last 6-8 weeks -- maybe more) using, as their "Subject" lines similar such "sentences" from online copies of (mostly) Linux-ish books and "how to" articles (and often as the hash- buster text in the message body). This may be loosely targeted -- we quite possibly subscribe (and post?) to several similar mailing lists and the use of our addresses _in this particular spam_ may be from harvesting such lists or their web archives -- or it may be that some spammer thinks (or knows from monitoring his RoI) that such "techno- speak goobledegook" Subject: lines work better (non-tech folk _may_ have been conditioned by much poorly-considered "tech support" to "dumb down" when anyone starts "talking techie" at them...). Regards, Nick FitzGerald _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/
