Spam with Typos: Why Do They All Have Spelling Errors?

A friend asked me: I don't get it. Why do spammers have such a hard time spelling things properly? I get mail trying to sell me "viagggra", increase my "brest" size, or save me money accessing "pr0n" sites or buying "seks toys". Even more puzzling, there are plenty of spam messages where it takes me a few minutes to even figure out what the subject actually is, with subjects like "sa vem oneyo n vviiiaaagra" or similar. What's the story? Why can't these people use a spell checking program??

I have often wondered this myself, with spam messages like "YOU JUST WONT A GREENCARD" (don't they mean "won"?), "Morgage ref id last opportunity" (don't they mean "mortgage")? and, my favorite "earn a college degre instantly" (they presumably mean "degree", but if they can't spell the word degree, how can I have confidence in the legitimacy of what they're offering??)

But anyone who has spent more than about five minutes looking at the problem and attempted solutions to spam knows why there are such rampant misspellings: to try and sidestep spam filters. In additional to individual spam filtering systems, there are now many Internet Service Providers who filter your email before it even gets to your mailbox, weeding out the most idiotic and easily recognized of this junk.

Of course, if you are a physician and have patients who are concerned about that Merck Vioxx prescription you wrote for them two years ago, it is theoretically possible that their message won't make it to you. If you're a mortgage broker, well, news of your competitors offerings might be something you do want to receive. But overall, most people don't want this junk, so the people clogging up the Internet with the billions of spam messages sent daily continue to try and sidestep these filtering mechanisms, and the misspellings, typos, and oddly presented words (like "0ffer" with a leading zero rather than "offer" with a letter o) presumably offer some minimal ability to do just that.

The irony of all this, in my opinion, is that the more spammers try to do overt and stupid tricks to try and sidestep the filters, the less effective their messages are. They might measure 1 sale in 250,000 messages a success, but better targeting, legitimate offers, well-written ad copy and genuine opt-in distribution lists might just improve those odds quite a bit. And if you're selling something, wouldn't you like to avoid having 95% of the Internet spontaneously hate you because of your marketing techniques?

Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980, and has written sixteen different technical books. His latest projects are College Finances and Ask Dave Taylor, where he's happy to receive questions from readers.

---

The Definition of Spam

Spam can bring down your website faster than a speeding... Read More

Spasms & Spamocidal Mania

Below is a letter I wrote to the following organizations:S.H.U.... Read More

How Spammers Fool Bayesian Filters - And How to Stop Them

Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than... Read More

A War on SPAM: Attacking The Evil

As most small, medium and large businesses in this country... Read More

Avoid, Shun, Thwart, Prevent, and then Filter Spam

Email is rapidly becoming the standard means of communication among... Read More

Fight Spam and Fortify Your Web Site with RSS

RSS is the answer to the Spam epidemic of the... Read More

Why Is Spam Such a Problem?

Spam can be a lot more damaging than you might... Read More

Customers Demand Internet Privacy

... and you'd better sit up and take notice! Customers... Read More

How To Stop Unwanted Email Spam

You can stop unwanted email spam, you can choose to... Read More

Do You Know Whats in Your Trash?

A hearty welcome to all the spam fighting filters and... Read More

The Business Of Sending Spam

You all tear your hair out in frustration every time... Read More

Dont Give the Spammers Your Address From Your Page

Spammers get email addresses from web pages using programs called... Read More

Three Faces of SPAM

Like everybody who will ever read this, I get spam... Read More

Im Guilty Until Proven Innocent

No doubt about it."Spam" (unsolicited commercial email) threatens to paralyze... Read More

CAN-SPAM Basics

I. BACKGROUNDThe CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of... Read More

Spamicide: Man Spammed to Death While Checking His E-mail

Death by spam is now possible with a new device... Read More

Getting Back To Basics.

While we all agree that there`s way too much spamming/junk-mailing... Read More

The Anti Spam Challenge ? Minimizing False Positives

Email is the quintessential business communication tool, so when it... Read More

20 Words That Kill - At Least When It Comes to Spam Filters

Spam, spam, spam. It's terrible not only for those of... Read More

Your Dolphin E-mail Caught In Spam Tuna Net?

Let me ask a couple of questions:If (potential) customers sends... Read More

All About Spam

Spam is annoying. Period. Why people would want to send... Read More

5 Zero-Cost Spam Prevention Tools For All Situations!

Anyone who uses email knows what Spam is!It's annoying and... Read More

Where Did The Word Spam Come From?

We've all become familiar with the term spam. It's become... Read More

How to Protect Your Email ID from Spammers?

You must be one of them experiencing a lot of... Read More

How To Stop Spam (Especially If You?re Already a Victim)

Spam. Those annoying, time-consuming emails that clog your Inbox and... Read More

How Spammers Fool Whitelists - And How to Stop Them

Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than... Read More

Take Back Control of Your Inbox: Eliminate Annoying and Potentially Harmful E-mails

Are you tired of spam stealing your time, your money,... Read More

Protecting Yourself With A Porn Filter

The harmful affects of pornography use and addiction are well... Read More

The Cybermagic of Whitelists

Before we start getting deep into the meat of this... Read More

Protecting Your Business From Spam

Even being as careful as possible with my email address,... Read More

Is Spam Affecting Your Business Email?

5 Ways Spam Is Affecting Your Business And what we... Read More

Beware Of Spam Withdrawals

Q: I am so sick of all the spam that... Read More

Internet Tip of the Week: Outsourcing

It's no secret that the US economy has slowed down,... Read More