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  • Why does so much of my spam have spelling errors?

Why does so much of my spam have spelling errors?

December 5, 2004 / Dave Taylor / Windows PC Help / 6 Comments

Dave, 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?

What do you think? What heinous or hilarious spam subjects have you been seeing lately in your inbox?

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Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

6 comments on “Why does so much of my spam have spelling errors?”

  1. Ronald Jay Kohn says:
    December 25, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    Actually sometimes I love spelling mistakes. I went though that period of receiving almost daily those, “You bank or credit card or ebay account has very serious problems.” And that is why I do like the spelling or grammatical mistakes. Without exception there will be a spelling error in the text, that would never have been made by the bank. As soon as I see the mistake I know it is from a machine that translates from Chinese or Russian.

    Reply
  2. Alex says:
    October 11, 2012 at 9:28 am

    Thanks for the reply – that makes sense but do you have any theories on why non-spammy words are misspelt? It’s always just one word however long the message – though the messages are never much longer than this one is going to be by the time I finish writing…

    Reply
  3. Dave Taylor says:
    October 11, 2012 at 7:46 am

    My theory on those, Alex, is that they’re “pre spam” messages since so many blogs use the test of “have they posted non-spam things on this site?” Having some innocuous post lay the foundation for getting past that filter is then just good planning. See what I mean? I delete ’em if they don’t add to the discussion, personally.

    Reply
  4. Alex says:
    October 11, 2012 at 5:56 am

    How about spam that has just one word spelt wrongly that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with trying to avoid spam filters? E.g.
    “That’s a genuinely imperssive answer.”
    “My husband and I reveecid”
    “I have a lot to say on this maettr”
    These messages don’t include any link. This is the most common form of spam we get.

    Reply
  5. Charlie from Maine says:
    May 30, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    Hey, great explanation on the SPAAMM thing-y. I cited your website in a comment that I entered in my on-line blog that is part of a course that I am taking. Thanks.

    Reply
  6. Lockergnome's Web Developers says:
    December 5, 2004 at 5:03 pm

    Why does so much of my spam have spelling errors?

    Dave, 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…

    Reply

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