• Shishire (unregistered)

    Looks like a Markov Chain Generator gone wrong. Oh, and Frist!

  • Direwolf20 (unregistered)

    Theres something missing from the list of things spammers say, and it begins with F, and rhymes with thirst.

  • Tim (unregistered)

    Looks like Markov chains: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/06/markov-and-you.html

  • (cs)

    The spammers are trying to poison Bayesian style spam filters with random text. They've been doing it for years both via email and on forums, so I'm surprised it's worth an article this late in the day.

  • Itwasishuh (unregistered)

    Awesome is was the I in catsup

  • eric (unregistered)

    Pretty weird indeed :)

  • Kai (unregistered)

    No quack.

  • (cs)

    Maybe they're testing their poetry generators?

  • (cs)

    The first one just needs a little editing to become Haiku

    I thought about know I thought by themselves things up I still living still there

  • Lost (unregistered)

    :) one of them was mine :)

  • took to long (unregistered)

    Witty, I was going to be but then it happened ...

  • Jeff (unregistered)

    Maybe skynet is starting to wake up and testing its vocabulary. Still has a lot to learn, obviously. Who is going to help?

  • (cs)

    No quack.

  • Curious (unregistered) in reply to java.lang.Chris;
    java.lang.Chris;:
    The spammers are trying to poison Bayesian style spam filters with random text. They've been doing it for years both via email and on forums, so I'm surprised it's worth an article this late in the day.

    Hmm, so would marking those emails as "not spam" tend to defeat that purpose?

  • (cs)

    Scoff, scoff.

    I wrote a random sentence generator when I was 11 that worked better than that - and that was a pencil-and-paper emulator from a before cheap computers were invented.

    (Okay I'll come clean: I borrowed the technique from an article in an old Scientific American from sometime in the mid-60's.)

    The point being: if random sentence generators were known to computer scientists that long ago, how come spambotters haven't caught up?

    Oh, and (scoff, scoff) the Markov Chain generator I programmed some time ago produces out that is miles better than any of those outputs. Mine actually outputs plausible English, not like the output of a resident of (insert country you don't like) on scopolamine.

    Conclusion: spammers are of subhuman intelligence and deserve to be exterminated as vermin.

  • (cs) in reply to Curious

    Some of these look like something Nagesh would write.

    If were not careful these spam messages can accidently become Internet memes (and then they will become Skynet).

  • Tamarian (unregistered)

    Shaka, when the walls fell.

  • (cs) in reply to QJo
    QJo:
    ... Oh, and (scoff, scoff) the Markov Chain generator I programmed some time ago produces out that is miles better than any of those outputs. Mine actually outputs plausible English, not like the output of a resident of (insert country you don't like) on scopolamine. ...
    My personal favorite generator (generates computer science papers): http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/ Some people even took some of the random papers to conferences just to see how gullible they are, the results were quite sad.
  • NerdF (unregistered)

    This issue has puzzled me too. I read an blog article about that and the conclusion is, that the spammer tries to establish an account. This account - once it was not blocked for spamming and deemed valid - should be used for spamming and circumvent blocking, deletion or reports.

    I guess that this practice rarely works on any blog.

  • OneMist8k (unregistered) in reply to Tamarian
    Tamarian:
    Shaka, when the walls fell.

    Perfect! Best comment possible.

  • Some Guy (unregistered)

    TRWTF is PHP amiright?

  • Katie Cunningham (unregistered)

    My favorite ones are the ones that insult your blog.

    No, really. They say things like "This was really poorly written, and your arguments contradict one another" or "I think you stole this from someone else." Then, in the link bar... a link to whatever sketchy pharmacy or dating site they're pushing.

    I guess the logic is that we'll be too hot under the collar and ready to respond to notice that they're a bot.

  • (cs) in reply to OneMist8k
    OneMist8k:
    Tamarian:
    Shaka, when the walls fell.

    Perfect! Best comment possible.

    Agreed.
    Also, +1 for the kitten mitten reference :)

    I'd link it on youtube but I can't find one that isn't a copy recorded from somebody's shitty cell phone.

  • me (unregistered)

    They serve as markers, they allow them to search with Google and discover "vulnerable" comment forms. These ramblings are pretty unique across the web.

    Get rid of them ASAP, or they will come back in a few weeks and put you on your "can spam" list.

    The motivation is simple: if you don't remove the random gibberish, it probably means you will also not remove their actual spam. For example, because this is an old and unmaintained blog. It doesn't pay off to solve a captcha to have a post deleted within minutes, so you have to identify blogs where stuff does not get removed.

  • C (unregistered)
    community were called by year. by year. crown.

    This is actually really insightful poetic commentary about the greatness that is the show "Community." It points out its difficulty getting the network to commit to more than one season and how it limps along each year until it's finally renewed, and yet, it's still the king of comedies.

  • Robot (unregistered)

    Someone set up us the bomb!

  • (cs) in reply to me

    Maybe the puppet master is trying to hack the ghost in this machine?

  • PG4 (unregistered) in reply to BobB
    BobB:
    Maybe they're testing their poetry generators?

    Vogon poetry I think.

  • (cs) in reply to me
    me:
    They serve as markers, they allow them to search with Google and discover "vulnerable" comment forms. These ramblings are pretty unique across the web.

    Get rid of them ASAP, or they will come back in a few weeks and put you on your "can spam" list.

    The motivation is simple: if you don't remove the random gibberish, it probably means you will also not remove their actual spam. For example, because this is an old and unmaintained blog. It doesn't pay off to solve a captcha to have a post deleted within minutes, so you have to identify blogs where stuff does not get removed.

    Are you new here?

  • Paul Tomblin (unregistered)

    Back in 2003 I was noticing some strange subject lines in the spam I was getting. A very large number of spams started with

    Subject: Re: %RND_UC_CHAR[2-8],
    but then continued on with a few words that were all different. I posted a bunch of the subject lines on my blog, and somebody managed to identify them as lines from an English translation of Russian book called "The Master and the Margarita", which is available on-line.

  • justsomedudette (unregistered) in reply to ContraCorners
    ContraCorners:
    The first one just needs a little editing to become Haiku

    I thought about know I thought by themselves things up I still living still there

    My thoughts exactly. If you look at them as early AI attempts at Haiku they're sort of fun.

    Suscipit: I suscipit is not easy for computers to understand poetry

  • Gareth (unregistered)

    I loved your writing about seemingly profound random messages from spammers, it was a good point. I agree that poisoning bayesian filters is important.

    If you like this article, you should check out Horse_ebooks on Twitter, they've been using a similar method to avoid Twitter's spam filters where they pull a random phrase or line from (presumably) their books. The resulting feed is some kind of demented dadaist poetry.

    For example, here's a few recent posts:

    "This Is The Floating Dock You Would Own If You Had Unlimited Cash and Access" "orchids for years you will now discover everything" "Looking back, I realize that it wasn t the tree houses that made me happy." "Enjoy wines of "$50 quality""

  • Zunesize Me! (unregistered) in reply to Katie Cunningham
    Katie Cunningham:
    My favorite ones are the ones that insult your blog.

    I guess the logic is that we'll be too hot under the collar and ready to respond to notice that they're a bot.

    Or hot somewhere, right? I bet you're the kind of chick that loves demeaning assholes. Check it out - miles of cock have given me the biggest asshole around. You could fit your head in this fucker!

    • The word of Zune for, the people of Zune. Thanks be to Zune.
  • jdw (unregistered) in reply to PG4
    PG4:
    BobB:
    Maybe they're testing their poetry generators?

    Vogon poetry I think.

    The dead swans lay in the stagnant pool They lay. They rotted. They turned Around occasionally Bits of flesh dropped off them from Time to time And sank into the pool's mire They also smelt a great deal.

  • if it moves i'll bite it (unregistered) in reply to Zunesize Me!
    Zunesize Me!:
    Katie Cunningham:
    My favorite ones are the ones that insult your blog.

    I guess the logic is that we'll be too hot under the collar and ready to respond to notice that they're a bot.

    Or hot somewhere, right? I bet you're the kind of chick that loves demeaning assholes. Check it out - miles of cock have given me the biggest asshole around. You could fit your head in this fucker!

    Your tone is antagonistic and you're making me very angry.
  • (cs)

    Sounds like something one of the Nagesh (Nageshen?) would say.

  • Buddy (unregistered)

    Does anyone know of an on-line English prose de-obfuscator?

    Have you ever visited that portion of Erin's plot that offers its sympathetic soil for the minute survey and scrutinous examination of those in political power, whose decision has wisely been the means before now of converting the stern and prejudiced, and reaching the hand of slight aid to share its strength in augmenting its agricultural richness?

  • (cs) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    Sounds like something one of the Nagesh (Nageshen?) would say.
    Sounds like something someone who hasn't read the thread would say.

    As for spammers, I'm surprised that domain knowledge bot filters aren't more popular. That is, very simple questions that would easily be known by anyone visiting the site, but almost certainly not by some third-world CAPTCHA farmer. They seem to work really well.

  • say it the RMS way (unregistered)

    M-x dissociated-press

  • (cs) in reply to Gareth
    Gareth:
    I loved your writing about seemingly profound random messages from spammers, it was a good point. I agree that poisoning bayesian filters is important.

    If you like this article, you should check out Horse_ebooks on Twitter, they've been using a similar method to avoid Twitter's spam filters where they pull a random phrase or line from (presumably) their books. The resulting feed is some kind of demented dadaist poetry.

    For example, here's a few recent posts:

    "This Is The Floating Dock You Would Own If You Had Unlimited Cash and Access" "orchids for years you will now discover everything" "Looking back, I realize that it wasn t the tree houses that made me happy." "Enjoy wines of "$50 quality""

    My favorite horse_ebooks tweet was "kiss the crazy".

    Some social media "experts" and wannabe comedians hate horse_ebooks. I think it's because they can't come up with anything more interesting than what a spam-bot can, and it burns them up.

  • Don (unregistered)

    Guessing they're looking for some legitimacy by adding comments around. Some blogs don't let you post links or will scrutinize your post more when you're new.

  • (cs) in reply to Tamarian
    Tamarian:
    Shaka, when the walls fell.
    Temba, his arms open.
  • Furiant (unregistered) in reply to QJo
    Conclusion: spammers are of subhuman intelligence and deserve to be exterminated as vermin.

    Spammers are of average intelligence, which is genius-level intelligence compared to the vermin who click spam and make it worth their while. Exterminate the latter and the former will disappear.

  • Beaux Jackson (unregistered) in reply to Tamarian

    Roffle. Best episode of TNG.

  • Ben Jammin (unregistered)

    I don't know what's so hard to understand.

    youtube.com/watch?v=G7RgN9ijwE4

    Maybe locking yourselves to your desks has disconnected you with the youth of today?

  • Beaux Jackson (unregistered)
  • (cs)

    As for some kind of emails as markers, they will become Skynet). M-x dissociated-press Some of things up I thought about know I loved your blog. No, really. They also smelt a link bar... a random sentence generators were invented. (Okay I'll come back over the walls fell. Perfect! Best comment forms. These ramblings are unavoidable. Add a captcha to hack the vast managed to become more frustrated at them ASAP, or line from the subject lines on any of an on-line English translation of a couple days. yahoo house (from gl): because We need took cutting off

  • (cs) in reply to Lockwood
    Lockwood:
    Tamarian:
    Shaka, when the walls fell.
    Temba, his arms open.
    "Number 1, Mark this planet as spam and lets move on to the next one." - Picard
  • $$ERR:get_name_fail (unregistered) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    As for spammers, I'm surprised that domain knowledge bot filters aren't more popular. That is, very simple questions that would easily be known by anyone visiting the site, but almost certainly not by some third-world CAPTCHA farmer. They seem to work really well.
    Could also be used to keep out the noobs. "To register your account for the gardening forum, identify this flower".

    No seriously, the problem with these "trivia question" captchas is that it's very easy to create dictionaries for them. It's hard to come up with many questions which are complex enough to stop a sweat shop worker, not too complex for an inexperienced user seeking for help and which have answers which can be verified with a string comparison.

    It may not be worth to create a dictionary for a small blog or forum, but when one tries to spam a specific website (like an webmail provider to send spam) it would be worth the hassle.

  • Dan (unregistered)

    It looks like they're getting all these words and phrases from a fairly small corpus. I tried Googling around to see if it was a common piece of literature, but when I started getting results like "Bodies of Missing Family Found in Hollow Tree," I stopped.

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