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How spammers beat the filters

Times Staff Writer
Published December 14, 2003

Here are some techniques spammers use to sneak advertisements past spam filters. They were compiled by computer security expert John Graham-Cumming, who came up with the names:

YOU'VE BEEN FRAMED: Using the $noframes$ tag, the spammer hides text and breaks up words. Example: Via$frame$$noframes$ywl55

$/noframes$$/frame$gra

NO WHITESPACE NO CRY: Spam filters recognize words by the spaces between them, so spammers remove the spaces. Example: NoPrescriptionRequired! (Graham-Cumming calls this one "dumb.")

SPEAKING IN TONGUES: Large nonsense words are used to confuse the filters. Example: ephaswukutugucrovazichonixisluwephimajoq.

ZE FOREIGN ACCENT: Replaces letters with numbers or uses nonsense accents. Example: V1DE0 T4PE M0RTG4GE

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