17.528 possible research project?

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk)
Date: Thu Jan 15 2004 - 02:32:55 EST


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               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 528.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu

         Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 07:13:16 +0000
         From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk>
         Subject: possible research project in linguistics

Possibly everyone here has noticed the ingenious way in which subject lines
are constructed in an attempt to avoid detection by anti-spamming software.
Surely there's a very interesting research project here. I was moved to
think of this by some in the latest batch of spam:

 From the subtle
lasts longer than víagra

and the quaint evocation of the simplicity of yesteryear (when lower-case
letters were not available)
FROM MRS JULIANA MBULUKU

to the tiresomely obvious
Slashed prices on V-I-A-G-R-A!!

the use of homophonic misspelling
Aa, ddullt movie stars Ceecrut for fame ! yte

and elaborate mix of otiose and semi-homographic symbols
Have meds?Valï(u)m, V|@gra, X(a)n@x, Som@ Di3t Pills Many M3ds POShVg

with something I first thought an appeal to the cryptographically inclined
Á¤º¸)´ëÇѹα¹ ¹«·á»çÀÌÆ® ÃÑÁýÇÕ
(which turned out only to be what happened to a line in Japanese)
...
and of course
Sick of S(P_A*M yet Willard?

To which the reaction need not be given.

Yours,
WM

Dr Willard McCarty | Senior Lecturer | Centre for Computing in the
Humanities | King's College London | Strand | London WC2R 2LS || +44 (0)20
7848-2784 fax: -2980 || willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/
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