[funsec] spam volume depends on the first letter of name

[Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah]

Date sent:      	Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:41:43 -0700
From:           	Dragos Ruiu <dr at kyx.net>

> Musta been a slow news day at the register, because this research  
> elicits the
> biggest, "Well... DUH" Suppose its just concrete proof of the  
> bleedingly obvious.

I would tend to agree.  The "random run" harvesting will obviously start at the 
beginning of the alphabet.  There are, however, some possible implications for 
filtering.  For example, my wife's account gets an awful lot of the run-of-the-mill 
drug spam, but almost no 419s or phish.  Her name is early in the alphabet.  My 
name is later: I get the run of the mill stuff, but much more 419 and phish.  (Also 
significantly more malware.)  So this might give us some indication of the types of 
address lists that various types of spammers are using.

Not much, maybe, but every little bits helps ...

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade at vcn.bc.ca     slade at victoria.tc.ca     rslade at computercrime.org
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in
possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife.
                - Jane Austen (1775-1817) Pride and Prejudice (1813)
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/