The Security Mentor

Denver Post writer Jack Cox dug up a story about the newest trend in spam. It's about a new way for spam to get around your spam-blocking filters.

Ever wondered how spam filters work? The best ones calculate how much a message sounds like your usual wanted email and how much it sounds like spam.

Spammers have tried all sorts of sleazy tricks to fool the filters. (Hey, spammers, get a clue -- why pitch your product to people who hate you so much that they're filtering out your email?!). The latest one is to send their scam along with a joke.

This newest attack on our mailboxes works because so many people exchange jokes in email, so the spam sounds like a real message as far as the spam filter can tell.

So you're going to get more spam in your mailbox, until someone invents a way to stop it. Then the spammers will come up with something new and the arms race will continue.

What can you do? Nothing.