A Really Stupid Idea - Encrypt Your Email to Look Like Spam with Spam Mimic 6/8/2005 - 1,123 views, 2 Comments
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In the world of really dumb ideas, this one is, well…really dumb. Actually the underlying concept is not dumb, but the execution surely is. Spam Mimic is a new site which allows you to encrypt your email into an unreadable code so that it looks like spam. The recipient on the other end goes to the Spam Mimic website, and decodes your email. And therein lies the problem, and the dumbness. Because odds are good that your intended recipient will never get your email. Why not? [turn on Sam Kinnison mode] BECAUSE THE SPAM FILTER IS GOING TO EAT IT!! BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE SPAM!!! [turn off Sam Kinnison mode] In fact, Aunty was so amazed at this obvious flaw that she thought surely the good folks at Spam Mimic would have somehow finessed it (in which case they could have made a bundle selling the secret to real spammers). So Aunty searched all over the Spam Mimic site, and all she could find even remotely related was in the Spam Mimic FAQ, where it says, in explaining why you must send your Spam Mimic encrypted email yourself: Answer: “It would be easy to send the spam-encoded mail for you but we are afraid we’d get into trouble for being spammers!” So there you have it. It’s ok for their users to look like spammers, but not them. Good thinking, Batman.
Question: “Could SpamMimic send the mail?”
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If you are sending it to a person that has you on their trusted list or contact list then the spam filter isn’t going to be an issue. I think that this is more for fun than anything else. I don’t think that the website ever intended corporations to send their company secrets using this encryption. Lighten up Aunty, this is purely for fun and all of the people that I’ve ever sent e-mails to using this encryption (as I’ve known about this site for at least 3 years now) thought it was pretty funny.
Comment by Mike — 6/9/2005 @ 9:12 am
Mike,
Hmmm…someone had better tell the folks over at Digg that, as they seem to have just discovered it as well.
Kissy kissy,
Aunty Spam
Comment by Aunty Spam — 6/9/2005 @ 2:25 pm