I.T. Vibe - Spammers turn back the clock with ASCII art

Experts at Sophos have identified that some spammers are using a technique from the early days of computing in an attempt to slip their unwanted messages past anti-spam software detected.

In the early days of computing, when monitors could commonly only display text rather than graphics, computer users would create pictures by carefully placing characters. Most examples of ASCII art required a fixed width font (like that found on a traditional typewriter) for presentation.

Devotees of ASCII art continue to share examples of their art work on the Internet, but it is rarely used in regular email communication because of the ability to use graphical images.

Sophos researchers have identified that some spammers are now using ASCII art in an attempt to reach audiences for their products.

One of the latest examples seen by Sophos is a spam message advertising various forms of medication.

Comment # 1 on 15 March 2005 at 21:17 by Anonymous

I demand examples!

Comment # 2 on 15 March 2005 at 21:20 by Rich

[url="http://www.sophos.com/images/common/misc/asciispam.jpg"]Example[/url]

Comment # 3 on 15 March 2005 at 22:38 by Duncan

Comment # 1 by Anonymous is too paranoid to use a name. Yet she/he has the gall to demand anything. I agree with you 100% Rich. BTW my real name is Robert.

Comment # 4 on 16 March 2005 at 15:47 by garydavis343

I'm old enough to have seen plenty, and I can tell you, you're not missing a whole lot (though some was quite intricate- and- I imagine- time consuming).