We've got a fresh group of brand-new spammers sending us stuff. How do I know? Today close to half of my daily spam was source code. Things like

From: {%x} 

Subject: {%rand_string}

Those aren't actual examples from today. I'm using them for illustration. I see about twenty different spam packages at work today and the code changes, but the concept doesn't.

What you see here are what we call 'variables' in the software world. Things like {%rand_string} are supposed to get replaced while the message is further processed. Let me guess - this one would be replaced with a random string of characters.

Spam software is just like any other software - and has by definition grown more complicated over time. There are setup and configuration files which need to be tweaked to make everything work right before Mr. Spammer ever sends out a message. If we, the recipients, are seeing lots of raw unprocessed variables that haven't been replaced, it indicates that this particular software package wasn't installed and configured correctly. If there's a large number of unconfigured or mis-configured spam software packages sending you mail, that indicates we've probably got a lot of newbies at work. Or several of the spam software packages just had a major upgrade. (It isn't just one package, because the variables are written differently in most cases). I don't have the answer. Just the observation.

I think the most interesting and amusing of the subject line generators is the one that goes 'Your {noun}, {adverb} {verb}'. I know you've seen them: Your pudding, easily running. Your future, quickly fishing. That kind of thing...