Spammers tend to use a combination of methods to get their messages past your email’s in-built spam filters. One tactic that was popular about a decade ago and which is now making its not-so-triumphant return is ‘foreign accent’ spam.
In these messages, special characters called ‘accents’ are used to replace standard English letters. For instance, a spammer may use Ȧ instead of A, Ȩ instead of E, or Ɍ instead of R. Often, over 85% of the characters in a message will be replaced by these unusual characters. This makes them easy to spot by the average reader but can confuse certain lower grade email filters.
In general, this ‘foreign accent’ spam will also use a number of other techniques in order to try and slip past your filter software:
- Using text that is the same colour as the background to make it invisible
- Inserting tiny, formatted characters which can’t be read by humans
- Including random pieces of text designed to confuse the email filters
In order to detect all of these, simply select the body of the email. By highlighting the text, you will change the colour of the background and can then reveal the hidden words the spammers have added.
More advanced spammers will also add the recipient’s name in the subject header to make it seem legitimate. This is an easy task to automate however and should never be taken as a sign you are reading a proper email.
If you receive one of these ‘foreign accent’ messages in your inbox, never click the link provided. Anything can be found through that URL including malware, phishing schemes, email scams, etc. Instead, just mark the message as spam so that your filter recognises it. The message can then be deleted and sent safely out of harm’s way.