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Some naughty person is trying to fool the eBay message-reading software

I have an item posted for sale, got a message from a buyer who set up his account today (oh gee, how interesting...) :

New message from: dnan21 (0)

I will really appreciate it, if you can call or text , Iâ€™m interested but Iâ€™m not always able on here , here is my @ +9a 1a 0a 5a- 1a 8a 6a - 0a 3a 1a â€¦. ... Ask of Dennis

So I assume the letters adjacent to the numbers are to spoof the message-reading software eBay uses to detect phone numbers being sent? Gee, for being a new account holder, he sure is savvy in trying to breach protocol.....

keystone117

216 View listings

Posted 3 years ago·Last reply 3 years ago

1 comment

eburtonlab

Mentor3 years ago

5540 View listings

Yes, it is often quite obvious when someone is trying very hard to circumvent spam filters, and that is a dead giveaway that the message is indeed... spam.

On usenet in the old days it was common to see spam messages with punctuation between each word or letter for exactly this reason.