I've been meaning to tackle this subject for awhile, so here goes:
It's a widely known fact that there are a lot of fake ads on CAS. Far fewer on strictly platonic, btw. Many ads are openly ads for other sites, with the URLs right on the page. Others seem normal, but for one telltale clue: if you highlight the text, white text appears. It normally blends in the background, but upon highlighting, it becomes visible.
The ad below seems fake at first because the subject line in no way comports with the subject matter of the ad. But the fakeness giveaway is the hidden text before the actual text. It reads: gmkcbvepvnahexldcafqvhobrfyvedgalfrxipcsgxoohhblqor in regular text: gmkcbvepvnahexldcafqvhobrfyvedgalfrxipcsgxoohhblq
Why? How does it help a spammer to have this garbled text? My best guess is that it can be used to find the ad later on in the CL search engine. Many hidden texts involve actual words, though not in sensical sentences. That would better support the search engine theory. However, the garbled text doesn't seem to do much. It doesn't help the ad come up in searches that wouldn't have otherwise found the ad. It doesn't communicate anything to the average reader.
If anything, the text is a fuck you to the decent guy looking on the internet for a woman in need of punishment. A guy that did nothing wrong and who got excited about the prospect of sharing his music. It's just not right to knock a man when he's down/when he's lonely on CL at 1:57am.
bad girl needs punishment - w4m - 21
Reply to: pers-327978047@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-05-10, 1:57AM EDT
gmkcbvepvnahexldcafqvhobrfyvedgalfrxipcsgxoohhblq
i just realized that i don't really have too many friends that like the same music i do. if you're interested in going to see a show, let me know.
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