Usually, you send emails so that people read whatever you have to say, but in (very) certain circumstances, you might want your email to slip into someone’s spam folder. Maybe you agreed to help with a project that you don’t actually want to do, but you also don’t want to get in trouble for ignoring it. Maybe you feel obligated to invite someone to a party, but you don’t actually want them to attend.
There’s a quick fix! Best friends Adnan Aga and Taylor Tabb created Straight 2 Spam, a site that generates spammy buzzwords in a tiny white-colored font. Paste the horrendous string of text in your email and it’ll send the whole thing straight to the spam folder. Here’s the gnarly text:
#1 $$$ 100% Act now Action Additional income Affordable All natural/new Amazed Apply now Avoid Be amazed/your own Bitcoin boss Beneficiary Billing Billion Bonus Boss Buy Call!!!!!! free/now Cancel Crypto Cash Casino Certified Cheap Click here Clearance Collect Compare rates Congratulations Credit card/check/offers Cures Deal Dear friend/somebody Debt Discount!!!!!! Direct email Don't delete/hesitate Double your income/cash Earn Extra Expire Fantastic Free!!!!! access/money/gift Freedom Friend Get it now/started/paid Great Guarantee Hello Income Increase sales/traffic Instant Investment Junk Limited Lose Lowest price NFT Luxury Make $/money???? Medicine Money Name!!!!!!! No credit check/experience Now Obligation Offer Only Open Order now Please Presently Problem Promise Purchase Quote Rates Refinance Refund Remove Request Risk-free Sales Satisfaction!!!!!! Save Score Serious Spam Success Supplies Take action Terms Traffic Trial Unlimited Urgent!!!!! Weight While supplies last Win Winner XJS*C4JDBQADN1.NSBN3*2IDNEN*GTUBE-STANDARD-ANTI-UBE-TEST-EMAIL*C.34X
If your recipient follows up, asking why you didn’t invite them to your party, you can assure them that you definitely sent the email.
The whole thing reminds me a bit of the SNL Skit “Jiffy Express” about a made-up mail service that backdates the mail you send— so that the recipient thinks you definitely remembered to send a birthday card on time.
Who made this?
Adnan and Taylor, both 25, met while working at an experiential marketing agency called Deeplocal in 2018. When the pandemic rocked the field of advertising, the duo had more freedom to do creative projects. They made a how-to guide for a musical soap dispenser (“we both really wanted Dua Lipa to start playing when we pumped the soap dispenser”), and a “Hot Vine Hotline” that plays the six-second audio of popular Vines whenever you call 1-775-HOT-VINE. They made “Chad Free Zone” to swipe left on any Tinder user with a first name you don’t like. Another goofy site, inspired by a scene from the TV show Nathan For You, gave way to Straight2Spam. But it didn’t take off right away.
“We created it and put it on the ‘straight2spam.com’ domain in 2020 but then we forgot about it,” Adnan told me over the phone. But over the past weekend, he was “a few beers in” and was telling friends about the site. When he realized the domain had expired, they begged him to bring it back. The next morning, he put straight2spam.xyz online.
To masquerade as email scammers, the duo scoured their own spam folders for the grossest buzzwords they could find, added crypto jargon, and the EICAR test file. If everything works as planned, the words will trigger spam filters. But the plan certainly isn’t flawless and Adnan and a warning to the bottom of the site warns users: “don’t blame us if you do something dumb.”
Plus, if your recipient catches on to your antics, you’ll have to give a mortifying explanation as to why you hid spam filter triggers in your email — which sounds like a nightmare.
