Experts at Sophos have identified that some spammers are using a technique from the early days of computing in an attempt to slip their unwanted messages past anti-spam software detected.
In the early days of computing, when monitors could commonly only display text rather than graphics, computer users would create pictures by carefully placing characters. Most examples of ASCII art required a fixed width font (like that found on a traditional typewriter) for presentation.
Devotees of ASCII art continue to share examples of their art work on the Internet, but it is rarely used in regular email communication because of the ability to use graphical images.
Sophos researchers have identified that some spammers are now using ASCII art in an attempt to reach audiences for their products.
One of the latest examples seen by Sophos is a spam message advertising various forms of medication.