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E-mail adulteration is a technique used in e-mail replies consisting in the partial change of the contents of an original e-mail message. It usually has the purpose of making fun, but can also be used for other malicious intents. The less characters you change from the original message, the more elegant your adulteration becomes. This trick is most funny when applied to a message sent to an e-mail list.

E-mail adulteration is a writing technique intended to arouse surprise in the reader by changing the original content of an e-mail message in its reply and must not be confused with e-mail spoofing wich is the forgery of an e-mail message header, and usually but not necessarily its content.

E-mail adulteration has been invented by Massanobu Tachikawa, a member of L.A.M.A.

Types

E-mail adulteration can occur in many forms. We list below some of the most commonn types of adulteration.

Delonly

This type of e-mail adulteration consists exclusively on the deletion of some characters from an original e-mail message. No adition or exchange of characters can be made on this type.

Example of original message:

  From: John
  To: Steve and others
  Subject: Delonly example
  
  It was made for James!

Example of reply (adulterated message):

  From: Steve
  To: John and others
  Subject: Re: Delonly example
  
  It's for James!
  
     John wrote:
     > It was made for me!

Freestyle

This type of e-mail adulteration consists in the addition, substituition or deletion os words from the original e-mail message to provide a different interpretation of it, usually funny.

Example of original message:

  From: John
  To: Steve and others
  Subject: Freestyle example
  
  I like cycling and skiing.

Example of reply (adulterated message):

  From: Steve
  To: John and others
  Subject: Re: Freestyle example
  
  I know you were a lazy guy.
  
     John wrote:
     > I like sleeping and watching TV.

Loop

This type of e-mail adulteration consists on the adulteration of many original messages in a subject thread.

Example of original message:

  From: John
  To: Steve and others
  Subject: Loop example
  
  I feel hungry. Let's lunch!

Example of regular reply:

  From: Steve
  To: John and others
  Subject: Re: Loop example
  
  Ok! This time I want pizza.
  
     John wrote:
     > I feel hungry. Let's lunch!

Example of reply (adulterated message):

  From: Robert
  To: Steve and others
  Subject: Re: Re: Loop example
  
  Well, you're not coming. I'm going alone.
  
     Steve wrote:
     >No problem. I'll do your work.
     >  
     >John wrote:
     >> I feel tired. Gonna sleep.

Author adulteration

This type of e-mail adulteration consists exclusively on the deletion of some characters from an original e-mail message. No adition or exchange of characters can be made on this type.

Examples

Example of original message:

  From: John
  To: Steve and others
  Subject: Example
  
  Hello guys, I'm in a good mood!   

Example of reply (adulterated message):

  From: Steve
  To: John and others
  Subject: Re: Example
  
  Finally you accepted it!
  
     John wrote:
     > Hello guys, I'm a good moron!

See also

• E-mail
• E-mail spoofing
• Electronic mailing list

External links

• L.A.M.A. E-mail List, E-mail list where e-mail adulteration technique was used for the first time (restricted access)