---
title: "The New Trick to Bypass Your Spam Filter | DuoCircle"
description: "Most spam is annoying, but harmless. Unless of course it’s the basis of a sextortion scam."
image: "https://www.duocircle.com/images/og-default.png"
canonical: "https://www.duocircle.com/blog/spam-filtering/the-new-trick-to-bypass-your-spam-filter/"
---

Quick Answer

Sextortion spammers are evading basic spam filters with two specific tricks reported by Bleeping Computer. (1) Foreign-language message bodies that don't trigger keyword rules tuned for English ("sex," "webcam," "bitcoin"). (2) Splitting the bitcoin payment address across two parts of the email so simple regex matches fail to detect it. Together they push messages past consumer-grade filters and into inboxes where the threat ("pay or we expose you") relies on shock value to coerce payment. The claims are bluffs: no malware on your machine, no recordings, no leverage. Don't pay, don't reply, mark as spam. For organizations: enterprise-grade spam filtering with content rules that look for ransom patterns regardless of language and obfuscation, plus malicious attachment blocking, allow and block lists, custom rules, and Smart Quarantine, keeps these messages out of inboxes entirely.

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![Spam Filter](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/01/phishing-protection-7330.jpg) 

_Most spam is annoying, but harmless_. Unless of course it’s the basis of a [sextortion](/phishing-protection/theres-nothing-sexy-about-sextortion/#more-7025) scam. If you’re not familiar, _sextortion is a form of sexual exploitation that employs non-physical forms of coercion to extort money or sexual favors from the victim_. For instance, if someone threatens that they can blame you for child pornography and will do so unless you pay them a ransom, that’s a form of **sextortion**.

Just the threat of such a divulgence could get some unsuspecting victims to pay up. That’s why _spammers try so hard to get sextortion spam in your inbox. Fortunately_, most **spam filters** are pretty good and run-of-the-mill spam is not likely to get through, especially if it’s a sextortion email. Unfortunately, scammers never stop evolving and have just come up with a new trick to bypass most spam filters with a sextortion email.

[![Spam Filter](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/01/smtp-server-mail-7331.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/01/smtp-server-mail-7331.jpg)

According to [Bleeping Computer](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/sextortion-email-scammers-try-new-tactics-to-bypass-spam-filters/), “_To bypass these filters, attackers have started to utilize new tactics such as sending sextortion emails in foreign languages and splitting bitcoin addresses into two parts_.” Spam filters know to look for the telltale signs of spam like the word “sex” or a bitcoin address in an email. “Adding these two tactics make it more difficult for the recipient to understand what they are receiving.” And more difficult for spam filters to filter it out. Pretty clever.

So, what should you do if you receive one of these sextortion spam emails? For starters, don’t pay it! According to the article, “The scammers did not hack your computer, install malware that records you while on adult sites, and you should not send any payments to the enclosed bitcoin address.”

Of course, _the best case scenario is to keep “clever” spam like that out of your inbox in the first place_. That’s not always possible with an off-the-shelf consumer-grade spam filter. To be able to block sophisticated spam like this requires true enterprise-grade [spam filtering](/email/spam-filtering) like that available from DuoCircle.

[![Spam Filter](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/01/spf-record-7332.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2020/01/spf-record-7332.jpg)

**Cloud-based spam filtering** from Duocircle includes malicious attachment blocking, whitelisting/blacklisting, custom filtering rules and Smart Quarantine. In short, everything you need to stay safe from whatever the spammers come up with next.

Try spam filtering from DuoCircle. _There are no per user fees, no per message fees, no message overage fees and it comes with a 30 day money-back guarantee_. Stay safe with DuoCircle.

![Brad Slavin](https://media.mailhop.org/dmarcreport/images/team/brad-slavin.jpg) 

Brad Slavin 

General Manager

General Manager at DuoCircle. Product strategy and commercial lead across the email security portfolio.

## Secure your email infrastructure

Protect, authenticate, and deliver. Contact our team to find the right solution.

[Contact Sales](/contact/) [Explore Products](/products/) 

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