Pointless SPAM containing story snippet - Why?

[Ken A]

Daniel Straka wrote:
> Been receiving spam that contains no payload, no web site links, no way
> for the spammer to ever benefit from sending it. Are these some sort of
> test or attempt to un-train spamassassin? Thanks...Dan
> 

Testing for valid addresses? Spammers don't want to trigger any MTA 
blocks on content, so they send this little probes. If the MTA accepts 
the mail, then they assume the address is good. Of course it could just 
be something broken in the spam generating world too... They don't 
exactly use consistent procedures, so things do go haywire now and then.

Ken A
Pacific.Net