A slightly unusual spam

I have a Windows Live Space blog that I update somewhat less frequently than I update this one.  I rarely get comments on that one, either.  But once in a while I do.

It's linked to my Hotmail account which I have had for years.  I rarely use my Hotmail account (go figure) even though I think the web interface of Hotmail is now pretty good.  Anyhow, comments to my Live Space go to my Hotmail account.  Of course, since I rarely check my Hotmail, like once every 3 months, comments will go undetected by me.

I recently decided to check my Hotmail.  I saw that 3 months ago, I got a message from karissaaw97 with the subject line "hey, how's it going?" 

That's odd, I thought, I don't know anyone named Karissa.  That in itself is not unusual because I have gotten comments before from people I don't know on my Live Space.  But I read the message and it was as follows:

So, i guess the time has arrived for me to start using this account. I can resist no longer! I took a gander though your page and well, I liked what I saw.. ;p So.. ya :) my name is Karissa <Something>. I think we should probably be friends, cause you seem pretty fun, and possibly cute! (it's so hard to tell in this digital world :) anyway, i'd go on all day, but I want to get a response from you.. You should check out my other profile on this other site, I'm usually on over there: https://www.some-site.org/?id=2545\&mypics (my username is chikdoll). Then maybe we could chat sometime! you know what they say.. looks catches the eyes, but personality captures the heart.. haha.. talk to you soon, Karissa

The link, of course, is to an online 18+ dating site.  Now, we all receive these types of messages in our email inboxes all the time, but I was actually rather surprised to see it in my Hotmail account because it implies that the spammer created their Live Space and Hotmail userID, trolled through other Live Spaces and then sent comments to these blogs (not to mention setting up a profile at said dating site).  I guess that in itself is not that unusual but it seems like a lot of work to go to.

It reminds me of the Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo spam where spammers sign up for accounts at these big web mail providers and send out spam in order to evade reputation filters.  The analogous behavior here is sending spam to a Hotmail user from a Hotmail user.  Indeed, these targeted email campaigns are clever ways to attempt to evade spam filters.