Is this spam just messing with me?

[jducoeur]

Today's study in Weird Spam starts off with,

It is with pleasure that we invite you to take part in the 2017 world conference on Global Security, Save The Life And Terrorism In The World. This conference Scheduled to take place from [February 15th to 19th, United States and Senegal from February 22nd to 26th 2017].

It's obvious phishing spam, and was properly marked as such in Gmail.

The punchline? This conference is organized by the "World Thoracic Society".  That word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

Really, I kind of suspect they chose an important-sounding word at random.  Am I missing a definition that would make this make sense?

Comments

[keshwyn]

There's a great short story in there about a colony of superintelligent bees deciding to save the world by exterminating humans stupid enough to reply to phishing scams...

Could you send me the text of the spam - not the links, just the text?

[jducoeur]

Sure -- there actually aren't any links, it looks like they're trying to get you to send an email and lure you into a conversation to steal your information. Here's the full thing:

Dear Sir/Madame,

On behalf of World Thoracic Society (WTS), It is with pleasure that we invite you to take part in the 2017 world conference on Global Security, Save The Life And Terrorism In The World. This conference Scheduled to take place from [February 15th to 19th, United States and Senegal from February 22nd to 26th 2017].

Registration is free and delegates are entitle to a free United States Visa arrangements by the Organizing Committee. That will include your transportation, feeding, Round Trip Air tickets to both events etc... Delegates will only be responsible for their own hotel accommodation in Dakar, Senegal were the second phase of the event will take place

The topic of the congress is "The Effect of Terrorism on Global Economy and Human Security" For details requirement for your Visa and registration, Please contact the global secretariat office via Email: [wts.office@yandex.com].

Please share the information with your colleagues.

Best Regards,
Mrs Fiana Ming (Dr)
Member American Thoracic Society (MATS).

[jducoeur]

On re-reading, and noting that it's trying to lure you to a Yandex email address, I wonder if "Thoracic" is a mis-translation, and made more sense in Russian...

[metahacker]

Text generators are getting too good. Bots too...