# Costly Greetings – An Adventure In Hostile Code Analysis \[analysis by [Ilfak Guilfanov](mailto:info@hex-rays.com), reviewed by [Pierre Vandevenne](mailto:info@hex-rays.com)] In March 2003, many netizens were spammed by a seemingly innocuous Yahoo! greeting card. The goal of the spammers was simple: empty the wallets of their victims. For us, this incident was a good opportunity to exercise our [IDA Disassembler](https://hex-rays.com/products/ida/) and some of the proprietary hostile code analysis tools we are currently developing. Read a [plain text description of this incident.](/9.0sp1/archive/greetings_description.md) Have a look at the [low-level analysis and the disassemblies.](/9.0sp1/archive/greetings_dis.md) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.hex-rays.com/9.0sp1/archive/greetings.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.