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Anti-Spam
Software
Finding automated solutions to controlling spam
is big business, and there are two main methods manufacturers of
antispam software use to filter your mail:
1) You could use antispam software that requires the sender of the
email message to confirm that they are indeed the originator of the
email. This type of antispam software checks each email sent to you;
if the person has not confirmed they are the originator, their email
is held in a special folder and they are sent a special message
asking them to click a link confirming they sent the message in the
first place. Messages coming from people who have already confirmed
previously are sent straight into your inbox.
The main disadvantage to this type of antispam software is that if
you subscribe to a newsletter, most newsletter publishers use what
is known as a double opt-in system. This means they will send you an
email which contains a link you have to click before your newsletter
subscription will be activated. This confirmation message will be
intercepted by your software and an email is sent to the newsletter
publisher, who is highly unlikely to click the verification link in
the email sent to them by the software.
Another disadvantage is that a spammer may click on the confirmation
link, and you will still receive unwanted email. It also means the
first message from your friends and family will be held by the
software until you put their details into the software's whitelist
or they click the link in the email sent to them.
2) You could use antispam software that checks each email against a
set of conditions or rules to determine whether the email is spam or
not. In this case the antispam software will check:
* If the sender's email address is on any spam blacklist. There are
a number of blacklists on the internet which contain the email
details of known spammers.
* The words in each email received against a set of words you or a
third party has previously prepared. If any of the words or phrases
are contained in the email, the email is either deleted, marked as
potential spam, or sent to a separate "bulk mail" folder.
Many of the antispam software solutions that fit into this category
also incorporate a preview screen. This allows you to preview each
email prior to accepting it or deleting. Mailwasher is a very
popular program that fits into this category. It is available as a
limited free version, or an unlimited paid version.
There are more powerful antispam software solutions designed to
filter mail being received by businesses. These typically use
complex algorithms for filtering spam. This complex programing also
makes this type of software solution very costly, however most would
feel it is well worth whatever the cost.
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