Features and Benefits of Anti Spam Services

Spam is term as any unwanted email that is coming to your mailbox. These spam mails can be dangerous because some may even contain viruses which can ruin your computer system. Some may even try to steal your password and personal information such as credit card number.

Spam has been one of the common problems of internet users. When you go online and check your mail, the chances of having an email which came from unfamiliar email address is very high.

So what you will usually do is to delete the email. However, what if it is not just one spam email but there are a lot of them. Deleting these mails can be very tedious and this is where anti spam services come in.

Anti spam services are tools that will help you reduce or even eliminate any unwanted email from your mailbox. Most internet service provider will offer anti spam services which allow you to filter the email you receive. One of its features is allowing you to have an approved list of email or domain addresses that you would like to receive email from.

Thus, those you don't know will not be able to send an email to you. Then, you can even block certain email or domain addresses. This is helpful if you have already recognized the addresses of spammers.

Another option that you can have on an anti spam service is filtering email according to its subject and content. This means that you can block email that contains specific word or phrases.

Another feature is the ability to filter email based on the language used by the sender. This is beneficial for those that only expect email from a specific language.

Some anti spam services will give you preset filters (e.g. low, medium and high). The system will automatically detect which email is considered spam. This is great for beginners because of its simplicity. You do not need to select a lot of option. However, the risk with this one is that some legitimate email may be branded as spam.

So you may be expecting an email from a friend but your anti spam software may have deleted it because of the settings you have for your filters. For businessman, this process is not recommended.

Most anti spam services usually have the basic features that you need to stop unwanted mails. However, if you would like to have smarter software, you may need to purchase or buy an anti spam software.

You may make a research on the internet as to which software will best suit your internet needs. Make a comparison of anti softwares so you can easily decide which one is appropriate for you.

Anti spam services will add more protection to your online life. It helps in reducing the risk of having a full mailbox at all times and protects you from computer viruses.

Great features and benefits can be fully enjoyed if you continue to update yourself about this spam. It will then allow you to take precautionary measures to minimize the problems that are brought about by spam.

About the Author:
Dave Poon is an accomplished writer who specializes in the latest in Internet Safety. For more information regarding Anti Spam Services please drop by at http://www.bye-bye-spam.com/
Submitted on 2006-09-04
Article Source: http://www.articlesarea.com/

So What Makes a Good Spam Filter Anyway?

Spam Filters. Most of us know we need one. Some of know we need a better one, but how many stop to think what actually makes a good spam filter in the first place?

This is not just a rhetorical question. It is a question that many users - and many developers - do not ask, and consequently, goes unanswered.

Maybe this could be better answered by defining here the qualities of the perfect spam filter. We'll call our perfect spam filter the "SpamSplatter 3000". Here are some of the defining qualities of "SpamSplatter 3000"

1. It requires zero interaction from the user.

2. It produces zero false positives (good messages identified as bad) and zero false negatives (bad messages identified as good).

3. It is transparent - that is, you only ever see good messages and never need even be aware that spam exists.

That's it. Not much of a shopping list is it? Of course, "SpamSplatter 3000" hasn't been invented yet (and if it does, I want a piece of the action), but it does give us a frame of reference when looking for the best filter we can find.

Let's take each point in turn:

It requires zero interaction from the user There are two kinds of filters that come near to this ideal currently: Bayesian Filters and Community Filters. Bayesian filters strip messages down to small "word bites", or tokens and maintain a database containing lists of good and bad tokens. When a new message is encountered, the filter strips this message down to tokens, compares it to the database, and applies a formula based on the British scientist Alan Bayes' formula for probability calculation. Over time, the Bayesian filter "learns" the characteristics of spam messages.

Community Filters simply work on a voting system whereby every user that receives a spam message "votes" it as spam. This information is stored on a central server and when enough votes are received the message is banned from all users in the community.

As can be seen, the user interaction from these types of filters is mainly limited to two button operation - correcting wrongly identified messages - and the more accurate the filter, the less those buttons are used.

OK, so that's pretty good. Not exactly zero interaction, but if the filter is accurate enough, then it should be pretty near. That brings us to point two:

It produces zero false positives or negatives This is the area in which most spam filter development is concentrating and things are getting pretty good nowadays. It is not at all unusual to see an efficient modern filter achieve accuracy of 96% or better. It is, of course, far better to have a false negative than a false positive if you are ever going to tear yourself away from the killed mail folder!

Of course, by definition, community filters cannot reach 100% accuracy as someone has to be getting the spam to be voting it as such! Theoretically, a Bayesian filter may be able to eventually get quite close to 100% accuracy, so at least there is hope there. Content based filters (those that look for certain words, phrases or other indicators in a message to identify it as spam), will almost certainly not get much higher accuracy figures than the best of them can achieve today. Adapting to changing spam requires new filters to be created on an ongoing basis.

And finally, we come to the holy grail of spam filtering:

It is transparent Strangely enough, not enough work seems to be done in trying to achieve this goal. Some of the best filters on the market today identify spam with impressive accuracy and then simply place them in a "killed mail" folder for your later perusal. Now, forgive me if I'm missing something here, but isn't the point to save you having to wade through the junk mail? Isn't that what you bought the filter for? With the "SpamSplatter 3000", you don't need to do that.

As we haven't achieved 100% accuracy yet (and probably never will), the only way to free us from checking the killed mail folder is a challenge/response system. This is where a message is automatically sent back to the sender requiring them to take some action for their message to actually be delivered.

Some systems tend to go overboard with the challenge/response system. These systems - often called "Whitelist" systems - block messages from anyone that isn't in the user's friends list. Guaranteed 100% effective, but too drastic a measure for most users.

Now, it seems that the most intelligent use of this system would be to send challenges only to messages that were flagged as "questionable". Good message can be delivered, definite spam can be deleted and questionable ones would earn themselves a challenge message.

So, to sum up, let's rewrite the qualities of our perfect filter and get a shopping list of what to look for while we wait for the "SpamSplatter 3000" to arrive:

1. Simple, minimal setup and maintenance.

2. Extremely low rate of false positives and as few false negatives as possible.

3. A transparent "fail-safe" mechanism whereby the victims of those false positives can force the message through to you.

It's simple really. Now, who's going to build me this "SpamSplatter 3000"...?

About the Author:
Alan Hearnshaw is the owner of http://www.WhichSpamFilter.com, a site which provides weekly in-depth spam filter reviews, user help and guidance and a community forum. alan@whichspamfilter.com
Posted: 20-09-2005
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

How To Determine The Origin Of Spam?

Spam will continue spreading as far as it makes profit. If nobody buys from spammers or acts upon their scams, spam will end. This is the obvious and easiest way to fight spam. You can ignore and delete spam emails you receive. But you can also take vengeance on the spammer by complaining to the spammer's Internet Service Provider (ISP). The ISP will block their connection and maybe impose a fine (depending on the ISP's acceptable usage policy). Spammers beware of such complaints and try to disguise their messages. That's why finding the right ISP is not always easy.

Let’s look inside a spam message. Every email message includes two parts, the body and the header. The body is the actual message text and attachments. The header is a kind of the envelope of the message. The header shows the address of the message sender, the address of the message recipient, the message subject and other information. Email programs usually display these header fields:

From: shows the sender's name and email address.
To: shows the recipient's name and email address.
Date: shows the date when the message was sent.
Subject: shows the message subject.

The From: field usually contains the sender's email address. This lets you know who sent the message and allows you easily reply. Spammers, of course, don’t want you to reply and don’t want you to know who they are. Therefore, they put forged email addresses into the From: lines of their emails. So the From: field won’t help you if you want to determine where the spam email comes from.

Tip! With G-Lock SpamCombat you can easily preview not only the message text but also all the fields of the message header . You can choose the preview format by yourself. You can view the message as HTML, decoded message, or message source.There are also several Received: fields in the header of every message. Email programs don’t usually display the Received: lines but the Received: lines can be very helpful in tracing the spam origin.

Just like a postal letter goes through a number of post offices before it’s delivered to the recipient, an email message is processed by several mail servers. Each mail server adds a line to the message header – a Received: line – which contains

- the server name and IP address of the machine the server received the message from and
- the name of the mail server itself.

Each Received: line is inserted at the top of the message header. If we want to reproduce the message’s path from sender to recipient, we start from the topmost Received: line and walk down until the last one, which is where the email originated.

Just like the From: field the Received: lines may contain forged information to fool those who would want to trace the spammer. Because every mail server inserts the Received: line at the top of the header, we start the analysis from the top.

The Received: lines forged by spammers usually look like normal Received: fields. We can hardly tell whether the Received: line is forged or not at first sight. We should analyze all the Received: lines chain to find out a forged Received: field.

As we mentioned above, every mail server registers not only its name but also the IP address of the machine it got the message from. We simply need to look what name a server puts and what the next server in the chain says. If the servers don’t match, the earlier Received: line is forged.

The origin of the email is what the server immediately after the forged Received: line says about where it received the message from.

Let's see how determining of the spam email origin works in real life. Here is the header of a spam message we’ve recently received:

**************************************************
Return-Path:
Delivered-To: press@mydomain.com
Received: from unknown (HELO 60.17.139.96) (221.200.13.158) by mail1.myserver.xx with
SMTP; 7 Nov 2006 10:54:16 -0000
Received: from 164.145.240.209 by 60.17.139.96; Tue, 07 Nov 2006 05:53:35 -0500
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2006 12:48:35 +0200
From: Pharmacy

Reply-To: umceqhzjmndfy
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID:
To: press@mydomain.com
Subject: Cheap Med*s V!agra Many Med_s QnNXpRy9
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
**************************************************

At first, look at the forged From: field. The email address in the From: and Reply-To: lines doesn’t exist. So, the spammer took care about directing bounced messages and all the indignant replies people may send to a non-existing email account.

Secondly, the Subject: line. It contains the variations of the “Meds” and “Viagra” words that are known to be met in spam messages. Plus, the subject contains a range of random characters. It’s obvious that the subject line is skillfully tailored to fool anti-spam filters.

Lastly, let’s analyze the Received: lines. We start from the oldest one - Received: from 164.145.240.209 by 60.17.139.96; Tue, 07 Nov 2006 05:53:35 -0500. There are two IP addresses in it: 60.17.139.96 says it received the message from 164.145.240.209.

We check if the next (and last in this case) mail server in the chain confirms the state of the first Received: line. In the second Received: field we have: Received: from unknown (HELO 60.17.139.96) (221.200.13.158) by mail1.myserver.xx with SMTP; 7 Nov 2006 10:54:16 -0000.

mail1.myserver.xx is our server and we can trust it. It received the message from an "unknown" host, which says it has the IP address 60.17.139.96. Yes, this confirms what the previous Received: line says.

Now let’s find out where our mail server got the message from. For this purpose, we look at the IP address in brackets before the server name mail1.myserver.xx. It is 221.200.13.15. This is the IP address the connection was established from, and it is not 60.17.139.96. The spam message originates from 221.200.13.15. It’s important to note that it’s not necessarily that the spammer is sitting at the computer 221.200.13.15 and sending spam over the world. It may happen the computer’s owner doesn’t even suspect of being sending spam. The computer may be hijacked by a Trojan, which is spreading spam without the machine’s owner knowing it.

We hope this information will help you identify the spammer's ISP and report them about spam so they can take proper measures.

About the Author:
Julia Gulevich is a technical expert associated with development of computer software like AATools, Advanced Email Verifier, G-Lock EasyMail, Anti-Spam Software Blocker http://www.glocksoft.com/sc/ More information can be found at Anti Spam Filter Resources http://www.glocksoft.net/sc/
This article was posted on December 01, 2006
Article Source: articlecity

A Quick Look At Email Spam Filters

You must be eagerly finding for a way out to stop receiving Spam mails in your inbox. Take a quick look at email spam filters to get some idea on how to check spam. There are a number of email spam filters that you can use in your computer. For official purposes, you have anti server software spam where the spam filter is located in the server level to trap all email spam. They prevent them from reaching your inbox. The email spasm not only slows down the performance of the server, but also occupies a lot of storage space. Emails are the easiest and the best way for these viruses to spread.

Working of Spam Filters

Anti spam software and anti spam solutions are essential to aid you in getting a clean inbox. The server spam filter or anti spam server is a software application that scans all the incoming email messages. With the help of their configuration, they identify Spam and prevent them from reaching your inbox. The spam mails not only eats away the storage space and make selecting your personal emails difficult, they also can contain viruses. Using anti spam filters is necessary as it saves both your time and money. But even when you are using anti spam filters, it is recommended to check the messages just to make sure that no personal message has been marked as spam. Even the server spam filters marks email as “false positive” to those that are identified as spam, but in reality they are valid messages. There are various anti spam programs that identifies Spam and sends it to the junk mail folder.

Not all spam filters work in the same way. Some of them are pre programmed where the know spammers are inserted. They accordingly block them. Some of the programs filter the emails based on the keywords used in the mails. Some of the email spam filters are configured and you can easily customize it or the network administrator can also customize it according to the requirement of the company.

About the Author:
Oliver Turner
We have made a research to find the best acne treatments. Find it only on the best spam blockers source. All about spam blockers on LeanderNet - www.leandernet.com
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Mail Server Blacklists and Spam

A white-list is a list of email senders whom you trust and would like to receive mail from. Conversely, a blacklist contains those that are not to be trusted. Blacklists need to be configured and administered on a server, at the ISP (Internet Service Provider) level or on your network. If you do not have such access, and most people do not, you can use the blacklists by choosing email services from companies that use such blacklisting techniques.

A mail server is designated as having an open relay when mail is processed in a location that is not local to either the sender or receiver. The mail server is unrelated to either party, and as such, has no business processing that email. Think of driving from your home in Washington, DC to your friend's home in Boston. If you pass through New York City on the way, that is to be expected. However, if you stop in Dallas, the route becomes suspect. An open relay mail server, whether intentional or not, is allowing mail to be routed through it that shouldn't be. In this way, spammers distribute large volumes of junk email in order to disguise their actions. Open relays used to be very common, like public mailboxes. You can drop a letter into any one without any notice of who you are. Spammers ruined this by using open relays to surreptitiously send spam without identifying themselves. When blocked by the administrator or ISP, they simply move on. They regularly scan IP addresses looking for open relay servers. When they find one, they exploit it.

Blacklists contain a database of open relay mail servers and those known to be a source of spam, and are used to filter email coming from those machines. The sender will receive a bounce message or mailer deamon telling them that their email is undeliverable. Often, the sender does not realize that they are on a blacklist or that their server is an open relay. They find out only when they attempt to send mail to someone who is uses a blacklist to filter for spam. If the sender is a spammer, the process is working. If the sender is you, the process is also working because it will force you to take steps to close that open relay or complain to the company who is handling your mail. By closing the holes in the email relay network, the spammers will be forced to stop sourcing their spam in this way. This is but one way to slow down, not stop, the spammers.

Blacklists have a very high probability of false-positives if used in blind faith. Depending on those that maintain the blacklist, email sent in good faith could land innocent people and mail servers on a blacklist. This usually happens to one of two ways. The first is through the procedure most blacklist providers use to find open relays. They simply do what the spammers do and scan IP address to look for a server that will allow them to connect and send mail. Once the program finds an open relay they add the server to the blacklist. The system administrator of the server is usually never notified. There can be mistakes made in this process leaving the administrator with a huge problem when mail starts getting lost or bounced back. Second, you may receive an IP from your provider that was previously blacklisted, even though it may no longer be an open relay. To avoid this, check the IP address against the known blacklists and ask your provider for a new one if it indeed appears.

Do you know whether your ISP maintains an open relay? If you discovered that your employee was doing work for someone else while on your time, you would certainly put a stop to it. Open relay mail servers are doing exactly that and need to be confronted. A mail server should be configured to only relay messages from authenticated users on the network. If properly protected, the server will simply tell the sender that they do not work for outsiders and bounce the message back. More and more, administrators of servers are blocking the open relay. This has been instumental in slowing down spam.

About the Author:
Keith Londrie II is a successful Webmaster and publisher of spam-resources.info A website that specializes in providing tips to help eliminate and avoid spam. Getting rid of spam that you can research on the internet in your pajamas from the comfort of your own home. Visit how to combat spam Today!
Submitted on 2006-09-15
Article Source: http://www.articlesarea.com/

Product Review: SpamArrest

Does any of this sound familiar? You get so much spam that you have to keep your finger on the delete button whenever you check your email. Then you inevitably erase the one or two important messages that you really needed to see, so you have to sift through all the spam again in your Trash folder to find them.

If you go out of town for a couple of days, your inbox fills up with junk and your important messages start to bounce before you can return to your computer to clean out your inbox and make room.

That was my situation. I have a spam filter at the ISP level, which really does not seem to filter out much. And I tried a couple of other spam filtering solutions, but they delayed my email too much, and I never fully trusted that everything was getting through.

I tried SpamArrest after noticing that a colleague was using it, but my expectations were not terribly high because the other filtering solutions that I had tried just did not work for me.

How Does it Work?

When you sign up for a SpamArrest account, you simply make a few changes to your email program (such as Outlook or Eudora) so that SpamArrest can download your email from your ISP to the Spam Arrest mail server. Then SpamArrest sorts it and filters whatever you do not want. I expected to have a little trouble configuring my email account correctly, but it was no sweat at all. The instructions are very detailed and easy to follow. They definitely cater to the layperson, so there is no jargon. And if you do have trouble, you can get technical support via email.

The basic SpamArrest account allows you to filter up to 5 email accounts. And they have a webmail feature, too, so you can access your mail by logging into your account at the SpamArrest website. It is great if you are traveling and just want to check in.

Once your email accounts are configured, you simply decide whose email you would like to continue to receive. You can preauthorize senders by typing in specific email addresses, by using a special import feature, or by preauthorizing entire domain names.

When someone who is not on your preauthorized list tries to email you, she will receive an email asking her to verify her intent to send you the message. The idea is that a real human being will verify her identity, but a spambot or automated mailing system will not.

One of my favorite parts of the SpamArrest system is that anyone who is on your preauthorized list is never sent a verification email at all. So you can easily set it up such that your friends, relatives, and colleagues never know you are filtering your messages.

Once someone responds to the verification email, she is added to your list of authorized senders. Then her original email (and all subsequent emails she sends you) will get through.

You can always remove people from your list of approved senders, too, so you have total control of whose email gets to your inbox.

If a verification email is not responded to, the email stays in a special "Unverified" folder in your online SpamArrest inbox for a whole week. That way, you can log in and check to see if any important messages were not verified. For example, sometimes I will forget that I signed up for an email newsletter, so I simply authorize the sender by clicking a button on the screen. Then the message, and all subsequent messages from this particular email address, will go right to my inbox and skip the "Unverified" folder altogether.

Right after I opened my SpamArrest account, I checked this Unverified folder every day, but now I find that most of the senders that I want email from are already on the authorized list, so I check in only every few days. It is easy to tell which messages in your Unverified folder are new since your last login, because they stay in bold typeface until you log out.

According to the SpamArrest statistics on my account, a full 63.64 percent of my email to date has been spam. It is such a great relief to know that it never made it to my inbox at all. I save a lot of time each morning, and I enjoy sending and receiving email again.

How Much Does it Cost?

At the time of this writing, SpamArrest subscriptions are $5.95 per month (or you can save by signing up for a year or two at a time: $44.95 for one year and $74.95 for two years.) You can add features for an additional fee, but I have the basic subscription and have never needed anything beyond that.

About the Author:
Susie Cortright
You can get a free 30 day trial of SpamArrest here. And view the latest Coupon Codes here..
Posted: 15-02-2007
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Next-gen BitDefender solution adds heuristic spam filters

BitDefender 8 SpamDeny, the new antispam solution for Windows workstations launched today is an advanced email protection tool which features updated, as well as new filters. "I'm very satisfied with how this version has turned out, because internal testing has shown an improvement of over 35% in detection rates, over the previous version. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our users and testers, as we wouldn't have had such a great product without their hard work, input and feedback," said Nicolae Simon, BitDefender Product Marketing Manager.

The new rules of the updated Heuristic filter will dutifully trash some new scam spam types, such as Nigerian scams, online casino scams, lottery scams and fake university diploma offers, while further reducing the number of false positives.

Additionally, new filters have been included, such as the Image filter, which is able to recognize and tag images frequently used in spam e-mail, the URL filter which blocks mail containing "sneaky" links, and the Charset filter, which will block any e-mail written in "strange" characters.

Various bells and whistles, such as configuration wizards, better ways to manage your friends list, and a handy fix that will disable incoming mail notifications for spam e-mail, so that Outlook will only signal when legitimate e-mail arrives, complete the package.

The product is available for evaluation and purchasing as of today, and is priced at USD 19.95 for a single user license. BitDefender AntiSpam 7.2 users can, obviously, upgrade to BitDefender 8 SpamDeny free of charge.

About the Author:
Roxana Danaila
Posted: 20-09-2005
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Top 7 Ways to STOP Junk Email

Nothing makes me angrier than opening my email in-box to find over 150 messages, wading through them all, and discovering that 135 of the messages rate as nothing more than junk.

The problem with junk email or "spam" (the popular slang for unsolicited commercial email) only seems to get worse with each passing day.

Luckily, we can fight back in ways that will actually cut down significantly on the amount of spam we receive on a daily basis.

Try these tips and see if they can't cut the spam you receive down by at least half.

** Don't Respond

Much of the spam you receive contains an "unsubscribe" link saying something like "To unsubscribe, click here." Do NOT click that link.

Clicking it lets spammers know they've got a live email address!

** Use Mailwahser

Get a program like "Mailwasher" from Mailwasher.net that allows you to view the email you receive before you download it.

The program makes it simple to delete dozens of emails, including viruses, before they reach your computer.

** Use Your Filters

Your email program most likely contains filters you can use to weed out emails containing the usual spam words like "opportunity, $$$, sex, viagra" and a host of others.

You can set the filters to delete messages containing these words before ever downloading them to your computer.

** Use An "Assassin"

Spam "killer" services offer users high-powered filtering, often requiring a sender to prove their identity before an email gets sent to the recipient.

One such service, SpamArrest.com, forces email senders to go to a website and type in a random word before their email gets delivered. This service has gained a lot of popularity lately and seems reasonably effective.

** Use a Temporary Email

Maintain a public and private email address and never give your private email to anyone other than family and friends.

Go sign up for a free email account with Hotmail.com or mail.yahoo.com to use whenever you subscribe to a newsletter or request a free report. That way, if the spam ever gets too bad, you can simply abandon the free account and open another.

Your private email address should remain safe because nobody will know it except the people you trust.

** Never Post Your Email

Never post your private email address in forums, guest books, news groups or on a website. Spammers use little robots that comb the Internet looking for email addresses they can collect and sell to others.

Always use a free account or set it up so you can shut off the exposed email address once the spam gets too bad.

** Abandon Ship

Shut down your current account and just start over! This may seem a drastic move, but it may represent the best course of action if your sanity or your email box can't handle another offer for sexual enhancements, a great business opportunity, or a free cruise.

Notify everyone you want to know your new email address and get on with life.

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

About the author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...
Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
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Keep Your Work From Home Newsletter From Being A Spam Filter Casualty

It’s hard to get your email through to clients, friends and family with all the Spam Filtering going on these days. If you are a Home Based Business owner that sends out a newsletter regularly you’ll want to keep the following tips in mind to make certain your Work At Home Newsletter is getting through all the Spam Filters.

Spam is defiantly a problem. At one time I was receiving almost 300 per day, spending a good part an hour sifting through the mass of junk was more than I could tolerate. So I too enlisted the help of a Spam Filter – Spam Arrest.

I do worry about losing out on emails that are important and interesting, but this is the price we all have to pay for those Spammers that have abused and are abusing the Internet.

Most Spam Filters use a Blacklist – these are clusters of email addresses and domain names that are known for sending out a lot of Spam. Recipients of Spam generate most Blacklists’. So your newsletter could fall victim to a click happy Spam identifier that clicks your email into the dreaded Blacklist vault.

Spam Assassin, Cloudmark’s SpamNet and Spam Arrest all use different methods of blocking spam. Spam Assassin uses a point system to conclude whether or not an email is Spam. If your Newsletter scores high it will surely be treated as spam and blocked. SpamNet blocks Spam two ways; the first, filters email based on keywords like “Free”, and the second allows users to mark email and submit identified Spam to be blocked to other users of SpamNet.

My personal favorite is Spam Arrest, because it offers you total control over your inbox. You can decide who is allowed to send you email by importing your personal address book, or entering your known and approved contact addresses directly into the system.

Emails from unknown senders will receive an auto-reply message containing a "challenge" -- if or when the sender completes the challenge (the response), their email is forwarded to your inbox, and they are then added to your authorized sender list.

The challenge is easy for people, but impossible for automated systems (i.e. spambots) to complete.

The Spam Arrest challenge/response system effectively blocks all the spam while still allowing friends, family and trusted contacts to email you without the risk of being filtered out by imprecise software systems.

So How Do You Keep Your Newsletter From Being Blocked?

Here are some tips to help your Newsletter reach your subscribers:

DO NOT send your newsletter unsolicited. Be sure your customers have requested to be on your subscriber distribution list – using an auto responder, like Aweber, that requires your subscribers to opt-in and confirm that then have requested your Newsletter will help keep you off the blacklists.

Use your Newsletter’s name in the subject line. Your subscribers should recognize your Newsletters name. Using subject lines that are full of hype and so called trigger words may get your Newsletter blocked by the Spam filters.

NEVER TYPE IN ALL CAPS. This will surely get the Spam filter red flags raised and your email forwarded to the dreaded blacklists.

Words like “Free”, “Limited Offer”, “Money” even “home business” will engage most Spam filters.

The simplest words like “remove” should be avoided as well. Use “unsubscribe” in your directions to subscribers that want to stop receiving your Newsletter.

Spammers most often use free email addresses – so you should avoid using them at all costs. Send your Newsletter from a reputable domain name – one that matches your own website would be best.

Never send attachments with your Newsletter. Attachments put a fear in most email recipients and will tag your email as Spam.

Your Newsletter will most likely have words within the text that trigger Spam filters – these words like “Free” and “Home Business” can be easily disguised by adding a period or hyphen between two letters – do not over do it though. It will not be long before this tactic will be a trigger for the top Spam filters, so keep up with all aspects of the best Spam filters so your Newsletter will reach your subscribers.

Copyright 2005 – Tim Somers, 3G Enterprises, LLC

About the Author:
Tim Somers "The Home Biz Honcho". Changing Your Life, Helping You Make Money While You Work From Home. Get Tim’s Top Ten Home Biz Opportunities – Free Report at: http://www.Home-Based-Business-Opportunity-Honcho.com If you are ready to start building a Residual Income – Tim will build you your very own Money Generating Website for FREE! http://www.Free-Make-Money-Site.com
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

What Spam Blocker is Best For You?

With the number of spam filtering solutions increasing each week it's getting tougher for consumers to make informed choices in their purchases.

There are 3 basic types of spam blocker:

1. Integrated
2. Standalone
3. Online

We'll look at each type of spam filter and at the end you should be able to decide what spam filter is right for you.

Integrated spam filters
This type of spam filtering software is the most common. Once installed it sits "on top" of your existing email software and installs a new set of buttons into your email software. In future when you collect email you'll see options for marking email as Spam, marking the email as Not Spam, Bounce the email back to sender, etc. The description and position of these buttons varies from one product to the next but their purpose remains the same.

Most integrated spam filters automatically place suspected junk email into a separate folder on your PC for you to review or delete later on.

The newer integrated spam filters are also "intelligent". They can basically learn the difference between what is spam and what is not and delete the junk email you don't want.

The most popular integrated spam filters are:

iHate Spam
Spambully
Spam Inspector

Integrated spam filters are most popular amongst people who want a one click solution to collecting their personal email and filtering junk email at the same
time.

Advantages:
One click solution.

Disadvantages:
Software specific. Some work with Outlook and Outlook Express only.


Standalone spam filters
These are less common than their integarted counterparts but that doesn't make them any less useful. A standalone spam filter is basically a separate piece of software installed on your PC that you use to check your email for spam.

Standalone filters have the big advantage of being able to preview your email on the mail server before it's downloaded to your PC. This one single feature has the huge benefit of allowing you to just download the email that you want as opposed to downloading all of your email, including the spam, and then sorting through it.

Using a standalone spam filter is a little more work simply because it's a separate piece of software that you have to run before you open up your email software. Most standalone filters do allow you to configure them so that your standard email application is opened once you've chosen what spam to filter. This suits some people and not others.

The most popular standalone spam filter is:
Mailwasher Pro

Advantages:
Doesn't rely on specific email applications to work properly.

Disadvantages:
Two step process. Load standalone filter and then your email application.

Online spam filters
There are really two types of online spam filters. One is for business use and one is for home use. A typical example of a business type product is iHate Spam server edition where the software deletes junk email directly from the mail server before the end user even sees it. Large companies employ this type of technology.

Home users will be using Spam Arrest or similar. Spam Arrest offers an inventive solution to spam whereby any email sent to the users account has a challenge request sent back to it which the sender must authenticate. The automatic junk email software used by spammers can't currently deal with this type of response.
Any failure to authenticate the challenge email results in the junk email being left to die in cyberspace. A user is authenticated with Spam Arrest only once for security just to make sure the software doesn't become a nuisance.

The most popular online spam filter is:
Spam Arrest

Advantages:
Users are guaranteed to only receive the email that they want or requested.

Disadvantages:
Any techncial problems with the Spam Arrest server and you have no defense against spam.

Now you've seen what spam filtering options are available to you just ask yourself which one suits you most. If you're still not sure drop by www.spam-site.com and check out our product reviews - we have something for everyone.

About the author:
Niall Roche
This article was provided courtesy of Spam-Site.com which reviews and tests spam blockers for the business and end user.
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Does Your Website Host Fight Spam?

Virtually anyone with an email address knows what Spam is, and has, perhaps, considered giving up the speed, convenience, and simplicity of email because of it. Those who have their own websites are more vulnerable than the average person with a single work or home email address from their company or Internet Service Provider. Email addresses visible on a website can quickly become Spam magnets, as automated programs, similar in form to search engine spiders, roam the web, looking for addresses to which new broadsides of Spam may be fired. Website hosting companies generally provide their clients email accounts for use with their domain, but are you with a host that provides those email accounts with Spam and virus protection?

Local Blacklist Filters
Webmasters shouldn't need to seek out local filters for their site's contact email addresses. There are a variety of server level solutions a hosting company can offer to protect their users from unwanted emails. A most basic step is provision of a very rudimentary "blacklist" functionality to their users, allowing them to prevent future Spam emails from arriving from the same address. This type of filter is virtually worthless in today's Spam environment, though, as it is quite rare to see unsophisticated email arriving from the same address multiple times. Spammers have grown far more sophisticated than that. Blacklisting functionality is only really useful in avoiding email from other real people you don't particularly wish to hear from anymore.

Keywords and Regular Expressions
More advanced server level Spam filters are available. A small advance is accomplished using keyword filters. Keyword filters merely check for instances of a certain string of characters and deny the message if that string if found. The core problem with keyword-only filters is they can "over filter". Someone who puts "sex" on their keyword filter will find receiving local news and event announcements difficult if they live in a town named "Essex". Some filters attempt to address this deficiency by using "regular expressions" in order to build a sophisticated rule set to prevent Spam from reaching your inbox. Briefly, regular expressions are syntax rules used to identify certain strings of text or numbers. These rules can be set up to identify text patterns that are commonly used in Spam. They can become quite complex, but, as with most any filtering method, are not 100% bullet proof. Some filters that use regular expressions come with a basic set that can be appended by the user. Obviously this kind of feature is of little use to someone not familiar with regular expressions.

Bayesian Filters
Currently the most sophisticated filtering methods use Bayesian inferences. Bayesian filters take a large data set and determine the probability a message is Spam based on its similarity to previous Spam messages. The more emails that are processed and flagged theoretically make the filter more accurate. Services that provide filtering on an ISP or host level, like Postini's "SpamAway", filter billions of emails and provide the highest level of success and fewest "false positives". SpamAway is already highly intelligent about identifying Spam and doesn't require any "learning" commands or examples be provided. The online, browser based interface keeps flagged messages in an easily accessible "quarantine" and allows the user to check for any false positives. White list functionality is provided to aide in the prevention of future false positives. A hosting company offering such an advanced service takes Spam and virus filtering for their customers seriously.

About the Author:
Eric Lester
Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com and previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers. Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support. Click for more hosting articles.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Two Main Groups Of Spam!

There are two main types of spam, and they have different effects on Internet users. Cancellable Usenet spam is a single message sent to 20 or more Usenet newsgroups. (Through long experience, Usenet users have found that any message posted to so many newsgroups is often not relevant to most or all of them.) Usenet spam is aimed at lurkers, people who read newsgroups but rarely or never post and give their address away. Usenet spam robs users of the utility of the newsgroups by overwhelming them with a barrage of advertising or other irrelevant posts. Furthermore, Usenet spam subverts the ability of system administrators and owners to manage the topics they accept on their systems.

I think it's possible to stop spam, and that content-based filters are the way to do it. The Achilles heel of the spammers is their message. They can circumvent any other barrier you set up. They have so far, at least. But they have to deliver their message, whatever it is. If we can write software that recognizes their messages, there is no way they can get around that. Email spam targets individual users with direct mail messages. Email spam lists are often created by scanning Usenet postings, stealing Internet mailing lists, or searching the Web for addresses. Email spams typically cost users money out-of-pocket to receive. Many people - anyone with measured phone service - read or receive their mail while the meter is running, so to speak. Spam costs them additional money. On top of that, it costs money for ISPs and online services to transmit spam, and these costs are transmitted directly to subscribers.

The statistical approach is not usually the first one people try when they write spam filters. Most hackers' first instinct is to try to write software that recognizes individual properties of spam. You look at spams and you think, the gall of these guys to try sending me mail that begins Dear Friend or has a subject line that's all uppercase and ends in eight exclamation points. I can filter out that stuff with about one line of code.

But the real advantage of the Bayesian approach, of course, is that you know what you're measuring. Feature-recognizing filters like SpamAssassin assign a spam score to email. The Bayesian approach assigns an actual probability. The problem with a score is that no one knows what it means. The user doesn't know what it means, but worse still, neither does the developer of the filter. How many points should an email get for having the word sex in it? A probability can of course be mistaken, but there is little ambiguity about what it means, or how evidence should be combined to calculate it. Based on my corpus, sex indicates a .97 probability of the containing email being a spam, whereas sexy indicates .99 probability. And Bayes' Rule, equally unambiguous, says that an email containing both words would, in the (unlikely) absence of any other evidence, have a 99.97% chance of being a spam.

About the Author:
Camry James
Find out How Spam Blocker can save you Money at SpamBlocker.eask.info
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Spam Filters - Why are they Harmful for Marketers and How to Avoid Them

Have you seen this text often in websites these days?

'I ABSOLUTELY HATE SPAM and I will NEVER rent or sell your personal information to anyone anytime. Period'

Why do marketers use this text block at the end of opt-in form? Simple. They are afraid that their subscribers might be come forgetful and might accuse them of spamming, even though they are legitimate email marketers.

How does it affect you?

Spam is one of the most irritating words these days, especially for email marketers. It not only affects those who are at the receiving end but also those who SEND emails. To combat irritating junk spam filters of different Internet Service Providers (ISP) are outdoing each other in evolving out new ways to filter junk email. While this is good in weeding out real junk, even the legitimate email marketers are affected by it, because spam filters sometimes filter out legitimate emails as spam. So what happens is that if you have a large list and a lot of your emails are filtered out chances are that only 1% of your subscribers are reading your message.

The great 'spam' triggers!

While there are many words that will trigger spam filters(e.g., sexual phrases, money making opportunity), here are the most common "trigger" words that you may be using in your ezine:

*e-zine
*amazing
*cancel at any time
*check or money order
*click here
*congratulations
*dear friend
*e-mail marketing
*for only ($)
*for free
*great offer
*guarantee
*increase sales
*order now
*promise you
*risk free
*special promotion
*this is not spam
*to be removed
*unsubscribe
*winner

How to BEAT 'em

There are two ways to beat the spam filters. One is the hardest way to avoid all these "trigger" words, which I know is quite impossible.For example, when you are recommending a product to your prospects you might be tempted to use a "trigger" word like 'great offer" or "amazing" product, both of which can trigger spam filters.

I tell you of an easier way to avoid spam filters. Your second choice is to disguise these words and phrases in clever ways by inserting keyboard symbols within them and/or replacing a letter in them with a symbol. The trick is not to make it too cryptic - you want your readers to be able to understand what you're saying. For example, in my e-zine, I use "fr*ee" for free.

Some spam filters might penalize you for doing this in order to decrease your spam points, I can tell you that the points this tactic costs you penalize you much less than using the words and phrases themselves.

It's always a good idea to test out your e-zine before you send it out. The good news is that you can do it for free. Before I send out any article or e-zine to my prospects, I make sure I use Lyris's free Content Checker at http://www.lyris.com/resources/contentchecker/ to check if my e-zine will get filtered out or not. The content checker works based on the criteria on which Spam Assassin filters out email messages. It tells that your message scores a certain number of points. If the number of points is low, then it's good. If it's too high, it's time for some revision, because a high Spam Assassin point of 5 or more means that your message is doomed to be filtered out even before it reaches your subscribers.

The report will tell you exactly which words are costing you points.

Usually you should only be concerned if your score is over 5 points.If so, you can either delete those words or disguise them, as I mentioned above. Now suppose that you have checked out your message through the content checker but have found that your message has a lot of "trigger" words. Use a free tool that I recommend. All you need is just enter your article and not only does the tool format your article but also insert "special characters" within the 'spam trigger words" so that your e-zine doesn't get filtered.

I test and check each and every issue of my e-zine with this free content checker and formatter tool before I send out my e-zines. No wonder subscribers get to read most of my articles and promos that I send out. That's why I'm a happy publisher.

Sidenote: Regardless of whatever tools you use, it's still pretty important to request your subscribers to whitelist your email address or domain name. If your subscribers care about your emails, they should have no problem doing this small thing. It will ensure that even if sometimes you feel compelled to use those "trigger words" in your e-zine, your e-zine will still reach your subscriber's inbox.

About the Author:
Arindam Chakraborty is an expert article writer and Internet marketer.Learn more about his email marketing tips and tactics by visiting: http://arinrecommends.com/
Article Submitted On: September 17, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Email Anti Spam And Virus Protection For Businesses - There Is Hope

With anti spam vendors offering low cost licensing, businesses can now afford advanced email spam and virus protection with a simple to use interface at a much lower cost. The great thing about technology is that as it evolves it gets faster, additional features and economical. Over the past few years the same evolution has taken place with anti spam technology and services. In large part this can be attributed to the open source software community plus enterprising companies enhancing the capabilities of this software and packaging it into easy to use anti spam appliances.

It is not practical to have anti spam software running on desktops in a networked business environment. Managing all employee junk email software at the desktop is not realistic. It can be a nightmare and costly in terms time and licensing.

Spam appliances sit in front of your email server so that when email comes in it will first go to the spam appliance and the email will be scanned for spam as well as viruses. The filter will block the message if it identified as know spam. If the filter is not sure if the email is genuine it will quarantine and hold the email at the filter and it will be stored until the recipient deletes it, releases it to their email box, or they can white list a trusted correspondent so that future emails will not be held back. This will greatly reduce the load on your email server and reduce your bandwidth needs. We have seen anti spam systems block up to 83% of incoming messages. This could help extend the life of your email server and push back the need for upgraded capacity.

Most virus outbreaks occur via email and for little cost an appliance can block viruses before they reach your network and user’s inboxes. This provides an extra layer of defense in addition to your current anti virus solution.

Businesses have two options if they use an appliance based solution for their spam and virus control. They can purchase and administer their own filter. This is a good option if you have a large number of employee mailboxes to protect and the technical staff to administer the spam appliance. Businesses also have the option to outsource their spam control as a hosted service. This is a good choice for smaller companies and if information technology is not your specialty.

If you purchase your own spam filter, a subscription to updates may also be required. Make sure you get upfront pricing for the add-ons that you will need. If you have more than 100 email users and the technical staff to maintain the spam appliance, buying your own filter may be your best option. Generally the basic model will work for most organizations. Large organizations with thousands of users will require a spam filter appliance with increases capacity and features. Spam appliances are designed to work with all mail systems but some do have specific enhancements for Exchange server Microsoft’s popular collaboration software and mail servers that support LDAP (light weight directory access protocol). Spam appliances use the LDAP protocol to verify recipients before delivering messages to your email server, this avoids consuming server resources.

If your business has five to one hundred employees, then an outsourced anti spam and virus filter service is going to be a good economical choice for your organization. Fees are based on the number of users and you only pay for what you use. You will not have hardware to buy, maintain, and upgrade. The upfront cost is minimal and most email filtering providers will let you try the service for free at first. Another added benefit to outsourcing your spam control is redundancy. It is important that you choose a provider that has their spam and virus filters collocated at secure internet data center facilities. Data centers provide redundant network connections and power, so if your email server or internet connection is down unexpectedly the spam appliance will hold your email until your email server becomes available, minus spam and viruses.

Anti spam technology is constantly improving and the costs are getting lower. With increased productivity and an added layer of defense against virus attacks, an anti spam appliance or service is something your business can not afford to be without.

About the Author:
John Tourloukis is the founder of Fast PC Networks an internet consulting company and anti spam and virus filter service firm.
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Spammers Use Subliminal Messaging To Push Their Wares

Report On New Spam Tactic

Anti-Spam experts at SophosLabs startled the world with a news item in the month of September (2006). Their systems detected a new kind of spam mail that uses animated graphic images to lure their customers.

Nothing earth-shaking, one would say. One has learned to live with the nuisance; they are like flies hovering around your face, which you simply wave away with your hand. The reason why this news became sensational and got picked up by all the news feeders was because of the word "subliminal" in it.

The news item that the spammers wanted to spread (and that got detected) was on Trimax Corporation, a small-cap stock. Such campaigns are dubbed "pump-and-dump" stock campaigns by people in the know. The trick the spammers deployed this time however, was to compose the main ad as a GIF image. After doing so, they went one step further and composed three other frames; each of these frames were of the same size, same color level and same format as the frame for the main advert (basic prerequisites for an animation to occur). These other frames had the word "Buy" placed randomly in two different hues, with and without exclamation marks for added emphasis. In the GIF construction program, they set these frames to appear after every ten to forty milliseconds. So, when the advert appeared in the mail, you got to see the main ad, and then these lil "Buy!" frames popped up every now and then.

Cool, eh! There are quite a few of these lovelies in my spam box, as I write this piece.

Cat And Mouse Game

It is the same cat and mouse game. As anti-spam filters become stronger, spammers keep cranking newer and more creative ways to beat them.

Up until two years ago, majority of the spamming community used text to communicate their love to us. Beginning last year, they came up with GIF messages which timid text-oriented filters couldn't block. When anti-spammers built their OCR (optical character reader) plugins that were capable of looking at GIF spam eyeball-to-eyeball; along came these animated GIFs which did the same thing - communicating their love to us - but now with a song and dance.

The trick that gives the spamming side an edge - for the moment, at least - is that the latest version of anti-spamming OCR plugin apparently only looks into the first frame for specific keywords ["BUY" is a keyword! :)]. After having satisfied itself that the first frame is innocent, it waves ahead the entire cargo. And there it lands in your inbox, waiting for you to open it!

Is It Truly Subliminal?

By its very definition, for a message to be truly subliminal, the hidden text/ image should not be discernible to the conscious eye. But the offending advertisement's BUY message is. And since it is visible, even if the anti-spam filter allowed it into the inbox, you as an intelligent reader can immediately make out that the message is spam. Whatever value the "pump-and-dump" spammers wanted the TRIMAX stock to shoot up to, I am sure it may not have succeeded. Or perhaps, may it have? (The latest ticker on Trimax is here.)

By setting the delay period for successive frames to appear to even less value, would it have been possible to flash the "BUY" messages without the eyes consciously detecting it? Meaning, would the message have become truly subliminal? Would they have achieved what they wanted to achieve? Gaaa! When is the next anti-spam version due???

The Controversy Continues

The advertisers are out to get Subliminal Messaging by its balls, really. Right from the word go, sensationalism has followed subliminality like a faithful dog. Whatever be the motivation of the likes of James Vicary or Vance Packard in the fifties, or the spammers in the twenty-first century, their shenanigans have only served to give subliminal messaging a bad name.

It is like a double-edged sword. Used correctly, subliminal messaging can be, and is, a good self-development tool. So while the spammer-antispammer battle continues out there, let's improve and enrich our lives with those beautiful audio and visual CDs!

About the Author:
Sanjay Agrawal is a Business Coach and self-development enthusiast. Get rid of the pain and the hurt in your life by listening to some excellent audio subliminal messaging CDs available here. Want a visual version that achieves the same thing while you are working on your computer? Get this.
(The complete news from Sophos, including the offending ad, and views & comments from the experts, may be viewed here.)
Copyright 2006. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and give author name credit.
Article Submitted On: October 26, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

How Spammers Fool Bayesian Filters - And How to Stop Them

Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam. The old ways of blocking the bad guys just don’t work anymore.

Examining spam and spam-blocking technology can illuminate how this evolution is taking place and what can be done to combat spam and reclaim e-mail as the efficient, effective communication tool it was intended to be.

One method used to combat spam is Bayesian Filtering. Named after Thomas Bayes, an English mathematician, Bayesian Logic is used in decision making and inferential statistics. Bayesian Filers maintain a database of known spam and ham, or legitimate email. Once the database is large enough, the system ranks the words according to the probability they will appear in a spam message.

Words more likely to appear in spam are given a high score (between 51 and 100), and words likely to appear in legitimate email are given a low score (between 1 and 50). For example, the words “free” and “sex” generally have values between 95 and 98, whereas the words “emphasis” or “disadvantage” may have a score between 1 and 4. Commonly used words such as “the” and “that”, and words new to the Bayesian filters are given a neutral score between 40 and 50 and would not be used in the system’s algorithm.

When the system receives an email, it breaks the message down into tokens, or words with values assigned to them. The system utilizes the tokens with scores on the high and low end of the range and develops a score for the email as a whole. If the email has more spam tokens than ham tokens, the email will have a high spam score. The email administrator determines a threshold score the system uses to allow email to pass through to users.

Bayesian filters are effective at filtering spam and minimizing false positives. Because they adapt and learn based on user feedback, Bayesian Filers produce better results as they are used within an organization over time. They are not, however, foolproof. Spammers have learned which words Bayesian Filters consider spammy and have developed ways to insert non-spammy words into emails to lower the message’s overall spam score. By adding in paragraphs of text from novels or news stories, spammers can dilute the effects of high-ranking words. Text insertion has also caused normally legitimate words that are found in novels or news stories to have an inflated spam score. This may potentially render Bayesian filters less effective over time.

Another approach spammers use to fool Bayesian filters is to create less spammy emails. For example, a spammer may send an email containing only the phrase, “Here’s the link…”. This approach can neutralize the spam score and entice users to click on a link to a Web site containing the spammer’s message. To block this type of spam, the filter would have to be designed to follow the link and scan the content of the Web site users are asked to visit. This type of filtering is not currently employed by Bayesian filters because it would be prohibitively expensive in terms of server resources and could potentially be used as a method of launching denial of service attacks against commercial servers.

As with all single-method spam filtering methodologies, Bayesian filters are effective against certain techniques spammers use to fool spam filters, but are not a magic bullet to solving the spam problem. Bayesian filters are most effective when combined with other methods of spam detection.

The Solution
When used individually, each anti-spam technique has been systematically overcome by spammers. Grandiose plans to rid the world of spam, such as charging a penny for each e-mail received or forcing servers to solve mathematical problems before delivering e-mail, have been proposed with few results. These schemes are not realistic and would require a large percentage of the population to adopt the same anti-spam method in order to be effective. You can learn more about the fight against spam by visiting our website at www.ciphertrust.com and downloading our whitepapers.

About the author:
Paul Judge, CTO, CipherTrust, Inc.
Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry's largest provider of enterprise email security. The company’s flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection today.
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Spam, What Is It Good For, Absolutely Nothing!

Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE), or spam has reached epidemic proportions, and continues to grow. According to American Online, of the estimated 30 million email messages each day, about 30% on average was unsolicited commercial email. As a result of its very low marginal costs, spam has become extremely prolific. Regardless of how many emails are sent out, the spammers' costs are low, and constant. With numbers like these, there is a tremendous burden shifted to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) to process and store that amount of data. Huge volumes of this junk may undoubtedly contribute to many of the access, speed, and reliability problems suffered by many ISPs. Further, many large ISPs have experienced major system outages as the result of massive junk email campaigns. Spam is an issue about consent, not content. Regardless of whether the UCE message is an advertisement, porn, or a winning lottery notice, the content is irrelevant. If the message was sent unsolicited, and in bulk then the message is spam.

This junk e-mail is more than just annoying; it costs Internet users, and Internet-based businesses millions, even billions, per year. When a spammer sends an email message to a million people, it is carried by numerous electronic systems on route to its destination. The systems in between are bearing the burden of carrying advertisements, and other unsolicited junk for the spammer. The number of spams sent out each day is truly overwhelming, and each one must be handled efficiently, and expeditiously by many systems. There is no justification for forcing third parties to bear the load of unsolicited advertising. Ultimately, these costs are passed on to YOU, the consumer.

Spam originates in one of two ways, it is sent directly by the spammer from and under their control, or via illegal third party exploitation such as open proxies or open relays. Spammers get your address in a variety of ways. If you sign up for, and provide your email address, these seemingly friendly sites can turn around and sell your email to advertisers. Additionally, if you have your email address on a Web page, it is easy for unscrupulous advertisers to "harvest" it, and add you to their lists.

There are ways to reduce the number of spam messages, however it is presently impossible to stop them all. Spam filters, are software applications that redirect emails based on the presence of certain common phrases, or words. These automated measures are prone to being defeated by clever spammers. Additionally, there is a risk of important emails being deleted as spam. In 2003, Congress passed a sweeping law, CAN-SPAM act of 2003, which basically prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers in all emails. Additionally, the FTC is authorized (but not required) to establish a do-not-email registry. The CAN-SPAM Act took effect on January 1, 2004.

Spam is based on theft of service; it wastes time, money, and other resources. Spam can and will overwhelm your electronic mail box if it isn't fought. Over time, unless the growth of spam isn't stopped, it will destroy the usefulness and effectiveness of email as a communication tool.

About the Author:
Jay B Stockman O.D. is a contributing editor for Spam Blocker Software Solutions Visit http://spam-blockeronline.com/ for more information.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Use A Spam Filtering Tool To Manage Spam And Save Hours Everyday

For most of us, changing our primary email address to get rid of spam is not really an option. This is because our email addresses are known and used by many of our contacts and may also be printed on business cards and other material. We certainly don't move to a different residence because of some junk mail in our letter boxes. Luckily, there are some very effective ways to combat spam and one such was is using a Spam filtering tool.

The particular tool that I am referring to is called MailWasher. It is a tool that I cannot do without. I've been using it for about 2 years now and my running totals shows that 72% of emails received are automatically deleted by Mailwasher. For more product information on Mailwasher, please visit: www.BSDRegister.com/products/mailwasher

Mailwasher is a piece of software that works at the source i.e. it connects directly to your inbox on the server and takes care of emails there. This is very different to using email filters in your email software for example Outlook or Thunderbird. The major difference is that Mailwasher wipes out emails on the email server so that you never have to download them. Having a filter in Outlook would mean that the email has to first be downloaded onto your computer and then examined and dealt with accordingly. For those messages spreading viruses, this could well pose a threat.

Mailwasher is easy to setup and takes a few minutes. There is a 30-day free trial of the software so that you can have ample time to decide if it is working for you. Initially, I started setting up my own spam filters and was having some success, but then I stumbled upon a link on the company's website that pointed to a link where an avid user was offering his filters for free. I downloaded those and installed them and have never look back. The amount of spam that was identified started to steadily increase until the 72% level that it is at today. This means that on average, 3 of every 10 eamils I receive are legitimate and are allowed through by Mailwasher. The rest are deleted at the source and I don't have to spend time downloading them. This is a big deal if you are using dialup access to the Internet.

There are many controls within the software. You can specify emails be deleted automatically without your knowledge or you could have the program mark them for deletion but let you glance at them just in case. This is useful initially until you get a good feel for it. There are many other options that fall in between these. The good thing is that they are all on one screen.

There is a concept of a blacklist and a whitelist. You can import all of your address book from Outlook with a couple of clicks and from other email programs as well. These go into what is called a whitelist. Mailwasher will allow all emails through that are on the whitelist. It will mark or automatically delete all those that are on the blacklist. Adding or removing someone from either list is a very simple point and click exercise.

Mailwasher also allows the setting up of legitimate filters. These are methods of specifying an email as legitimate. For example, if you identify all emails coming from your company domain name as being legitimate, then all messages from your coworkers will be allowed through without you having to specify each person. This is achieved using a wildcard setting such as "*@youworkdomain.com". This can also be used to blacklist an entire domain such that all messages are immediately marked for deletion or automatically deleted depending on your settings.

MailWasher is an independent program and does not interfere with your email software. It sits in the system tray and does its work diligently. In my case, it checks my inbox every 10 minutes and does a cleanout. I have my email software setup to only retrieve messages when I instruct it to so that MailWasher has the most opportunity to do it's work.

Mailwasher also has more advanced controls, one of them being something known as "Origin of Spam". There are servers on the internet which list known spam addresses. When you receive a message from one of these addresses, it is automatically marked as spam and deleted without your filters even being invoked. This is a remarkable system and comes free with MailWasher. A whopping 14% of emails that I get are identified in this manner and automatically deleted.

MailWasher is an indispensable tool in my email arsenal. If spam is a problem for you, it could do likewise for you. Download your free trial today and use it for 30 days. If you like it, you only pay $37 which in my book is a small price to pay for so much time saved everyday.

About the Author:
Balraj Dhaliwal is an Internet Consultant for BSD Register, a well respected and liked domain and hosting provider because of its no nonsense simple approach to getting things done. Visit BSD Register at http://www.BSDRegister.com
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

How To Choose Anti-Spam Filter?

The damage spam brings you is huge: loss of time, bandwidth and money, risk to delete a legitimate message together with junk emails. So, an anti-spam filter is not a whim but a necessity for almost all PC users who actively use email.

What criteria should you follow to choose the right spam filtering program? What capabilities must an anti-spam tool have to filter and cut off spam mail in most effective way?

Here are the main features a good anti-spam software must have to block spam effectively:

1) it should be a standalone spam filtering tool, which checks all incoming emails on the server, detects and deletes spam messages.

2) deletion of spam without receiving it in your inbox. This way you won't download all the superfluous kilobytes into your inbox and you won't see annoying spam mail.

3) powerful antispam filters built in one program that analyze the message from "outside" and "inside": message header, message body, and message source. Flexible whitelist and blacklist easy to edit and update are also very useful as they help save much time when filtering emails. Good anti-spam software must also have the Bayesian filter in its arsenal of spam filtering tools.

4) easy and safe method to preview emails marked as spam. Inherent in antispam technology is the fact that there will be false positives and false negatives, i.e., email can be flagged as spam even though it is not actually spam and vice versa.

5) flexible spam filtering. Spam emails should be moved to a separate folder. A good spam filtering software should provide the ability to recover an email if it was accidentally marked as spam and trashed.

Simply put, an anti-spam program must be a standalone, easy-to-use software supplied with powerful anti-spam filters able to be adjusted by every user for his personal needs. Now with all that said above you can choose the right anti-spam software among all spam filtering programs available on the Internet.

About The Author:
Julia Gulevich
Author is a technical expert associated with development of computer software like Anti-Spam Software. More information can be found at Anti Spam Filter Resources
Submitted: 2006-10-19
Article Source: GoArticles