Toolbox for MS Outlook

Why spam filters don't work:

If they are run on your local machine, you suffer the inconvenience and loss of bandwidth of having to download them.

Server-based spam filters are better (and there are plenty of free ones). There are two types:

Bayesian Filters

These examine the message and try to determine if it 'looks' like spam. Can also be combined with IP address black-lists. Pretty good, but you still end up with a "suspected spam" list which you have to check to be absolutely sure nothing has been picked up by mistake. Our toolbox can automatically delete emails based on key words/phrases, to help reduce the burden somewhat.

Challenge-response.

You send someone an email, they send a reply asking you to go to a website and enter a code to verify you are a human. Three problems with this:

1. Spammers spoof sender addresses. So now you are spamming a completely innocent person with your "confirmation" email.
2. Spammers will send out spam which purports to be a "confirmation" email just to get people to their website which could easily contain pornography, trojans etc.
3. You are asking someone to jump through several "hoops" just to get in touch with you, many won't bother.

The Solution to spam