Anti-Spam Tools

Spam Reader is an anti-spam add-on for Microsoft Outlook, that automatically scans your incoming messages and filters spam into a designated Spam folder, from where you can review and delete it. The filtering results were very good, and the program caught most common spam without any further adjustment. Spam Reader uses a Bayesian engine, so the filtering will automatically adapt and learn from messages that you designate as spam or good mail. To make sure that important mail is not accidentally filtered, you can also specify a list of senders that are excluded from filtering, exclude mail that matches Outlook rules, and define keywords and phrases that will always cause the message to be recognized as good mail. Spam Reader is easy-to-use, does not require any maintenance and provides excellent filtering right after installation.

Spam Bully is an anti-spam tool for MS Outlook, that learns from spam messages and continually adjusts itself to protect your mailbox. It uses proactive rather than reactive methods for eliminating spam, and will actually keep 99% of spam out of your inbox in most cases. We tested it on our spam mailbox and it filtered 199 out of 200 spam messages that were downloaded. This is very impressive, considering that it does not require any kind of user configurations. If needed however, you can customize the filtering by maintaining an automatically generated Friends list and also add any senders to a block list with a single click. Spam Bully tightly integrates with Outlook and moves all spam messages into a new folder (Spam) from where they can be permanently deleted. This enables you to keep an eye on what is being filtered and to make sure that no good messages got caught by the filter. The program can also bounce messages from known spammers, query emails sent from unknown senders (require confirmation), block selected attachments types and more. In addition, it produces a nice graph view that you can use to view your daily, weekly or yearly spam statistics. An excellent choice for Outlook users, and from what we have tested so far, it is definitely the most sophisticated one. A must-try for any Outlook user!

ChoiceMail is your digital doorman for all your email. It monitors all your incoming messages and any senders unknown to you are held up and the sender is asked to fill in a short form explaining why he or she wants to contact you. If senders do not register after a set period, their messages are quietly deleted. You are notified of new mail, as soon as the sender confirmed the message, and have the option to add him/her to your approval mail permanently, so that the validation process has not be repeated the next time. ChoiceMail runs as a local POP server, and no mail is ever lost. If you want, you can browse the pending or rejected email messages at any time, they are safely stored on your local computer until they are either deleted by you or confirmed. The program acts as a "waiting area" between your email program and the internet. It downloads all your email, just like you would normally do, but only the ones that were approved by you are passed on to your email program (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape etc). ChoiceMail can be customized in many aspects, you can pre-approve all your current contacts (imported from your address book) and setup rules to automatically approve messages based on domain, subject, keywords and more. You can also setup filters to automatically delete obvious spam and pre-approve anyone that you are sending an email to, eliminating the need for them get confirmed. Additional features include spam statistics, customized response messages, multiple accounts and more. ChoiceMail works with your existing email address and accounts.

SpamAid is an easy-to-use Microsoft Outlook add-on that automatically filters the spam from incoming email and moves it into a quarantined folder from where it can be reviewed or deleted. The engine uses Bayesian filtering technology that identifies about 97% of incoming spam messages, and an additional Auto-Learning feature increases the filtration accuracy by analysis of the user`s personal correspondence. The program achieved very good results during our tests, and detected almost all spam messages. Since individual email needs are different, you can further customize the filtering, specify a list of friends and enemies, and also keywords that should bypass the filtering. Additional features include an option to quarantine all non-english character emails, system tray notification and more. SpamAid is a highly effective add-on that allows you to get rid of the spam in your inbox, without taking a chance to accidentally delete an important email, that may have been caught in the filter. Easy and safe to use.

MailFrontier Desktop is a comprehensive anti-spam solution that integrates with Microsoft Outlook and automatically filters incoming spam into a special junkmail folder. The program combines several popular spam filtering techniques as well as anti-phishing features. It uses Bayesian filtering to automatically learn from spam messages, and a combination of blacklists and allowed senders to permanently block or allow certain recipients. In addition, MailFrontier also includes a challenge system that enables you to require a verification from the sender before his or her mail is accepted. Other features include detailed spam statistics, forwarding of messages to wireless devices, customizable content filter settings and more. MailFrontier Desktop delivers very accurate filtering straight out of the box, and can be easily tweaked to adapt to your personal email preferences.

Ella is an easy to use and very effective spam filtering system that integrates into Microsoft Outlook and automatically sorts incoming spam into special folders, keeping your inbox free of junk. Ella uses a fully automatic learning process that intelligently recognizes spam and requires no technical expertise or setup. Just follow the step-by-step wizard, point Ella to a few email messages that you consider good, and some that are junk and Ella will take it from there. In many cases you will have excellent filter results immediately after that, and if you have messages that slip through, you can simply click a button on the Outlook toolbar to tell Ella that you consider a message to be spam (or good) and the program will automatically learn from it and act accordingly in the future. Even though the Ella system is fully automatic, it is also highly adaptive and learns from your personal preferences, so that your spam filtering will be completely customized without the need for any complicated configurations on your end. Ella for Spam Control does not delete any email, but only moves it into spam folders, from where you can choose to delete it or review the messages later.

Norton AntiSpam works with any POP3 email program and automatically detects and flags spam as it arrives in your inbox and moves it into a special Spam folder, from where you can restore or delete any message. The program works directly on the TCP/IP level and does not reuqire you to change any settings in your email program. Norton AntiSpam can automatically learn from your email behaviour and will detect a high percentage of spam immediately after installation. You can also manually add new rules or add people to a never-block list to customize the spam filtering actions.

SpamBully for Outlook Express is an anti-spam tool for Outlook Express (or any other POP3 email program), that learns from spam messages and continually adjusts itself to protect your mailbox. It uses proactive rather than reactive methods for eliminating spam, and will actually keep 99% of spam out of your inbox in most cases. We tested it on our spam mailbox and it filtered 199 out of 200 spam messages that were downloaded. This is very impressive, considering that it does not require any kind of user configurations. If needed however, you can customize the filtering by maintaining an automatically generated Friends list and also add any senders to a block list with a single click. The program can also bounce messages from known spammers, query emails sent from unfamiliar emailers (require confirmation), block selected attachments types and more. In addition, it produces a nice graph view that you can use to view your daily, weekly or yearly spam statistics. Even though optimized for Outlook Express, Spam Bully can work with any POP3 compatible email program. It runs a local POP server, that acts as a front-end to your email program.

G-Lock SpamCombat is a complex anti-spam solution that combines Bayesian filtering with customizable rules. It scans the email messages while they are still in your POP3 account, and can automatically delete spam on the server, so that it is not even downloaded to your email program. Even though the email is deleted from your POP account, you can still browse through the deleted items and recover any mail if needed (similar to Windows Recycle bin). The Bayesian filter option allows G-Lock SpamCombat to learn from your actions, so all you have to do is mark a message as spam or good and the program automatically adjusts its filter settings to become more accurate. In addition, you can configure custom rules for messages that should always be deleted or accepted, remove viruses and malicious code and more. Additional features include statistical graphs, HTML tag filtering and more.

Webroot Spam Shredder automatically filters and quarantines spam and junk mail from your incoming email, before it reaches your Inbox. The program runs as a local POP server and auto-configures Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora email accounts to filter all incoming messages. Spam Shredder works right away and does not require any manual filter set up. New filter settings can be downloaded automatically to keep up with the latest spammer tactics. In addition, you can maintain a Whitelist and Blacklist to identify email that should be immediately delivered or instantly deleted. The program offers 4 level of spam sensitivity, ranging from minimal to extreme. The quarantine messages are not deleted but initially kept in a quarantine location, from where you can review them , and restore selected messages if necessary.

AntispamSniper for Outlook Express is a spam filter that integrates with Outlook Express and automatically filters your incoming mail. It moves spam into a Junk Mail folder, from where you can review it and delete it later. The program combines several spam filtering techniques including attachment filtering, DNSBL filtering, customizable spam rules, blocking of specific senders and more. If a message slips through the filter or is incorrectly classified, you can easily train the filtering engine by simply clicking a button on the toolbar. The program will detect and filter a high percentage of common spam without the need for further configuration, and the accuracy will improve as it learns from your messages.

CleanMail Home (formerly No Spam Today! for Workstations) is a POP3 spam and antivirus filter for Outlook, Outlook Express and all other POP3 email clients, that uses the SpamAssassin engine to perform Bayesian filtering of incoming messages, and also quarantines message attachments for added security. The program runs as a local POP3 server and marks the subject line of incoming spam, so you can use your email program`s rules feature to further process the messages based on your preference (move them, delete them etc.). You can customize the text that is added to the subject line, and also choose to delete spam messages immediately. The (open-source) spam engine used, has been proven to work very effectively, however to get most out of the program, you will need some basic understanding of POP accounts and email rules. The CleanMail installer can optionally launch installation of the free Clam Anti-Virus package.

Spamcc is an anti-spam tool that combines Bayesian filtering with a Blacklists, a Friends list and a set of custom keyword filters to automatically mark or delete incoming messages before they are even downloaded to your computer. The program works with POP3, IMAP, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo and MSN accounts. You can preview messages, delete them, mark them as spam or write a quick reply. The Bayesian filter will automatically learn from new messages that you mark as spam and will adjust the automatic filtering to improve accuracy. Additional features include blocking by country, message grouping, attachment filtering, preview and saving of messages, geographical tracing and more.

EMailTrackerPro enables you to analyze email headers to determine the true origin of the sender. Many spammers attempt to disguise the sender with fake information but eMailTracker will use the actual route information and IP addresses from the email header and trace the geographical location of the originating server on a world map. The program will also gather additional information that enables you to contact the responsible ISP and network providers if you want to file a complaint.

Zaep AntiSpam is a challenge based anti-spam system that can eliminate 100% of the spam you receive. Unlike spam filters, it does not use any kind of filter or content scanning, but uses a challenge response, a customizable message that is sent to each sender (that is not yet on your approved list) and verifies the identity. The message contains an URL that the user can click on to be added to your list of approved senders. There is no need to resend the message, the purpose is just to confirm the identity of the sender. In addition, the program also performs some additional checking and makes sure that the email addresses actually exist before even sending a response, and auto-blocking the ones that are invalid. Zaep supports multiple accounts and offers individual response messages, white/blacklists for each, as well statistics and more.

SpamExperts Desktop is spam filter that works with any email program and automatically intercepts spam - no configuration or changes to your existing email setup are required! Even though the program does require an initial training phase (you simply need to tell it which messages are good and which are spam), it does not rely on keyword lists to detect spam, but automatically learns from the content of the messages that you accept or reject within a few days. The email that is identified as spam is either tagged in the subject line and can then be sorted into a spam folder (using your email rules), or you can choose to block it completely, in which case it is not downloaded to your email program but can still be reviewed and recovered (if needed) from the SpamExperts cache. SpamExperts Desktop can also check your email periodically, filtering spam in the background, and maintain a list of blocked and allowed senders.

SpamEater Pro is an advanced anti-spam and email notification system. SpamEater can reduce the amount of spam you see in your mailbox by 95% or more! It ll also notify you of any waiting mail after it clears out the spam by using a popup window, playing your choice of a WAV file, or even executing your email client software. It offers complex (yet, easy to use) rule processing, a POP3 Profile Wizard, a Rules Wizard, support for real-time Blacklist database lookups and much more.

Flystrike Spam Interrogator allows you to analyze e-mail messages before downloading them from the POP server. The program then assigns a score based on an inventory of tests to help you identify spam messages. Each message is then marked as good, possible spam or spam and the reasons for it are indicated along the side of the mailbox view. It includes several unique features like an option to compare messages based on a MD5 hash, creation of your personal IP block list, and blocking based on URLs found in the message (most spams contain some sort of URL). Additional features include optional complaint messages to the ISP, color coding of messages and more. We found it a little complicated to use and didn't like the interface that much.

Aggressive Spam Defense can keep your inbox clean by deleting unsolicited emails before they reach your inbox. It comes pre-configured to detect most common spam, and can further learn from your usage, and also easily be customized. An attractive interface allows you to assign weights to each of the detection keywords and phrases. In addition to email content, sender and subject, it can also filter based on the attachment type, allowing you to automatically delete potential email worms before downloading them. The program checks your POP account and displays a color-coded list of your incoming mail, marking all spam in red, good mail in green and all others in yellow. If you want, it can also delete spam automatically, so you don`t have to deal with it at all. You can preview each message, using a safe-preview and then choose to delete it or keep it.

Spam Buster is an anti-spam filter that works directly on your POP3 account(s) and marks spam messages, so they can be deleted before you download your mail with your regular email program. It uses a configurable set of keyword filters based on subject,sender, header and other email criteria. The program comes pre-configured with a large list of filters, and you can add your own or remove the filters that dont apply to your email habits. In addition, Spam Buster provides graphical statistics for top spammers, spam traffic by day of week, hour and more. It can also check mail automatically and notify you of new mail on the server.

(STEVEN) is an anti-spam system that validates the sender of the email rather than relying on content alone to determine whether a message is spam or not. The program runs on your local machines and automatically replies to all emails it retrieves with a brief (customizable) message, asking the sender to validate the message by replying to it. Since the majority of spammers will not have a valid address, nor will they reply, it can eliminate almost all spam messages, without deleting any important mail. All messages, that have not yet been validated are added to a special queue from where you can review them, manually approve senders or delete them. Additional features include attachment blocking, web interface with statistics, sender blacklist and more.

SpamAgent is a powerful email monitoring and filtering tool that allows you to get the email you want - and nothing more. It includes a comprehensive set of filters that block most spam and unwanted emails before they reach your inbox, and you can also add your custom entries to further improve the performance. SpamAgent runs silently in the background and monitors your incoming messages at a user defined interval. The program can filter email messages based on its sender, recipient, subject, body, as well as attachment type, forwards, and much more. SpamAgent offers to keep a list of friends, that will always be excluded from any filtering. Additionally, a built in reporting tool helps you fight back against spammers by reporting the unwanted intrusions directly to the spammers ISP. Unlike many other anti-spam tools, SpamAgent does not show the "good" email, but only acts as a spam collector, removing the spam from your mailbox. Even though, the spam is removed from your mailbox, it is actually deleted, unless you say so. SpamAgent allows you to review the filtered messages and optionally recover them before you decide to permanently get rid of them.

Mailbox Guard lets you fight spam, junkmail and viruses before they get into your inbox. It scans and analyzes every message that arrives on your ISPs mail server and ranks it s risk in four categories: Virus, Spam, X-Rated and Bad Language. Depending on the risk factor of the content, each mail is color coded in red, orange, yellow or green. You can specify which level should automatically mark messages for deletion or choose messages individually. Selected items can then be deleted on the server, without being downloaded to your local PC. Additional features include background mail check, notification on new mail, plain-text preview and more. Mailbox Guard uses a built-in smart filtering engine that detected all spam messages during our test.

MailMate is a spam filter that sits between your email program and your mail server. It acts as a local POP3 server proxy, that picks up all the mail from your ISP mail account, filters it and then passes it on to your email program the next time you check you your mail. The spam is automatically filtered and moved into a Junk mail area, from where you can review it, delete it or restore it. No mail is ever deleted without your consent. MailMate comes with a built-in keyword filter list that can be customized and can import your address book to create a list of friends that will be excluded from filtering. The filtering uses the message subject, sender and content of the email and can also filter by country, attachment and several other common spam techniques like Java applets, ActiveX content, IFrames and others.

SpamButcher is an easy to use anti-spam filter that checks for new messages in your inbox every X minutes and if it finds any spam, the messages are moved to a holding area for your later examination or deletion. SpamButcher utilizes a fuzzy logic system that offers 3 levels of aggressiveness. During our tests, it detected a high percentage of spam with almost no false positives. SpamButcher works directly on your POP3 mailbox and runs independently of any email program. You can also add senders to a WhiteList or BlackList in order to keep their mail from being accidentally filtered. The filtered email is saved and can be purged after review or optionally automatically every X days. In addition, SpamButcher can optionally send you scheduled reports of all intercepted spam via e-mail and clicking on an email in the report can automatically restore it to your inbox. The program requires a POP3 account and therefore does not work with AOL or Hotmail accounts. Additional features include blocking of virus attachments and custom filter options.

Spam Monitor detects and tags unsolicited junk mail when you download it into your mailbox. It does not prevent the download of spam, but tags the subject line or headers of the incoming email, so that you can configure your email program to delete or otherwise process the suspected spam messages. The program offers a good set of flexible options that let you choose the level of filtering, as well as the use of external black lists. It further offers white/black list options, blocking by country and customizable network configurations. The program can automatically configure your email program to use Spam Monitor, it works on the TCP/IP level and works with any standard email program.

Mail Snoop Pro is an email spam filter that relies on manual filter configurations to identify and delete spam messages before they arrive in your Inbox. The program offers a set of filters that inspect the email subject, sender, message body, headers, attachments and other message properties and then makes a decision on whether do delete a message or let it pass through to your email client. The filters are pre-configured and can detect most common spam out-of-the-box and you can customize the filter settings based on your personal preference. Event though spam is deleted right away, the program keeps a backup copy of each deleted message and allows you to restore an item if it was incorrectly classified as spam. Unfortunately Mail Snoop Pro does not offer any learning mode (as most modern spam filter) so it will require frequent updating and tweaking in order to keep up with the latest spam scams. Other features include support for DNS blacklists, country specific filtering, support for multiple accounts, new mail notifications and more. Mail Snoop Pro works with POP3, IMAP and Hotmail accounts.

SpamWeed is a junk mail filter for Outlook, Outlook Express or any other POP3 email client (Eudora, PocoMail etc.) It runs as a POP3 proxy on the local computer and filters emails before they are delivered to your email program. SpamWeed uses statistical technology and an auto-generated white list to manage your regular email and spam. The program can automatically configure Outlook Express, and other email programs can be manually configured to connect through SpamWeed.

Disruptor OL is a anti-spam COM add-in for Outlook. It offers an automatic spam filter that will catch most common spam, as well as additional settings for advanced users, that allow you to tweak and customize the filtering process to your needs. It seamlessly integrates into Outlook and can be accessed from the toolbar. Disruptor OL includes DSNBL checking, language filters, keyword filters and (experimental) Bayesian filtering. In addition, it provides the ability to add senders to a whitelist or blacklist, blocking based on domains and more. The program also includes several features to enhance email security by converting messages to text, managing attachments, removing Java script, external images and more.

Spam Filter for ISPs is designed to be a front-end for your incoming SMTP server. It receives all emails addressed to your domain(s) and checks if the sender is listed in one or multiple DNS-based block lists; if not, the email is passed on to your main SMTP server. The administrator can configure which block lists to use, set allowed domains, filter by keyword and maintain a blacklist as well. SpamFilter runs on Windows and Linux systems, both distributions are included in the download.

Letterman is an effective anti-spam solution that combines pre-defined rules with customizable filter options that allow immediate filtering of spam out of the box, with the ability to customize the settings to match your personal email patterns. The program works with any POP3, Hotmail and Yahoo account, independent from your email program, so you don`t have to download messages first in order to filter them - spam is delete right on the server and never downloaded to your computer. Letterman offers a wide range of filtering options, including subject, sender, domain, country, foreign languages, and more. The built-in filters detected about 80% of spam during our test, and you can easily fin-tune them with a few clicks. Since Letterman works independently from your email program, you need to manage and delete spam before you download your messages, which adds an extra step to the mail checking process, but has the advantage of not downloading spam and potential viruses to your computer. Overall a very flexible, spam tool, however it requires constant fine tuning and interaction to keep your inbox spam free.

Bongosoft AntiSpam 2004 is a challenge based anti-spam solution, that allows you to receive email from people you know, and sends a confirmation request to all other senders. Only if the sender replies to the confirmation mail with the password included in the message, will his email go through. Once confirmed, the sender does not have to go through the procedure again, and all subsequent e-mail from that sender are passed to your inbox. To make sure that the password is not read by a machine, it is converted to an image and sent as embedded picture or attachment. Unlike most other programs of this type, Bongosoft AntiSpam works directly on the TCP level and does not require you to run a local proxy. It works fully automatically with any email program and does not require you to change any settings whatsoever. The messages that are awaiting authentication are kept in your POP box and will be deleted if they are not confirmed after a customizable number of days. Messages from known senders or that were confirmed will automatically appear in your Inbox during normal email retrieval. You can also review the queue of pending messages and manually block any sender or domain by clicking a button.

SoftInform SpamBlocker is a POP3 spam filter that works independently from your email program. It connects to your POP3 account and deletes all messages that match a set of filters based on sender and keywords contained in the mail. The program comes with a built-in list of spam words, which produces good results for most common spam. You can create additional rules and filters that allow you to add your own spam words, block or allow senders and more. While SpamBlocker provides you with a log of messages that have been deleted, it does not allow you to recover any messages that have been incorrectly classified as spam, which severely limits the usability if you depend on email for business or other important matters.

Vade Retro Antispam is a spam filter for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express that automatically scans incoming emails and sorts potential spam and viruses into dedicated folders from where they can be reviewed and deleted. The program`s filtering capabilities are based on a service that requires frequent updating of the filter definitions, which eliminates the need to create manual filters. We found the filtering results to be rather mediocre with only 70-75% of spam messages caught. Unlike most modern spam tools, Vade Retro Antispam does not have the capability to learn from misclassified messages, so there is no way for the user to improve the filtering results, other than hoping for improved filter updates - which are not provided during the evaluation period.

Ensnare is a spam filter that monitors your POP3 accounts and filters out suspected spam messages. The spam is removed from your account, so that it is not downloaded into your email program. You can then review the filtered messages from the program interface and restore any of them if necessary. In addition to a built-in detection algorithm, Ensnare offers a combination of whitelists, blacklists, and an adaptive statistical filtering system. This allows you to exclude certain emails or completely block others.

GFI MailEssentials for Exchange/SMTP is a server based anti spam and email management solution for Microsoft Exchange Server and Notes/SMTP servers. Spam is caught before it gets to the mail server, no need to deploy client software. Its advanced Spam detection technology is based on: Content checking of body and subject for spam keywords, checking mail headers for typical spam practices, and checking if the sending mail server is on a third part black list such as ORDB. Admins can also set-up their own blacklists, as well as reduce false positives using the automatic whitelist feature. The program also features disclaimers, mail monitoring of particular email addresses, centralized mail archiving to database, mail reporting (e.g., top mail users), POP3 downloading and auto replies with variables/fields. The anti spam DNS blacklists checking (ORDBC etc.), custom blacklist and automatic whitelist modules are freeware and will not time out after evaluation has ended.