anti-spam measures - please advise

[matt_richards]

Hello there,

I am having a real spam problem with one of my email accounts (not hotmail). At the moment I am attempting to keep it under control with message filter rules and regular screening and deleting but it is getting very annoying.

What anti-spam measures can you guys recommend? I don’t think there is much point pursuing this through my ISP so I am probably looking at some kind of program that sits between OE and my mail server and filters. I have experimented with a program called mailwasher, but this was not nearly automated enough. I know that mcaffee have spamkiller out, but I don’t know how effective or reliable that is – I don’t want something to trap legitimate emails in the process.

Can anyone advise?

TIA.

Matt.

[reboot]

Mailwasher. If you don't think it's automated enough, just try some of the others (that cost money), and you'll see how easy Mailwasher is to use.
If you read the help files, it explains how to use wildcards to remove things, and you can have them automatically deleted from the server, without you even seeing them.

[mikeheitz]

Matt,

I can tell you what I have done here on my email servers, and what I've researched on the desktop level...

for a home setup, you are going to be forced to either make-do with the free-ware/shareware programs, like 'em or hate 'em. OR, if you are at a point where you'll spend a few dollars to snuff out SPAM, you could look at something like SPAMArrest (www.spamarrest.com). It's basically an ASP (application service provider) that your email will be routed through before you receive it. You pay a monthly fee (couple bucks per month I think) and create a list of people who are allowed to email you. If an email comes to you that is not on the accepted list, the sender receives an email with a link to be added to your list. No spammer will respond to this, so it effectively blocks any SPAM. Another product similar to this but that runs onyour desktop (I believe... haven't eval'd it) is called ChoiceMail from a company called digiportal.com... I've spoken with some reps there (hoping for a version I can deploy in my network) and it sound pretty nice. I think the desktop version runs around $40.

Just for giggles... here's our anti-spam defense here at work...

Norton AV Gateway in the DMZ which blocks all known dangerous attachments >

Surf Control SPAM filter with rulesets based on known SPAM email domains and digital patterns of their emails >

Email finally gets to the email server and is delivered > Outlook rules try to catch the rest.

I still receive around 50-75 SPAM emails per day.

Good luck.

[matt_richards]

Thanks for the feedback guys,

reboot: I don't mind paying some money if there are better alternatives out there, but I take it you think mailwasher does a pretty good job. what I really want to do is get some consensus on what are the most effective programs out there. If it was another kind of program I would be happy to experiment myself, but as it is my main business address, I cannot afford to have it disrupted by unreliable software.

mike: Thanks for all the info. I would not be able to use an accepted/rejected sender list system as I get a lot of sales email enquiries. I have a feeling that the link-clicking system would throw a lot of them off and I may lose orders as a result. Looks like I am stuck with ruleset based systems - as I say I don't mind paying as long as I know it will have a significant effect.

If anyone has any more recommendations, please speak up.

[bigpuma]

I also use mailwasher and I have found I get very little spam compared to what I used to get. I like it.

[reboot]

Pay or not, mailwasher does an excellent job. You just have to set up the filters properly. Don't just add the junk to the spam list, take a look at the sender, and usually you can add the whole domain using wildcards.
BTW, I have Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL all blocked, which cuts out at least 50% of spam.

[matt_richards]

cool - thanks guys.

I am going to give mailwasher another try.

If anyone has any other ideas, keep them coming.

[kissfan]

suppose this is already known, but never use the unsubscribe on the email, this only confirms to the spammer that you have a live email address.

[matt_richards]

Cheers mate - I heard about that too.

[roberth]

I use and like Cloudmark's Spamnet. It is great and has a 30 day free period. It does let some spam through like they all do but it hasn't every declared one of my friends or business clients to be a spammer. Try it.