Home Computer Aid

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam! (Sorry Monty!)

Spam is unsolicited and/or unwanted e-mail. I don't know about you, but I get a LOT of it!

The best free Antispam software I've found to date is called SpamPal. It isn't very fast, but it works pretty well.

As your mail comes in, SpamPal sorts it into real e-mail which goes to your In box, and Spam which goes to your SpamPal box. Being that I get about 30 to 50 pieces of Spam per day and about 10 pieces of legitimate e-mail, it really helps to have it sorted like that.

I do recommend going through your SpamPal box and checking for legitimate e-mail that may have been inadvertently identified as Spam. No software is perfect, and an occaisonal piece of Spam makes it to your In box, and an occaisonal piece of legitimate e-mail may make it to your SpamPal box (less than 1% in my experience).

To try and protect yourself from spamming, don't reply to Spam! Spammers make spam. If you reply to their message, they know they've found a legitimate e-mail address to send more spam to! Don't reply to "opt out" buttons in spammed e-mail. If you've legitimately joined a real mailing list and want to opt out, that's fine, but don't use that button or link in a spammed message. Again, that lets the spammers know they have a valid e-mail address to attack. Lastly, don't put your e-mail address in searchable areas like forums. Spammers use e-mail harvesting tools that will find every e-mail address in a forum and put it neatly into their database of addresses to spam!

If SpamPal accidently identifies something you want as Spam, you can whitelist it. Doubleclick the SpamPal icon (the little umbrella) in your System Tray. If you don't see it there, go to the Start Menu and find it there. Once it's open, Click Tools on the menu and select Add to Whitelist. Put an e-mail address in the Enter address or netblock field then click Ok. That's it!