Spam is something every single email user in the world hates. Receiving unwanted and unsolicited email is so often forcing people to lose hundreds of hours every single week because of how much time is necessary to navigate through tons of spam mails. Spam is often referred to with different names, like “unsolicited email”, “excessive multi-posting”, “junk mail”, “spam mail” and “unsolicited bulk mail”. Email makes us communicate really fast and information is so easy to access through just a simple desktop PC.
According to Steven Scott, Bayesian specialist, around 75% of email people receive is spam. The only reason why it does not seem like that is that most programs you will use to access email have some sort of anti-spam filter installed. This is basically software that is necessary for absolutely all personal and business computer users in the world.
Anti-spam software basically detects spam. The program will detect all unsolicited email and the email that is unwanted. It then prevents the spam message to reach the inbox. In many cases anti-spam software is basically installed straight in mail servers. This helps much more than having such software installed on your computer. Filtering is automatically added and configured based on specific criteria. For instance, one of the really common ways to identify spam email is to see what words are used in subject lines. There are specific words that are often used in spam mails.
The filter that is installed on the server can be really strict or more permissive. It has many interesting features that you can learn more about by simply browsing the configuration page of the web email version you use.
In the past few years the anti-spam filters became much more sophisticated. Their accuracy is higher than they ever use. The genuine emails are not trashed. Sometimes they can be identified as being spam but after you acknowledge this is not the case, following similar emails are not going to receive the same label. Basically, modern anti-spam filters actually manage to learn from your behavior. They adapt and realize what spam messages are thanks to the input you give them and how you interact with the email you receive.
We can say that anti-spam software is now a huge part of computer security. It reduces the possibility that you are going to receive unsolicited emails while increasing the possibility that emails you receive are actually legit. If you want to install or use such software, there are some features that you should be on the lookout for, like:
- Blocking emails with the use of preset filters and lists. This blocks some addresses while watching messages and subject lines.
- Automatically updating filters.
- Puts the acceptable emails into the safe list automatically.
- Isolate spam from outside the inbox.
- Filters and monitors many email accounts.
- Acceptable emails automatically added to a safety list.
To sum up, anti-spam filters are mandatory for the modern computer user. Without them you will end up overwhelmed by spam messages and you will not be able to use your email address.
