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Software
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In this section I have listed a number of
programs I have found useful for combating spam. Some of these are free,
others available for a very modest charge.
Mailwasher is my number one recommendation
for taking back control of your inbox. This powerful software allows you to pre-screen your e-mail before downloading it from your ISP's
server. You can check the title and sender of each new message, and (if
you wish) read any text-based content. You can delete any spam messages
directly from the server without downloading them, and even send a fake
'bounce' message to the sender so he thinks your address is invalid (and
hopefully deletes you from his list). The program also identifies any
e-mails carrying viruses. The program is very easy to use, and free
24-hour support is available. You can download a fully functional
version of the program to evaluate for 30 days by clicking on the banner
below.
One way spammers can get your e-mail address is from your Web site. Of
course, the best answer is not to give out your e-mail address on the Web,
but this isn't necessarily practical if you want clients and other folk to
be able to contact you. E-mail addresses on the Web are regularly
'harvested' by automated programs called 'bots, and you can fool them by
'cloaking' your address so the 'bots cannot read it. A free application
called E-cloaker
allows you to do exactly this. It converts the characters of e-mail
addresses and text into browser-readable Unicode, making it more difficult
for spam extractor 'bots to harvest addresses from your site. Of course,
this measure will not fool a human spammer -- but if you cloak any address
on your Web site using this application, it should greatly reduce the
amount of spam you receive.
BSM (short
for Bounce Spam Mail) is another free application which will send a fake
"user not known" postmaster reply to any message sender you no longer want
to receive mail from. This is a good way of getting your e-mail address
removed from mailing lists by pretending it doesn't exist (Mailwasher will
do this as well, of course). BSM was originally written by programmer Albert Yale, and you
are urged to read the information about this at the site before
downloading the software.
Finally, Sneakemail is yet
another free service which enables you to create any number of
'disposable' e-mail addresses. Every time you need to give out your e-mail
address to someone you don't entirely trust, give them your Sneakemail
address instead. Mail sent to this address is forwarded to your real
address, and when you reply it is re-routed via Sneakemail back to the
sender. Your real e-mail address is therefore never revealed. If you
receive unwanted mail through your Sneakemail address, such as spam, you
can either filter incoming mail using the filters provided, disable the
Sneakemail address, or dispose of it permanently (and create another).
This is another highly recommended free resource.
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