THE CURSE OF SPAM

Every day my ‘In’ box fills with junk e-mail - spam. Topics such as how to buy a university degree, add length to THE appendage, on-line purchasing of Viagra and invitations to ‘see what I do with my web-cam’ crowd in on me.

Efforts are made by ISP’s to filter out spam by searching for key words but the spammers now deliberately misspell words to by-pass the filters. Recent articles in leading journals have suggested that e-mails carry a cost to limit their automated broadcasting.

The other problem is that if the e-mail is accepted onto your computer the sender knows that a ‘hit’ is achieved and the e-mail address is valid and active. This also applies if you use the ‘No thank You’ button often provided. You’re on the list and more spam follows.

An answer is to ‘bounce’ the mail back – not simply delete it. To do this I have, for some time, used a program called MailWasher. It allows the scanning of e-mails without the system knowing of the download. If you decide that an e-mail is unwanted it can be ‘bounced’ back to its sender. It also allows for the setting up of a spam list to do the job automatically.

Once vetted your e-mail can be downloaded via your normal e-mail program.

Sounds tedious? Yes at first it is. But with persistence spam decreases.

MailWasher is available here – it’s free with an optional donation to the developer invited.