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With so many unsolicited advertisements pouring into e- mailboxes all over the world, consumers are all asking the same questions. Where did they get my e-mail address? How do I know who to believe? Why me? And how can I stop it?

Spam is an unsolicited email usually advertising a product or service. It is a cheap form marketing, sending messages to millions of people for costs ofless than a dollar. Spammers have millions of ways to obtain email addresses. For less than $100 spammers can buy 15 million email addresses. This means everyone has a high chance of eventually receiving these annoying, and potentially dangerous spam mails.

How Spam Works
Spammers work by obtaining e-mail addresses from various sources, then sending multiple unsolicited advertisements, thereby spamming inboxes all over the world. When a user opens a spam mail, it triggers the spam server, letting it know that the e-mail account is active. Once a spammer knows the e-mail account is active, the amount of spam mails sent increases drastically.

There are a few ways to stop from being slammed with spam. For example:

• Never purchase anything from spammers
• Never try to stop spam by “unsubscribing”
• Never open a spam mail
• Turn off the preview pane in your e-mail client.

One of the most common forms of spam mail is image based. This means the advertisement is sent as only an image. Many spam filters detect spam based on text, and are not able to detect these image based spam mails. This latest technique is causing more havoc in the inbox of millions of e-mail users around the world.

Threats of Spam
Spam is not only an annoyance, but can be dangerous. The following are a few examples of the threats spam can cause:

Phishing – This occurs when an e-mail is sent to a user appearing to be a legitimate company, asking for personal details, such as credit card numbers. Because the e-mail looks so authentic, thousands of users believe that it is safe to give out their personal information, only for them to later find out that they have been scammed.

Pharming – Each website, or URL has a specific code attached to it, so when it is broken into, personal properties can be obtained. When a computer hacker gets the URL/IP details for a company, and changes it, all personal information will be sent to them instead of the original company. The ‘pharmers’ send a virus-laden e-mail making it so after the user opens this e-mail, they will be automatically sent to the hackers website, and give out all their personal details to them instead.

Spammers also use large events, such as the Olympics, to draw e-mail users into malicious websites where they can check scores, and the progress of games, for example. Once the user is on one of these websites, they are offered a free download to have real time scores. These downloads, however, are laced with malware, or other malicious software.

What to Look for in a Spam Filter
With all the confusion out there, it is important to find a reliable, trustworthy spam filter to protect you and your e-mail.

Ease of Use
Spam mails already take up too much of our time and energy. Therefore, a spam filter should be as easy to use as possible, so it does not take up anymore of the valuable time already taken away by the spammers.

Automatic Filtering
A good spam filter will filter out spam automatically, sending it to a folder where it can still be viewed at the user’s discretion. This folder should also be easy to delete so spam can disappear as quickly and easily as it came in. The purpose of having an additional folder is to give the user control over what they wish to keep, or view, or what they wish to delete. Spam must be available to be viewed to allow the user to see what was filtered out in case there is something they are in fact interested in which got filtered out on accident.

Blacklist/Whitelist Features
Another important feature of spam filters is the ability for you to decide who you want to receive e-mail from, and who you don’t. A good spam filter will allow you the option to blacklist or white list e-mail addresses, or domains. Blacklisting allows you to enter an e-mail address, or domain which you wish not to receive e-mail messages from. White listing works in the opposite way, where the user can enter an e-mail address or domain in their white list, allowing this address, or domain to come directly to your inbox.

Support and Help Desk
In order for you to be able to use your spam filter easily, good support is essential. You must be able to contact the spam filtering company, and get an appropriate answer so you do not waste valued time in receiving or responding to e-mails.

High Tech Filter
Because spam mails are getting more and more high tech, it is important to have a filter which can keep up. One example of this is the above mentioned image based spam. A spam filter should be able to detect these images as spam, instead of relying on determining spam based solely on text. Another beneficial feature is a language filter. Many spam mails are sent in languages the users who receive them don’t even understand. Therefore, an image filter, and a language filter, where you can choose which language you want to receive mails in are important in a spam filter.

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