while another reports says spam is increasing...

Messagelabs, a manufacturer of email filter software, has just released a report saying spam has increased in the last year.

The report says that spam has gone up from around 60% of all email to around 80%. Recent reports by AOL and others have suggested that spam has leveled.

AOL's reporting methodology has come into question. It's unclear to what extent the effectiveness of its own email system's ability to kill spam may have reduced the usefulness of the results.

My own observations agree more with Messagelabs'. I'm definitely getting more spam - but fortunately SpamButcher's spam catcher is getting most of it.

The CAN-SPAM act has largely not affected spammers' behavior. The law itself places a few regulations on commercial email - but doesn't outlaw spam. The law does require that email senders identify their physical addresses.

SpamButcher is available as a free 21-day trial download. It can be used as an Outlook Express anti-spam application, spam filter for Outlook or with any mail program using the POP3 protocol.

SpamButcher typically does not need to be updated more than a few times annually to maintain its effectiveness as stopping junk messages.

After purchasing, updates to the spam email blocker software are free of charge.

Back