Published February 2003

Software available to fight spam, organize in-box

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

How’s your e-mail spam count? Do spams far outweigh the number of legitimate, useful e-mails you receive? Are you spending more and more of every workday scanning and deleting (or perhaps even reading!) time-wasting spam messages?

In the August 2002 issue of PC World, contributing editor Daniel Tynan’s “Spam Inc.” article notes that the number of spam attacks increased by 500 percent between March 2001 and 2002, according to e-mail filter vendor Brightmail. (According to Brightmail, the tag “spam” mail was inspired by a Monty Python skit about SPAM canned meat, in which the word was repeated countless times.)

MSN’s Hotmail users typically receive more than 1 billion pieces of junk mail daily, of which 80 percent is spam, not including junk mail blocked by Hotmail’s first line of filters.

Jupiter Media Metrix, a major compiler of information about Internet activities, predicts that a typical consumer using e-mail in 2006 will receive nearly 1,500 spam messages annually — double today’s average — and business users involved daily with the Internet will no doubt receive far more.

Just the loss of bandwidth to spam has been estimated to cost U.S. companies $8 billion to $10 billion.

Employers as well as employees wish it didn’t have to be that way. Today, it doesn’t. More and more programs on the market will block practically all of the spam promotions that clog your e-mail in-box. Prices and ease of operation vary, but it’s worth checking them out.

Microsoft’s Outlook e-mail program can be set up to catch, flag and set aside incoming spam, but the problem has gotten so complex that many stand-alone software options are on the market that simplify the filtering and screening process.

One of the best programs I’ve found so far is Spam Inspector (www.giantcompany.com), selling for $29.95 but discounted on the Web site with special offers. In a 10-day test, I found it to be intuitive, automated and highly accurate.

During that time, I received 443 e-mails, of which 214 (an irritating 48 percent) were spam messages, including pornography site promotions. Spam Inspector caught 204 of them. But when the program misses spam messages, users can tag them so Spam Inspector won’t miss them the next time.

The backlash against spam has grown so much, in fact, that sending a search engine to look for “anti-spam software” returns page after page of programs, from MailWasher’s freeware to McAfee’s $39.95 Spam Killer.

Catching unwanted spam isn’t the only service these programs can provide. The better ones will not only catch close to 100 percent of spam and porn e-mail but will also provide users with extra features, such as the option of sending a “bounce” signal to e-mail sources that fools the offending sender’s computer into thinking your e-mail address isn’t active. Hence, your e-mail is taken off the list.

The other half of the e-mail problem is that despite its value as a global communication tool, even the legitimate mail that gets through filtering systems presents a time-management problem. In Toronto, Canada, productivity expert Mark Ellwood has recently published “Cut the Glut of E-Mail” (www.GetMoreDone.com), offering nontechnical, simple tips and techniques to organize and control the volume of your e-mail.

Ellwood offers some common-sense approaches to managing e-mail, such as reducing the number of e-mail addresses you use and eliminating e-newsletters you signed up for from dozens of site visits and then never get around to reading.

There also are electronic e-mail organizers, including Nelson Email Organizer by Caelo Software (www.caelo.com). This companion product to Microsoft Outlook 97/98/2000 offers an innovative new interface for managing and searching for e-mail. With full send/ receive capability, it automatically organizes your e-mail into easy-to-access views: by correspondent, date, mailing list, attachment and more. Search thousands of messages in just a second or two. NEO is free to try, then $39.95 to buy.

Solving spam and e-mail organizing challenges isn’t an easy task, but some of these programs help to make it much easier to regain control of your e-mail, your time and your sanity.

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