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Here are some of the more effective and popular anti spam software programs for Outlook Express:

Cloudmark SafetyBar

Uses its user network to identify spam and phishing attempts — does not rely on Bayesian filters.a Whenever a single user blocks or unblocks a specific message, Cloudmark Desktop stores tht information to help you reduce the spam you receive.

Pros:

• Two heads are better than one.
• Users build a reputation by setting accurate blocks, otherwise their decisions hold less weight.

Cons:

• Users in the Cloudmark network might not agree with your definition of spam — and vice versa.

Ella for Spam Control

Using associative memory (in which the memory is accessed by its content instead of an explicit address), Ella for Spam Control learns by surprisingly few examples what spam, and what important mail looks like for you.

Pros:

• Can organize all mail into folder you specify.

• Ella’s mistakes can be reversed easily — and Ella keeps learning.

Cons:

• Only works with Outlook and Outlook Express.
• Given the problems of larger associative memories it is not clear how well Ella performs with its memory filled with lots of email.
• Custom categories cannot be defined in Ella.

eTrust Anti-Spam

Unlike much of the other Outlook spam filtering packages on this list, eTrust uses the Challenge/Response protocol to isolate spam.

When a Challenge/Response system sees an email from somebody you’ve never corresponded with before, the system will follow these steps:

1. Quarantines the email.
2. Send a “challenge” email to the sender to confirm that the sender is a real person (and not a mailing robot or spammer of any kind).
3. Upon receipt of a valid “response,” the original email is released from quarantine.
4. All subsequent emails from that sender will arrive without further challenges.

The best use of eTrust is to have it scan your email folders (and outgoing emails) for email addresses of people you know. You can also manually add senders to your list.

Alternately, eTrust can send a challenging message to new senders. When they reply to the challenge eTrust will approve them.

Pros:

• Very, very little spam gets through
• No good mail is junked.

Cons:

• Takes time
• Increases traffic on the network
• Spammers can still pretend that they belong to a trusted domain — if they know which ones are on your list.

Junk Out

Junk Out uses Bayesian statistics to determine spam and learns with every message. It also contains additional filters to tighten things up. In addition, it can contain a “whitelist” of friends and acquaintances whose mail is never spam.

Pros

• Has a very high spam detection rate
• Uses advanced Bayesian statistical analysis
• Easy to use yet highly configurable

Cons

• Can be slow and resource hungry
• Doesn’t fully recognize international languages
• Not the most advanced Bayesian filter engine

MailFrontier Matador

MailFrontier combines a “content-scoring” filter system, a network of users who indicate which emails are spam, and challenge/response. The different approaches work surprisingly well together although the overall spam detection rate is nothing to write home about.

Pros

• Combines multiple anti-spam tactics
• Includes community filters, sender challenging and adaptive content filtering

Cons

• Filtering not as precise as some other packages
• Doesn’t work with all email programs
• Challenges can be a nuisance

OutclassOutclass integrates POPFile’s classification engine into Outlook.

Pros:

• You get an easy to use toolbar that lets you re-classify messages.
• You can set up “buckets” (or categories) easily and have Outclass file or delete matching messages automatically.
• Outclass works with IMAP or Exchange accounts just like incoming POP mail.

Cons:

• Some users report instability and crashing under some circumstances.
• Outclass doesn’t work neatly with Outlook’s vertical pane layout.

SpamAid

Using Bayesian statistics from a database of existing spam, no initial training period is necessary.

Unfortunately you will have to rely on someone else’s definition of spam in the beginning so you may see some false positives right out of the box.

In addition to Bayesian filtering, SpamAid uses “blacklists” and “whitelists” to streamline spam filtering. It also uses a system of “phrase filters” that you can customize.

Pros

• Uses Bayesian filtering with a high accuracy
• You can “spam-test” your own outgoing mail for its potential of being caught in someone else’s spam filter
• Easy to use

Cons

• You cannot tell SpamAid to scan certain folders automatically.
• False positives can be expected when you start using it.

SpamBayes Outlook Addin

The SpamBayes Outlook Addin leverages the proven track record of Bayesian spam filtering technology.

Pros:

• SpamBayes can show you a detailed analysis of a message’s overall spam probability.

Cons:

• Not easy to sub-categorize “good email” into separate folders

SpamCatcher Outlook

On the plus side, SpamCatcher combines a content-scoring filters with a user network that is providing feedback on their spam. It can be used as a POP proxy so you can use it with most email clients, not just Outlook.

On the negative side, you can’t easily customize the filters are not customizable. This might be the reason why it returns a significant number of false positives (and negatives). Not only that: you can’t submit corrections to the user network with SpamCatcher.

Pros

• Easy to use
• Spam classified by the user community network as well as Bayesian analysis
• Includes automatic filter updates

Cons

• Not the most precise filters
• Cannot correct false positives
• Only works with POP accounts, not IMAP

Trend Micro Anti-Spam Pilot

Anti-Spam Pilot uses heuristic filters to spot and isolate spam. This is a somewhat older technology where you filter the email by looking for patterns that might match a collection of known spam. For example, the anti spam software might find certain words, phrases, punctuation, that give it a clue that this is spam in your email box. It then provides a score for the email. If the score is too high, the anti spam software will isolate the spam into a separate folder or do anything else you specify.

This approach is different than a Bayesian filter that actually learns as you go. The upside of this is that you don’t have to spend a lot of time “training” the filter. The downside is that it doesn’t detect as much spam as some other packages using Bayesian technology.

You do have the option of reporting missed spam (false negatives) and the rare spam emails that escape through the filter (false positives). You can also keep a list of spammers (a blacklist) and a list of legitimate emailers (a whitelist) as a way to increase Anti-Spam Pilot’s overall effectiveness.

Pros

• Simple and uncomplicated to use
• Detects a good deal of spam
• Low number of false positives
• It’s easy to reclassify email mistaken as spam (and vice versa)

Cons

• Does not filter IMAP accounts, only POP accounts
• Only works with Outlook

© 2007 Ara Rubyan. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. You have permission to use it if you include the resource information below.

For more info visit Spam Blocker Central for a complete version of this, and other, related articles, complete with periodic updates.

Ara Rubyan is experienced in training design and delivery and has been developing web based training for more than 10 years. His background in training coupled with his IT knowledge help him to ensure the seamless development of product user training.