A collaborative spam filter

Spammers user thousands of computers to send spam mails, why should not thousands of users use the same technique to combat spam effectively ? That’s the major idea behind a collaborative spam filter that not only learns from your input but also from the input of other users that use the same product.

It’s like the system that is used by WordPress plugins like Spam Karma or Akismet. They have their own spam filters that filter out spam but also access blacklists and whitelists on the Internet that are created by a lot of users.

Bullgard Spamfilter integrates with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and Thunderbird and requires a user account at Bullguard which can be created during setup (just enter a email address and password). A huge advantage over tools like Spamihilator is the fact that you do not need to change the account settings, e.g. the mailserver, in the email client that you are using, it works right out of the box.

One aspect that I personally do not like is that Bullguard adds a footer message to all mails that are send from your account, saying:

I use BullGuard Spamfilter to keep my inbox clean.
It is completely free: www.bullguard.com/freespamfilter

This can’t be unchecked in this version and is definitely a reason for me personally not to use it.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Saturday January 26, 2008 -
Tags:bullguard, Email, microsoft outlook, outlook, spam, spam filter, spamihilator, thunderbird

Responses so far:

1. Litschi says:

   January 27, 2008 at 10:37 am

   From the FAQ:

   The “Include footer in sent e-mails” option from the Spamfilter section > Overview tab cannot be disabled if you have a free Spamfilter subscription. If yours is a paid or trial account and that option is still greyed out, please contact Support about the issue. The necessary changes will then be applied to your account.

   Reply
2. Kai says:

   January 28, 2008 at 11:53 am

   I find the technique of having Gmail check your POP account and getting your mail from the Gmail account (via POP or IMAP) usually does the trick.

   I was having a big problem with spam until I did that.

   Reply
3. Al Williams says:

   January 30, 2008 at 4:34 am

   I tried it, but it does not actually do IMAP so uinstall for me! I also have a setup like Kai although I run spamassassin on the server, bounce through g-mail and still let TB catch some spam! Amazing how much still gets through.

   Reply