Spam filters are programs designed to filter out spam from your inbox. Once you’re on the spammers’ lists, these may be your only realistic defence against spam. Most add-on anti-spam programs use several of these methods to keep spam out of your inbox.

In this article we are going to help you with the basics of what you need to know in order to choose a spam filter which is right for you.

In a stunning victory (please note irony in use of the word “stunning”), a Federal court has slapped down the appeal of high volume email deployer White Buffalo Ventures, an online dating service also doing business as LongHornSingles.com. The reason for the dripping irony is because in fact the lawsuit…

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, has just passed a tough new law aimed at spam, unsolicited text messages, and junk faxes. The new law requires a recipient’s opt-in, meaning that a commercial message must be solicited – the recipient must have agreed to receive commercial email from the sender first. Israeli…

In a survey to test whether top e-tailers are allowing consumers to opt out of receiving promotional or marketing messages, the FTC has determined that 89 percent of the online merchants it tested are honoring requests to halt future mailings. The CAN-SPAM Act, which became effective January 1, 2004, requires…

Nigeria really seems to be doing all the right things to bring under some semblence of control the flood of financial scams which originate within its borders, including the infamous “419 spam scam”. Earlier this month the Nigerian courts sentenced a Nigerian 419 scamstress to 2 1/2 year in jail,…

It’s the ultimate sanction – the death penalty. To a spammer. Oh, it wasn’t handed out by a court of law, in fact in the country in which it occurred, Russia, there is no law against spamming at all. However, Russian spammer Vardan Kushnir was found dead in his apartment,…

Spam. It floods your inbox with viruses, phishing attacks, and trojans. It lets hackers and attackers onto your computer. And try as you might, you can’t seem to get rid of it. Until now. The Internet Patrol is completely free, and we don’t subject you to ads or annoying video…

In what is being hailed as one of the largest spam&scam busts of the decade, and the biggest 419 bust in history, the FBI and Spanish police have collaborated to arrest three hundred and ten (that’s right, 310) people in Spain, all of whom were connected with an enormous email…

In a victory for the little guy, Joe Jared of Osirusoft, a DNSBL (DNS Block List, although many call them blacklists – not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you), has been exhonerated by a California court when the judge ruled that he was in his rights when he…

Will people never learn? Apparently not, as California’s Blue Security brings us Blue Frog, YADDASP (Yet Another DDOSing Anti-Spam Program). The underpinning of start-up Blue Security’s Blue Frog is the “Do Not Intrude” registry. Users register up to three email addresses with the registry, and when spam comes to a…

The Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy (ISIPP) is warning that all commercial email senders are now required to either comply with the child protection email address registries and registry laws of both Michigan and Utah, or risk penalties which can include prison and fines running to the thousands…

A new service is being offered by security company Sophos, which purports to alert businesses if a computer on their network has been compromised by being zombied. While what it actually does is tell you whether a computer on your network has suddenly been found sending spam and/or listed on…

From our “Ultimate-Irony-Spam-Who-Cried-Wolf” department, Computerworld Australia is reporting that the first live test of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System, following a 6.7 earthquake off Northern Sumatra, failed miserably when the email alerts were blocked as spam. Aunty’s readers will recall that immediately following the horribly devestating tsunami last December,…

As the battle heats up over whether to allow China to acquire major United States business holdings, China has turned its attention to another global business issue: spam. China has long been known as a major source of spam – indeed it is often cited as the second-largest conduit of…