I have a lot of email accounts that come into my Outlook, and I get a lot of email every day.  A side-effect of this is that I also get a lot of spam email.  I hate spam!  Really hate it!  Finally, I've found a way to make spam disappear - iHateSpam.

Over the years I've tried many solutions for the spam problem but found them all lacking.  I don't mind a solution that allows the odd spam email to find its way into my inbox, but I do hate it when legitimate emails (especially work related ones) are marked as spam.  Most anti-spam solutions that I've tried just flag up too many legitimate emails as spam to be worthwhile.  Other solutions that I've tried just ended up being too complex to set up and administer - I want spam to be gone, but I don't want this to become a job.

A few weeks ago I took a product called iHateSpam by Sunbelt Software for a test drive.  I installed it on my main system and waited for emails to come in (I set up the program to dump email marked as spam into a special spam folder).  The next day when I went to my PC I fired up Outlook as usual and forgot that I had iHateSpam installed.  However, a few minutes later I noticed that there was no spam in my inbox.  Not a one.  Ahh, then I remembered why.  Out of curiosity I checked the spam folder to check in case any legitimate emails had been flagged as spam.  Out of nearly thirty emails flagged as spam, not a single one turned out to be legitimate.  Excellent.

Another aspect of iHateSpam that appeals to me is the interface.  It's simply a toolbar in Outlook which basically consists of a few buttons, two of which are the most important, Is Spam and Not Spam.  If you find a spam email among your legitimate email you select it and click Is Spam.  If you find a legitimate email marked as spam, you select it and click Not Spam.  Simple.

OK, fast forward a few weeks to today.  I'm still using iHateSpam.  Why?  Simple, because it works.  In the weeks that I've had it installed I've seen maybe fifteen or twenty spam emails in my inbox, and no legitimate emails marked as spam.  Considering that I was seeing dozens of spam emails a day, I'm happy to have the tsunami reduced to a few drops.  And it also gives me a sense of satisfaction to mark a spam email using the Is Spam button because that information helps make the detection better for others.

Since installing this applications I'm left with an odd feeling - Where did all the spam go?

I have no hesitation giving iHateSpam 10 out of 10.

More information here.  Trial available (try it and see for yourself).  Single license costs $19.95, home site license available.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 21:29 and is filed under Kit!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.