Fighting The War Against SPAM You've probably noticed that your inbox is getting more and more SPAM each and every day. Recently I came across a plugin for Outlook that has reduced the amount of SPAM I receive to nearly zero. To date, it hasn't made any false identifications. It works based on the Bayesian Analysis principle, and determines if your e-mail is junk or not using a scoring system.  How it works Bayesian spam filters build the list themselves. Ideally, you start with a (big) bunch of emails that you have classified as spam, and another bunch of good mail. The filters look at both, and analyze the legitimate mail as well as the spam to calculate the probability of various characteristics appearing in spam, and in good mail. The characteristics a Bayesian spam filter can look at can be the words in the body of the message, of course, and its headers (senders and message paths, for example!), but also other aspects such as HTML code (like colors), or even word pairs and phrases. If a word, "Cartesian" for example, never appears in spam but often in your legitimate mail, the probability of "Cartesian" indicating spam is near zero. "Toner", on the other hand, appears exclusively, and often, in spam. Advertisement "Toner" has a very high probability of being found in spam, not much below 1 (100%). When a new message arrives, it is analyzed by the Bayesian spam filter, and the probability of the complete message being spam is calculated using the individual characteristics. Let's say a message contains both "Cartesian" and "toner". From these words alone it's not yet clear whether we have spam or legit mail. But other characteristics will (most probably) indicate a probability that allows the filter to classify the message as either spam or good mail.  Bayesian Spam Filters Can Adapt Automatically Now that we have a classification, the message can be used to train the filter further. In this case, either the probability of "Cartesian" indicating good mail is lowered (if the message containing both "Cartesian" and "toner" is found to be spam), or the probability of "toner" indicating spam must be reconsidered. This way Bayesian filters can learn from both their own and the user's decisions (if she manually corrects a misjudgment by the filters). The adaptability of Bayesian filtering also makes sure they are most effective for the individual email user. While most people's spam may have similar characteristics, the legitimate mail is characteristically different for everybody.  Where can I get a Bayesian spam filter? There are many others. Just search on Google for Bayesian Spam Software.
And the best: Spamihilator is absolutely free! Download the program here!	Spamihilator Online! http://spamihilator.com (supports Outlook 2000/XP/Express, Eudora, Pegasus Mail, Phoenix Mail, Opera, Mozilla, Netscape, and others) Delete more than 98% of your Spam-Mails! Spamihilator works between your Email-Client-Software and the Internet and examines every incoming eMail. Useless spam mails (Junk) will be filtered out. This process works completely in the background. The new Learning Filter (Bayesian Filter) uses the rules of Thomas Bayes (English mathematician, 18th century) and calculates a certain Spam-Probability for every eMail. You can train this filter! So it will know your messages even better than you and continuously increase the recognition rate. In addition Spamihilator uses a Word-Filter, that searches messages for known keywords. Of course, Spamihilator supports Plugins. These useful additional filters protect your system against annoying Spam-Messages. The program runs with almost every Email-Software, such as Outlook 2000/XP/Express, Eudora, Mozilla, Netscape, IncrediMail, Pegasus Mail, Phoenix Mail, Opera, etc...