Lab

Anti-Spam Software

Unsolicited bulk email, unsolicited commercial email, or spam: it doesn't matter what you call it, junk email is a nuisance. Whether you are a lone internet user with a standard account or a huge business with thousands of workers, spam email will waste your time and money.

You can spend ages downloading the stuff, which racks up costs if you use a dial-up connection or, as is more likely these days, a wireless connection such as GPRS or 3G. Even after you've downloaded the messages to your machine, you can't just delete them because you risk missing important messages.

The term spam describes email that you haven't asked for and that advertises goods or services. Basically, spammers are trying to sell you things. Other junk is zooming towards you over the internet, too. Scammers send out millions of fake emails that appear to come from banks and other institutions. These ask you to click on a link and enter your username and password, often to 'verify' your account to prevent it being shut down. The site you access is run by the criminal, who collects your valuable information so he can steal your money. This is known as phishing, a threat that is becoming increasingly common. As we went to press, Symantec released its latest Internet Security Threat Report, and it claimed, "There has been an 81 per cent increase in consumer-orientated phishing attacks". Spam is annoying, but phishing leads to theft, pure and simple.

inBOX CLEVER

The good news is there are loads of anti-spam programs out there designed to relieve the pressure of handling all this junk email. We have tested 10 of the most popular anti-spam programs on the market. Read on to discover how you can keep your inbox free of junk email.