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⚡️ the best spam filter
Are you looking for the best free email spam filter tools in 2022? In this article you will learn how to block spam emails in gmail, best free email anti spam softwares, cloud based spam filter for gmail, outlook, aol, android & iphone checking email for spam is very important. without a spam filter, one false click can put your device and network at risk. Emails are one of the most common entry points for unsolicited, spam and virus-infested emails. an anti-spam filter prevents these emails from reaching inboxes. ISPs use spam filters to make sure they are not distributing malicious software.
Internet privacy is one of the most important factors today because there are a lot of cybercriminals who want to steal any personal data to carry out criminal acts with them.
That is why a large number of anti-spam programs have been created to help you maintain greater security in your electronic messaging systems.
spam is the emails you receive in your gmail inbox without any permission. They are promotional emails that offer some type of product or service in order to attract the attention of the user. where many of these sites are responsible for stealing your private data.
gmail has a pretty good spam filter, but it doesn’t always do it well. when it’s important, you can’t afford to miss any email. therefore, anti-spam programs will help you block all the spam emails that are constantly filling up your inbox. In addition, privacy can be enhanced with security assured. gmail also allows you to customize spam filter settings in google workspace
⚡️ laws against spam
The Can-Spam Act of 2003 became law on January 1, 2004. According to the FTC, if you violate the law, you could be fined $11,000 for each violation, that’s $11,000 for each email address on your list. ISPs across the country have already successfully sued spammers for millions of dollars under this law. If you’re sending commercial email (usually sales or promotional content), you should be familiar with the can-spam requirements. The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) came into effect on July 1, 2014 and carries penalties of $1 million to $10 million per violation.
what is spam filtering?
Spam filters detect unsolicited, unwanted, and virus-infected email (called spam) and prevent it from reaching email inboxes. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use spam filters to ensure that they do not distribute spam. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) also use spam filters to protect their employees and networks.
Spam filters apply to both incoming email (that which enters the network) and outgoing email (that which leaves the network). isps use both methods to protect their customers. smbs tend to focus on input filters.
specifically, antispam consists of the following elements:
- a real-time black hole list or rbl (ip address and email blacklists),
- a heuristic analysis engine,
- whitelists,
- a Bayesian method (deduction of the probability that the email is spam),
- spam databases,
- a url verification algorithm ,
- a dns configuration,
- an spf configuration,
- a transaction history,
- user and company preferences user.
however, beware of overly strict anti-spam as it leads to false positives (legitimate emails being redirected to the spam folder).
There are many spam filtering solutions available. They can be hosted in the “cloud”, on computer servers or integrated into email programs such as Microsoft Outlook.
how do spam filters work?
Spam filters use “heuristic” methods, which means that each email message is subject to thousands of predefined rules (algorithms). each rule assigns a numerical score to the probability that the message is spam. if the score exceeds a certain threshold, the email is marked as spam and blocked from continuing.
There are different types of spam filters for different criteria:
- content filters – Analyze the content of messages, looking for words that are commonly used in spam emails.
- header filters – examine the email header source for suspicious information (such as spam email addresses).
- blocklist filters: stop emails emails that come from a block list of suspicious IP addresses. some filters go further and check ip address reputation.
- rule-based filters: apply custom rules designed by your organization to exclude emails from specific senders or emails that contain specific words in their subject line or body.
You can also run your message through certain tools, such as the mail tester to check an email for spam.
Neither method is a complete solution to the spam problem, and there are always trade-offs (which heuristics try to balance) between rejecting legitimate emails and letting spam through.
what are the benefits of using anti-spam software?
software protection will certainly be an advantage for the user, especially today when emails have become an integral part of business communication. Also, by using this software, you can avoid receiving mass spam emails.
according to this, here we show you the main benefits that you will obtain using antispam programs:
- better file protection
Most email anti-spam software offers users the ability to protect all of their files stored in email. This will give them more security. It will be a great opportunity to store all information with secure warranty protection at all times.
- apply filter on input and output messages
Being able to filter emails will especially help you save time, especially for those small, medium and large companies where they receive most of their information via email. this will help filter out only the important messages, leaving out all those spam. Some of these applications also offer a filtering system for outgoing messages, although this service will depend on each of the software.
- user self-service
Using this service, users can create folders within the email to send all spam messages to quarantine. users can delete unwanted messages to free up inbox space.
- offer stable storage space
The main purpose of these email security applications is to filter out all junk and spam messages so they don’t start consuming bandwidth and taking up server space. Bearing in mind that these types of messages are usually possessive, that is, in just a few days you will have thousands of them hiding the information that really interests you.
- provides email continuity
This software will give you the possibility to continue accessing emails, sending messages, checking messages even when the connection to the server fails or you are offline.
- goodbye to failures
By using professional email anti-spam software, the customer can say goodbye to failure, since the problems and inconveniences that usually occur will disappear or almost never occur. That is why it is important that the person can obtain the best service on the market, since it will offer excellent performance accompanied by maximum security.
why do you need an effective spam filter?
An independent tester recognized that businesses often use professional email services that are more functional than conventional email services, but a similar test on popular internet security products also showed extremely low spam detection rates.
To name just a few known examples that appear in the test: avast (96.71%) and symantec (93.63%). with lower scores are outlook and mcafee in particular.
This goes to show that businesses not only need an additional anti-spam solution, but should also choose an effective one. even the most powerful anti-spam mechanism mentioned above (avast) allowed more than 4,000 spam emails to pass through its filters undetected in the test.
In today’s world, spam filtering is a must to protect your business. spam is not going away.
It is estimated that 70 percent of all email sent worldwide is spam, and the volume continues to grow because spam remains a lucrative business. Spammers are becoming more sophisticated and creative in their tactics to deliver their messages to inboxes and wreak havoc. spam filtering solutions must be continually updated to deal with this ever-evolving threat.
A spam filtering solution cannot be 100% effective. however, a business email system without a spam filter is highly vulnerable, if not unusable. It’s important to stop as much spam as possible to protect your network from many possible risks: viruses, phishing attacks, compromised web links, and other malicious content.
Spam filters also protect your servers from being overloaded with non-essential emails and from the worst problem of being infected with spam software that can turn them into spam servers.
By preventing spam from reaching your employees’ mailboxes, spam filters offer an extra layer of protection for your users, your network, and your business.
The most important risks, however, are intrusion attempts to commit damage (data theft, data destruction, money theft, identity theft, etc.).
pop-up commercials
Spoofed commercial emails are emails that are perceived as unnecessary and sent to lists of recipients who have not given their explicit consent (opt-in) to receive these emails.
this can happen if the listings have been bought or stolen. Sometimes it is impossible to permanently unsubscribe from these lists (opt-out), which poses a real problem in terms of GDPR compliance.
Most of the time, these are scams or paid online services (adult sites, mortgage loans, training, online games, premium rate numbers, etc.).
hacking websites via ftp – infected with malware
It is a precautionary measure to prevent the infection that the web has from spreading to the PCs or browsers of those who visit the web. otherwise they will unknowingly automatically download a virus onto your computer.
contrary to common sense (“if my site has a virus, my hosting provider’s web server is infected”), the problem is almost always with the pc from which the website is updated.
This is a very common way of adding viruses or malicious code to a site by tricking the user into opening spam emails. the user unintentionally opens the attachment and uploads the malicious file to your website via the ftp manager.
Spam can corrupt programs, delete files, and reformat or wipe your hard drive, slowing down performance or even crashing your system altogether. Hackers can also use such viruses to access your personal information in order to steal or destroy your website data if you upload files from an infected computer to your website. ref- [wordpress hacked]
Those who share this type of virus through spam emails, with the intention of spreading them over the Internet, intend to steal essential information: your ftp keys.
With these keys they upload infected files or their modified pages, without you noticing. if the attack is elaborate enough, they will instantly get your new ftp password the moment you change it.
for more information check out our detailed articles on wordpress hacking – wordpress site redirection malware – how to remove malware from a wordpress site – hacked website displaying japanese text – wordpress security updates – ecommerce security
spoofing
Phishing is an email fraud technique that involves impersonating a trusted third-party program (bank, insurance, social security, etc.) to extract personal information or money. phishing emails usually look like very close copies of the official website.
A variation of phishing, targeted phishing, consists of personalized messages sent to a small number of users (rather than a generic email sent to a maximum of potential victims).
It is estimated that 91% of hacking attacks start with a phishing email, hence the importance of setting up effective filtering of these spam emails.
ransomware
ransomware is a virus that infects a workstation. will encrypt all or part of the files on the computer or even on the computer network.
The victim must acquire a decryption key that the hacker (pirate) gives him in exchange for a ransom. ransomware can shut down a business…or worse.
In February 2016, for example, Los Angeles Hospital was attacked by ransomware received via email. medical records were inaccessible for hours endangering human lives. In 2016, ransomware revenue reached $1 billion in the US alone (Source: FBI)
how can email filters help you block spam?
We hope you’re convinced that spam filters are essential to protecting your business. When you decide to invest in or upgrade your spam filter solution, know that there are countless spam filter programs on the market. so take the time to figure out which one works best for your business.
here are some key things to keep in mind:
- At a minimum, the solution you choose should block spam. This may seem like a no-brainer, but not all spam filtering software is up to the task (or doesn’t keep up with the evolving world of spam attacks).
- The solution you choose should provide the security you need for your network, but without impeding the legitimate emails your employees need to do their jobs.
- Administrators must have the ability to edit and create rules beyond the predefined ones so that the solution meets the requirements and needs of your organization. this customization should be easy, even for unsophisticated computer users.
⚡️list of best email spam filter tools & program
Knowing the importance of these programs and all that they offer to their customers, here we will show you a list of the most effective spam filtering services currently available on the market. this is so that you can get the best software and thus get professional features and tools that help you get excellent service.
According to this, here we show you the best anti-spam programs so you can start eliminating all those unwanted emails.
Here’s our list of the best free and paid anti-spam software:
1. mail washer – gmail spam filter
the leader in spam filter software and the easiest way to check and manage your email before downloading it to your computer. over 8 million people use mailwasher as their spam filter! mailwasher is free to use and never expires. works with outlook, outlook express, incredimail, thunderbird, windows live mail, gmail, hotmail, yahoo, em client and any other email program.
2. solarwinds msp mail secure (free trial)
solarwinds msp mail assure is an intelligent mail filtering and protection engine used to block spam, viruses, and malware from breaching your email. the program receives information from more than 1.8 million domains to give the user a better understanding of current threats. By using the software, the user can see the problematic messages in quarantine and in the blacklist of the senders suspected of contacting them.
solarwinds mail assure is a cloud-based solution that makes setup and deployment easy. to start monitoring you just need to add a new domain. once installed, it benefits from ssl/tls traffic encryption.
The tool is ideal for business users because it offers integration with Office 365. If the Office 365 email service goes down, the user can send emails from the Solarwinds Mail Assure web-based dashboard. In the event of an outage, the control panel allows you to keep your service running.
Overall, if you’re looking for an anti-spam solution that protects your email from attackers, Solarwinds Mail Guarantee is a good option. To view solarwinds mail-in guarantee pricing, you will need to contact the sales team directly. there’s also a 30-day free trial.
3. spamtitan
Spamtitan has a web-based anti-spam solution intended for Microsoft Office 365 accounts. The tool is designed to detect phishing attacks and zero-day attacks. to recognize the latest threats. spamtitan uses a combination of machine learning and Bayesian analysis to identify new attacks. zero-day threat protection is great for minimizing exposure to emerging threats.
the ip address whitelist and blacklist controls whether mail reaches your inbox or is blocked from further communication. For broader security, you can apply different degrees of spam confidence levels to users, user groups, and domains. By segmenting your email environment in this way, you can manage potential entry points much more effectively.
If you’re using Office 365, spamtitan might be right for your organization. spamtitan’s price depends on the number of mailboxes you want to protect and the number of users. pricing starts at $37.50 for one user and one mailbox billed monthly.
4. spameo – gmail spam filter
antispam chrome extension helps you to remove and filter all spam emails from your gmail mailbox. it is an easy way to block senders and filter emails in gmail. users can filter and block emails and senders.
The cloud-based extension has a one-time fee of $37.00 per user and provides documents to help you get familiar with its use. gmail users get too many emails.
5. zerospam – antispam solution
zero spam is a cloud-based anti-spam solution that protects against spam, data hijacking and email phishing. If someone sends you an email with a bad link or malicious attachment, Zero Spam will block it. For added protection, the program uses TLS encryption to keep your interactions safe from eavesdroppers. In the event of a client-server crash, the tool will use automatic mail queuing to help you get back to normal operations as soon as possible.
low false positive rate of zero spam is one of the main reasons to use the product. strikes a balance between dismissing harmful messages without blocking communications from legitimate users. From a business perspective, this is an anti-spam platform that doesn’t get in the way of day-to-day operations.
The solution is also shock resistant. zero spam is powered by a network of over 20 filtering nodes housed in three Canadian data to ensure the service stays online. this means that even if something goes wrong, your service will still be available when you need it.
6. comfortable antispam dome
comodo dome antispam is a spam prevention tool designed for business users. comodo dome antispam scans and filters emails to keep your inbox safe from cyber attackers. When downloading files from your inbox, Comodo Dome Antispam uses its Valkyrie file verdict platform to analyze files as they are downloaded.
You can open and interact with a file without risk of infection, even from the latest malware attacks.
Email filtering controls the type of messages you see when you open your email account. virus emails are blocked so you don’t go offline to ensure you have full transparency about emails delivered to your inbox. Through the management console, you can view archived and quarantined emails.
There are three installations of comodo dome antispam available: shared server, cloud hosted, and on-premises. to see the prices, you must contact the company directly. If you are looking for an anti-spam solution with flexible deployment options, comodo dome anti-spam is highly recommended.
7. mx guarddog – email spam blocker
mx guarddog is a spam blocker that uses tls encryption to protect your email inbox. Phishing attacks, malware, DDOS attacks, and viruses are just a few that defend against MX Guarddog. once the communication is blocked, you can view a quarantine report which will show the information of the blocked message.
Legitimate mail is forwarded directly to your email server. mx guarddog automatically syncs email addresses from windows ad, ldap and cpanel systems for added convenience. In case your server goes down, your mail will be stored and delivered to you automatically the next time you’re online.
mx guarddog is an excellent low cost alternative to stopping spam. The tool works as a saas package and starts at $0.25 per email address, per month. there is no charge for user or domain aliases.
8. spam fighter
this is another of the available filters that will help you avoid the presence of spam in your inbox. It stands out for being a complete and very easy-to-use filter that can be added to Outlook and Outlook Express Mail. therefore, spamfighter is characterized by eliminating the presence of any type of unwanted messages and malware.
To make use of it, the client can download it completely free and just configure it on their server. It stands out for being very easy to use and for offering a large number of options that will help you achieve the best results.
spamfighter has also become the main ally of microsoft, who together have created this antispam tool, it is one of the most solid and complete currently. can also be used in windows mail, windows live mail or thunderbird.
9. orf fusion – email spam filtering solution
orf fusion is spam filtering software designed specifically for business use cases. the tool eliminates false positives and ensures that legitimate email reaches your inbox. one of orf fusion’s unique selling points is that it has 23 layered tests to check mail status. these tests are a combination of blacklist and whitelist tests that stop malicious emails without affecting genuine emails.
You can create a whitelist to make sure your trusted senders don’t get through the spam filter. the user also has control over what happens to those emails that are caught by the spam filter. for example, you can bounce them to reject transmission, keep the mail, or redirect it to a different mailbox.
Overall, orf fusion’s low false positive rate makes it ideal for businesses looking for security that doesn’t hinder their ability to communicate. orf fusion integrates with microsoft exchange and the iis smtp service. product pricing starts at $55 per year for 10 users.
10. spambrella
spambrella protects thousands of end users and handles tens of millions of messages per day. spambrella has a highly diversified customer base on a global scale. spambrella targets large and midsize organizations in all major verticals, including financial services, retail, manufacturing, aerospace and defense, healthcare, education, and government. spambrella is also used by well-known non-profit organizations, retail businesses, banks, and aerospace and defense contractors.
spambrella attracts customers and partners of all sizes. spambrella targets managed service providers (resellers) and end users who require secure email communications.
11. topsec
topsec email security removes spam, viruses and malware and quarantines unwanted or illegal content based on customer requirements. topsec email security works at the internet level, works online, and effectively ensures in real time that all incoming email is scanned for spam and other threats before it is posted on your network. topsec email security quarantines email according to your company’s email policy.
topsec email security is fully scalable and suitable for SMBs, large enterprises, and government agencies.
12. bitdefender
bitdefender is currently one of the most important and popular programs for keeping your technology device secure, whether it’s for a computer or a smartphone. this is how this software offers antimalware and antispam of excellent quality that will help you protect the information stored in your email. In addition, it will guarantee excellent security in each of your reception messages.
To do this, bitdefender offers multilayer security against any type of cyberattack or antispam, also offering real-time protection. For this reason, Bitdefender has become one of the best options to be able to control and eliminate spam from your Gmail or Outlook account.
Some of the most important features of this software are the following: it offers a secure environment for messages avoiding both external and internal threats, it has an on-demand antimalware scan, it offers protection to physical and virtual mail servers and it has a centralized administration.
13. bullguard.com
bullguard is considered today as one of the best antiviruses with the antispam function included in its system, which makes it one of the best alternatives when you want to keep protection inside your email inbox.
one of the big problems spam messages cause is that they quickly fill your inbox with spam and end up taking up space in your storage memory.
Because of these problems that generate these unwanted messages, bullguard is in charge of offering the necessary tools to be able to control all this. To do this, it checks each of the received messages to see if it is a phishing or spam attempt and thus eliminates it.
one of its main advantages is that it offers constant updates that are carried out automatically, which allows you to enjoy updated options to block any type of spam.
In the same way, it stands out for offering a very complete security system where it is capable of controlling almost all the threats that exist on the network. you can start using this program for free, although it also has a paid version that works through different plans.
14. mail channels
mailchannels offers solutions that protect businesses from malicious email threats. mailchannels cloud is a secure smtp relay service that scans outgoing email traffic to block spam, prevent ip blacklisting, and detect compromised accounts.
mailchannels is an email delivery service designed for hosts. outbound spam filtering makes it easy to deliver secure and reliable emails to your customers.
15. avast
avast is another of the most recognized and popular programs around the world, this is because it offers very good tools that will help you achieve the best results in terms of digital security. This is how it not only offers you antivirus tools but also has very interesting antispam functions, allowing you to have better control over your inbox.
removing spam has never been easier than avast internet security. To make use of this function and permanently eliminate spam from your email, you must download this option from its own platform.
In order to download this option in avast, you will have to go to the “settings” section and there you select the “components” option and then look for the antispam option to install it on your computer. this will help you have better control over your messages and thus avoid wasting time on those that do not interest you.
16. xeam
xeams is a powerful and secure mail server for windows, linux, solaris, macosx and other versions of unix. it also supports smtp, pop3 and imap. xeams includes a powerful spam filtering engine that removes up to 99% of spam right out of the box. This software offers a flexible approach to email and a host of other features, making it a very user-friendly server. bulk email manager.
small, medium and large companies and isps.
17 symantec.com
Spam can get pretty tedious when your email address is used primarily for business purposes. since this spam simply takes time and overloads the system, causing your company’s reputation to drop. that is why symantec has created very advanced tools capable of eliminating these types of messages.
To prevent spam, it is necessary for the system to be protected against malware from multi-protocol message traffic. this is what will allow you to filter all the content and thus eliminate all the spam that appears along the way. it also offers protection against leaks of ip, data and any other private information that may be at risk.
symantec is known today as an antivirus, but it has an antispam system that will help protect all your incoming and outgoing messages from both internal and external threats. its main function is to detect unwanted messages and block them before they reach the server, which will allow you to have a spam-free inbox.
18. microfocus.com
specializes in providing protection to messages, thus providing security and protection 24 hours a day, for this it has an antivirus, antimalware and antispam service that is responsible for detecting any anomaly to avoid the presence of any of them inside the server.
As for its anti-spam function, it has protection against unwanted emails, preventing this type of traffic from appearing in your inbox.
Similarly, gwava has different functions like detecting spam before it reaches the email server. thus blocking these addresses, offering content filtering, a reputation analysis, performs advanced email address filtering. also includes mail, subject, header, traces, body and attachments, to detect the origin of the message.
all these and many other functions will allow gwava to have a very advanced control over what is the protection of your email, preventing you from being constantly attacked with these spam emails that eventually end up becoming a real problem for the user. user .
19. k9 antispam
k9 is another software that will help you avoid the presence of annoying spam messages in your email inbox. Bearing in mind that this type of email is usually very insistent and tedious, occupying a large part of the storage space offered by your server.
this is how k9 offers excellent spam filtering applications that will help you eliminate their presence.
It is currently considered one of the most powerful and efficient programs on the market. In addition to blocking all those spam emails, if it detects the presence of any message that could be dangerous, it will send it directly to the spam folder so that you can decide what to do with it.
k9 works with the pop3 program and is compatible with the servers of outlook, yahoo, gmail, aol, among others. this is completely free software to help you get better control of your inbox.
20. gfi.com
this is another antispam currently available on the market and with which you can start to control everything you receive in your email. This software is designed to offer maximum anti-spam security by blocking any type of spam from being sent to your server. is available for almost all email servers on the market today.
Not only does it stand out for offering protection against spam, but it also offers security against malware, which prevents any type of attack on the email infrastructure.
for all this, gfi mail essentials makes use of different advanced elements that will help you achieve the best results.
for this it has a powerful and very effective spam filtering, it has five antivirus engines,
- blocks all spyware and phishing from reaching your inbox,
- protects against malware and spam, has a pop3 downloader,
- is has a scanner service to detect malicious emails and can be installed on different servers.
21. spamihilar
spamihilator is another of the alternatives available today in the digital market and with which you can control all the scams that affect your email address on a daily basis. This program is a filter that acts as an intermediary between the client and the server where it performs an examination of each of the messages that are downloaded.
In this case, it evaluates the status of each one of them and will only allow those that act under certain rules and that do not pose any type of danger to the client to pass. This whole procedure runs in the background where only the user must add their email address data, such as the user and the type of server they use.
one of the main advantages of spamihilator is that it is compatible with almost all email clients such as outlook, yahoo, gmail, among many others.
also, this is a completely free program which makes it a very good option to start testing it without losing anything in return.
22. free mail washer
mailwasher has become a very complete and advanced tool when it comes to controlling spam in emails. This is how it allows you to delete all those messages you don’t want without having to download them.
In addition, it stands out for offering a very well-developed and very easy-to-use interface. All this has led it to become one of the best alternatives to try to control unwanted spam in your email inbox. you can download it for free.
23. clean mail
cleanmail is an antivirus and spam filter that works with thunderbird and other email clients. programs can protect you not only from spam, but also from malware and phishing attacks. uses the spamassassin classifier combined with the bayes database to determine spam from other emails.
other notable features of cleanmail are antivirus filter, attachment filter, dns blacklist, shared fingerprint filter and lag filter.
The cleanmail plan starts at $279 for 10 email addresses, but you can try the tool with a 30-day free trial. get a free trial of cleanmail.
24. popfile
popfile is an automatic spam filtering email classification program to filter the spam that arrives at your email address. popfile uses categories for classification, but also allows users to create their own categories, such as work and personal category, for better email management.
The software uses the Bayes algorithm and requires users to train the tool by manually classifying spam and non-spam messages before it can begin classifying spam automatically. you can download the latest version of popfile from the official website, which was last updated in September 2015.
You can read more spam filters in our detailed article on the best windows spam filter, most of which are also compatible with thunderbird and windows email clients.
conclusion
There is so much variety among anti-spam software providers that it can be difficult to choose. If you’re not sure, you can’t go wrong with a tool like Solarwinds Mail Assure or SpamTitan.
In this age where email scrapping tools help marketers bombard anyone with their sales pitch through spam, it’s important to have one of these best spam filters to protect your interest.
These tools are easy to use with whitelists and blacklists to control what email reaches your inbox. you can also check others from this list above, they all can do miracles for you.
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