SpamBully 4 - An Anti Spam Outlook Add-InWith literally billions of spam messages emailed to people like you and me each year, we need automated help to block out the junk so we can find the good stuff. SpamBully 4 uses Bayesian algorithms to identify junk email messages. Without going into technical details Bayesian spam filters are the most effective way available to identify spam. In addition, this add in creates safe lists and blocked lists based on your existing email habits (I'll explain this more in the next section) and your training, so after a short time it becomes extremely accurate at identifying junk mail without blocking messages that you actually want. How It WorksWhen you install SpamBully 4, it learns your email habits by looking at the addresses of people you accept email from, as well as those that are in your Junk Mail folder. Using this information, the add-in creates lists of safe and blocked addresses.
Learning your email habits. When you start Outlook, you may see a dialog box with a list of messages the add in thinks are junk, so you can specify which of them, if any, are not junk and should be kept. Doing this helps to train the add in to only block what you want it to. By default, the add in is an aggressive Outlook spam filter, meaning that, until you train it for your particular situation, it sometimes marks good messages as spam and puts them in the Spam folder along with the legitimate junk mail. If SpamBully 4 has a flaw, it is this tendency toward over-aggressiveness until you have it trained the way you want it. Using ItOnce you have the add in installed, it's easy to use. It automatically installs its own anti spam Outlook toolbar, part of which is shown here:
The Anti Spam Outlook Toolbar. The toolbar is easy to use. If a spam message makes it into your Inbox, click the Spam button to mark it as spam and remove it from the Inbox. Click Review to see which messages have been blocked and mark as safe any that shouldn't be blocked. At first, you will find some messages mis-classified as junk, so be sure to check regularly. One option I recommend you avoid is called Fight Back. If you select a junk message and then click Fight Back, Outlook sends a message back to them in retaliation for them spamming you. While emotionally satisfying, the last thing you should do is respond to a spammer, even with a hostile message. Your response tells them that they have a valid and active email address, which makes your address more valuable to them and will likely result in you getting even more spam! ConclusionSpamBully 4 is a solid, effective anti spam Outlook add-in. Even better, it comes with a 14-day free trial, so you can see how effective an Outlook spam filter it is in your own environment.From here you can:
|
