Stop Spam: How To Escape The Spam Hell-Hole

by Steve Shaw

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Published on this site: December 2003 - See more articles from this month

If you're anything like me, you're pretty sick of it, and just want it to stop. What? Spam, of course. This article gives you a solution to radically, and quickly, reduce the amount of spam messages you receive to a bare minimum.

Personally, I get hundreds of unsolicited spam emails every single day, inviting me to enlarge this, reduce that, pay off my debt with another debt (how does that work?)... you know the type.

I'm also subscribed to dozens of ezines as part of continuing research and keeping my 'finger on the pulse' - and apart from those that stand out from the crowd and offer really valuable information, I've mostly forgotten which ones I'm subscribed to, and which ones are unsolicited.

The danger is of course that by clicking the unsubscribe link on pure spam messages, you're often just confirming your existence to the spammer. So unless I'm really sure it's a genuine unsubscribe link, I steer well clear, which of course doesn't help my email levels.

The issue is really about email messages I want to read, versus those I don't - and what to do with those that I don't want to read.

Sorting through them manually would take hours every day, which for most people is clearly impractical - so I looked for solutions that would help me out, and came across one that works very well for me.

As a result, I now get just a few relevant emails that I actually want, or need, to read, ready and waiting for me in my Inbox - with the rest already deleted off in my 'Deleted' folder.

So, what's the solution?

The secret is to use Artificial Intelligence. No, not robots and sci-fi warriors, but the artificial intelligence of your very own PC. Sounds crazy? No, it's very real, and very effective.

In fact, it's your very own Spam-Sniffing Cyber-Pet, that stops spam in its tracks - you don't have to feed, water or walk it, you just need to spend a bit of time training it to distinguish between the messages you do, and don't, want to read.

It can take a couple hours at first, and then you'll start noticing your spam dropping rapidly. Take a few minutes a day for a week or so, and I can practically guarantee your spam will have dropped by 98-99%. That's what I call an excellent investment of your time.

After that, you'll only need to spend a few minutes every now and again to keep your Spam-Sniffer's training up to date. For example, if you get a message in the wrong place, just tell your Cyber-Pet, and it should filter it correctly next time.

Most of the time, this filtering is over 95% accurate - the more consistently you train it, the higher this accuracy level is. In fact, I can now go weeks without doing a thing - and my spam levels stay the same, i.e. exceedingly low.

The good news is that this solution is one-hundred percent free, and works on pretty much any operating system. According to New Scientist magazine, it "...does a wonderful job".

All you need is a modicum of technical knowledge to set it up, and the patience to let it work its magic on your Inbox.

Here's the URL: http://popfile.sourceforge.net/.

It's a free download, and for once, after months of using it, there doesn't seem to be any sort of 'catch'.

What's more, it's literally saved me hundreds of hours over the past year, and is well worth the small investment of time and effort up front.

Steve Shaw is the developer of PopUpMaster Pro, which allows you to add unblockable popups to your web site quickly and easily, specifically designed to sign up subscribers to your list, and fast. http://popupmaster.com.