Spam is so despised that laws have been passed against the practice while individuals and companies have sued spammers for millions of dollars. As a result, an entire industry has grown out of the desire to rid the world of spam. The question for most companies is, "which spam software do we use." There are many out there, including:

• ePrism
• ThreatWall
• Spam Blocker
• AntiSpam
• Qurb
• Spam Killer
• Spam Arrest
• I Hate Spam

The names themselves reveal the intensity of emotion spam evokes in people. Choosing the correct spam blocker depends on various issues, including the type of e-mail software you use as well as the type of hardware you have. The Business Performance Advantage offers you a review of three top packages that are different in many ways.

Qurb

From the moment you finish installing Qurb, 100% of spam will be blocked from your Outlook or Outlook Express inbox. The Qurb Spam Blocker works like CallerID for e-mail. During installation, Qurb scans your contacts folder and your e-mail folders to create a list of approved senders with whom you communicate.

As you work with your e-mail, the Qurb spam blocker automatically updates this list continuously. E-mail from people you know is delivered directly to your inbox; all other e-mail is quarantined, awaiting further review or automatic deletion.

Some benefits of Qurb include:

• No training or learning process required
• No spam in your Inbox ever again
• Easy to use and understand
• Approved senders are automatically created and updated as you work with your e-mail
• Modifications to the list of approved senders can be performed manually at any time
• Mailing lists and entire companies can be added to your approved sender list
• Prevents spammers from reaching your Inbox by fraudulently pretending to be someone on your list of approved senders

Spam Killer

McAfee Spam Killer quickly and easily helps you stop spam from polluting your inbox with advanced rule-based and list-based filtering. Spam Killer blocks specific addresses of known spammers, just as other programs do, but Spam Killer goes far beyond lists. Its comprehensive preset filters also watch for subject lines and text within messages. In fact, Spam Killer can filter on the sender's address, subject line, body text, message header and can even block spam based on its country of origin.

Spam Killer comes with thousands of filters already installed and new filters are released regularly based on careful analysis of McAfee's spamtraps. Spam Killer checks McAfee servers once a day for new filters – so your protection is always up-to-date. The software also allows you to participate in your own security by giving you the option to report spam directly to McAfee. Anti-spam experts analyze all reported spam with automated and human analysis and develop new filters to help protect the entire Spam Killer community.

If you're new to spam fighting, you'll love Spam Killer's filter wizard, which lets you create new filters based on spam messages that you've received. Simply choose the part of the message that you want to filter on, and Spam Killer does the rest.

Spam Killer supports MSN/Hotmail, POP3 and MAPI e-mail accounts. By directly supporting multiple client-based e-mail applications (Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape etc.) and Web-based e-mail clients (MSN/Hotmail), Spam Killer enables you to benefit from its advanced filtering without forcing you to change how you access and read your e-mail.

One great feature of Spam Killer is that spam e-mail is automatically deposited into Spam Killer's Killed Mail folder so that your inbox remains uncluttered and free of spam. Spam e-mail is held in quarantine and erased automatically after 30 days. If for some reason a legitimate e-mail is flagged as spam, you can easily recover in one quick step. To make things even easier, Spam Killer can automatically import your friend's e-mail addresses into its friends list, ensuring that their messages aren't mistaken for spam. You may also add new friends, newsletters or complete domains to the friends list at any time.

Spam Arrest

With Spam Arrest, you can continue to use your current e-mail program (such as Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora) or use Spam Arrest’s web mail system to access your e-mail from anywhere. Unlike other anti-spam solutions, the Spam Arrest spam control software quickly and easily blocks spam before it ever gets to your inbox — no matter how the spam is disguised or where it comes from.

Once purchased, the Spam Arrest spam stopper will start blocking spam right away. When someone sends you an e-mail, the software checks to see if they are authorized to send you e-mail. If so, the e-mail goes right through to you. If not, Spam Arrest holds that e-mail and replies with a verification request. This request states who you are and that you are protecting yourself from junk e-mail. It asks the sender to click on a link to Spam Arrest where they enter a word into a form, and then they are verified and their e-mail goes right through to your inbox. They only need to verify once. You may also authorize (verify) whomever you wish on the site, or block people.

Estimates say that each of us will waste more than 25 hours deleting e-mail, compared to 2.2 hours in 2000. That costs the average business in the future $665 per inbox, compared to $55 in 2000. With overall e-mail use increasing significantly, the ability to block unwanted spam is becoming more critical every day.
By using one of these spam blockers, companies like yours can say goodbye to the endless stream of junk, illegal, and pornographic e-mails that clutter inboxes everywhere.