Spam Filter or Spam Blocker?
Spam now means junk email. Unwanted, unsolicited email coming into your inbox loaded with ads about breast enlargement, the wonders of Viagra, bogus loan offers and everything in between. Spam can also can carry some very nasty things like phishing scams to steal your identity and worms to compromise your computer to utilize it as a spambot to send out yet more spam. Spam begets spam...
Some email clients have functionality to block or filter spam...most do not. Some ISPs provide spam email blocks or filters before it gets to the end user...some do not. Like all things in computer security it takes a layered approach to thwart these kinds of issues.
Fortunately there are third party email spam blockers and filters. Some are free, some charge a modest fee. Whatever your needs, though, there are anti spam tools available to fit.
So what are the differences between spam filters and spam blockers?
Spam Filters - Spam Filters identify and stop email spam based on certain key words and other algorithms before it can get to the end users email box. The challenge is that while it will stop the email spam it may also stop legitimate emails. And as email spam filters become known by the spammers they find ways around the filters. If you decide to use an email spam filter make sure that it is updated regularly by the software maker or that you have a way of updating the keywords it works from.
Spam Blockers - Spam blockers will identify and block spam based on a "blacklist" that the spam blocker refers to on receipt of a suspected email. Two drawbacks can happen here...legitimate email senders have been known to be added to blacklists and it's easy for the spammers to change providers.
Whether you select a spam filter or spam blocker...or both...you must devote some amount of time monitoring what gets stopped by your application so it can learn what your needs are.
Stopping email spam takes a concerted effort on everyone's part.