What is SPAM?

A simple definition of SPAM is eMail in your inbox that was unsolicited by you - i.e. eMails advertising products or services you did not request. SPAM can also include fraudulent activities with techniques known as 'Phishing' - eMails that appear to be from your bank or credit card company asking for personal information.

Industry sources estimate that SPAM accounts for over 70% of email sent globally, with that number rising rapidly. The productivity costs are easy to measure - with time lost for reading / processing / deleting eMail by each user, but less easy to measure are the potentially damaging effects from pornographic eMail content, Phishing eMails, and other fraudulent schemes that could have devastating effects.

Detecting and deleting SPAM needs to be a priority - Impact Business Technology has set out a number of recommendations below that will help you sort through the options available to you.

Detection / Filtering Techniques

Keyword Detection:

An incoming eMail that contains one or more keyword hits from a blacklist set by the customer. Sometimes, an eMail must contain two or more keywords such as 'Free' and 'Casino' to qualify as SPAM. Obviously, this detection mechanism can be easily defeated by intentionally mis-spelling key phrases or words, and some legitimate eMail will also be trapped simply because it contained the banned words or phrases.

Known Spammer Detection:

The second, more reliable method of detection uses a list of known SPAM sending servers, and automatically filters eMails sent from there. This method creates far fewer false positives (marking a legitimate eMail as SPAM), but is still not foolproof, and also accounts for only a small portion of SPAM sent.

The latest SPAM detection mechanism uses a different approach to determine whether a particular eMail is SPAM or not. Since the vast majority of SPAM is sent in bulk (this being its very nature), a number of services exist that monitor millions of eMails every day, and very quickly identify those messages that are being sent in bulk. The SPAM filtering software can use these services as a reference to compare incoming messages against, and filter the messages based on the results.

A combination of all three methods, works best, and can result in detection of over 95% of SPAM sent today. However, since the senders of SPAM also know this, the target is constantly moving, and tomorrow may bring a new method of spamming, and will require a new detection and filtering technique.

For a list of recommended SPAM fighting products, see our Recommended Products page.