SpamPal

Download: Author’s Site

Spampal is an ingenious tool that runs on your computer and filters detects spam on your POP3/IMAP server. It does not required integration with an existing mail client and can be set up in minutes.

How Does it Work

SpamPal takes a very different approach to spam filtering. First it connects to your POP3/IMAP server, it then downloads a copy of all the emails currently waiting in your inbox. SpamPal then uses an advances spam detection technique to detect which, if any, of the emails in your mailbox are spam. If it finds any spam, it simply tags the emails as such, adding the word spam to the subject. It’s then up to you to set up your current email client to filter emails that contain this spam tag into a separate folder.

SpamPal doesn’t even need to run on the computer where you’re reading your emails and it can be configured to test multiple mailboxes.

White Lists and Black Lists

SpamPal can connect to the DNSBL lists and check if the email you received is from a known spam email sender, which will instantly tag the email as spam. On the other hand you can set a specific email sender to safe, or put them on your white list. This means that any emails you get from that email address will not be checked and filtered.

Performance

SpamPal performs as well as the widely used Spam Assasin. It does sometimes incorrectly tag an email as spam, and other times let a spam email through. If an email is tagged as spam you can still retrieve, and read it, so having an email incorrectly tagged is not all that bad.

Conculsions

SpamPal works well overall, and is an especially attractive option for users email clients which do not have an integrated spam filtering option. Even if you do have a spam filter integrated directly into your email client, an extra level of protection wont hurt.