Blue Squirrel Says Nuts To Spam Spam Sleuth 2.0 Uses Statistical Analysis To Fight Junk E-Mail Eric Grevstad
Mon 4/7/03 -- Unwanted e-mail is multiplying like rabbits, so you might as well fight it with a squirrel -- Blue Squirrel Inc., whose Spam Sleuth 2.0 promises to make spammers pay for wasting your valuable time.
Priced at $30, this second edition of the company's junk e-mail fighter automatically configures your e-mail account for background, Bayesian statistical analysis of incoming messages. Spam Sleuth looks at previous e-mails to learn the characteristics of good and bad messages, then uses multiple "analyzers" such as Friends, Goodwords, Badwords, Subject, and Attachments to decide whether a message belongs in your inbox or its special holding area. It also removes executable attachments (potential viruses), but saves archived copies in case you want them.
In addition to working with all POP3 e-mail accounts, Spam Sleuth 2.0 lets you decide how much to bill spammers for delivery: If an unknown sender tries to contact you, the program notifies them of the amount your time is worth (from 1 cent to $100) and provides a mechanism to pay via PayPal using any major credit card.
