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Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam...
Just give me the eggs, bacon and sausages...

11 September 2007

by Huw Collingbourne

The novelty has definitely worn off where Spam is concerned. No longer do I chuckle when I get emails inviting me to enlarge my penis or invest in stocks that are about to go through the roof. But how do I stop the stuff?

I’ve tried Spam filters both locally on my PC and remotely on the server. They work 90% to 95% of the time but 5% to 10% of the time they put Spam into my Inbox and legitimate emails into the Spam bin. Which means that I end up having to check 100% of incoming emails, so might as well not bother with the Spam filters at all....

Is there a better way of dealing with Spam? How about one of those ‘enter the letters in this image’ thingummies that force people to fill in some data before letting their email through? Are they any better than Spam filters? Are there any that are both free and actually work? Or am I forever condemned to read how to enlarge my penis and make a fortune overnight? All helpful comments will be grateful received - but all Spam will be ruthlessly deleted...

On a lighter note, here is the sketch and song (with subtitles which, as far as I can recall, were not in the original) that gave its name to Spam as we know it...

Monty Python’s Spam...