Spamkiller lives up to its name

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As I rant continually about spam, several readers have written in support of a downloadable program called Spamkiller. None was from the company (Novasoft), and some were so effusive that you had to wonder whether they were trying a grassroots-PR approach. Such is the world of technology, where it is rare that something is exactly as it seems.

Spamkiller, however, is pretty straightforward. Downloadable from www.spamkiller.com for a free 30-day trial (and $30 for the unlock code), it combines many of the better features of all the anti-spam programs reviewed here and is (most important) easy to use and install. No matter how powerful or smart an anti-spam package might be, it can never be more difficult than the Ignore/Delete option.

Spamkiller sits between the mail client and the server, sorting all incoming mail into one of two categories: Kill or keep. You can train it to recognize certain correspondents or subjects, but it makes some pretty good judgments on its own. I set it up and let it screen a day's worth of mail; it didn't suggest that I kill anything worth keeping. In fact, it filtered out several subscriptions that I hadn't read for months and never canceled.

The program requires disabling an e-mail client and replacing it with Spamkiller's version. You can scroll through and read messages from either category, then hit Send/Receive to download only the screened messages. This added step is relatively painless, especially when you consider the spam-annoyance factor. And the ability to read and delete messages before inviting them into your e-mail environment is a real advantage.

Spamkiller has a lot of welcome features, and pulls it off more elegantly than most other add-ins. The problem is that such features shouldn't have to be added. Spam fighting like this needs to be a front-and-center part of the mail client. So if Microsoft really wants to make the best e-mail client, it should license Spamkiller and graft its best features into Outlook and Outlook Express.

Take a pass: Spammers will stop at nothing to get noticed, and they think if they can just get you to read their missives you will send them money. Recently, I've been getting lots of spam from people named Charlie. The lists aren't suppressed, and everyone on them is named Charlie. Is this some kind of scam to make us think we were getting messages from a fellow traveler?

I was pleased to see that none of the Charlies hit "Reply to All" and demanded removal from the list. Less gratifying is the increase of porno spam and the contained insults. A recent one told me to click on a URL if I wanted to become "more of a man." The other alternative was: "Not a man? Click here to be removed." What a concept: A message that annoys, embarrasses, insults and emasculates in just two lines.

Charles Bermant can be reached by e-mail at cbermant@seattletimes.com. Type Inbox in the subject field.