I use a program called Mailwasher Pro.
I've been using MWP since V1.3 and have been beta testing the latest version for over a year. There really is no way to trace back to the originator for most spam (disguising the source is what makes spam so irritating, and insidious) but you certainly can block most of it.
Mychael said:
It will bounce marked spam and block future ones from the same source...
You should never do that as it will cause grief for innocent people. As I noted above, badguys disguise the source and they typically do that by forging or spoofing someone else's email address. If you bounce the emails, it will bounce back to the stolen address, not the bad guy and if many people bounce it, that innocent person can be banned by his own ISP. Not cool! This is why the new version of MW does not support bouncing - at least for now. There is an on-going battle between the long term MW beta testers and Firetrust (makers of MW) marketing weenies. The marketing weenies what to include it because people want to fight back and the marketing weenies think bouncing will attract buyers - but since it hurts too many innocent people it should not be used and so far we have convinced them not to include it - at least until they figure out how to implement without hurting innocent people.
But even so, bouncing has little affect anyways because the addresses used to send spam are only good for a day or two anyway at the most - because they are quickly added to the spam filters at major ISPs, Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.
I used it years ago and unfortunately it doesn't support Thunderbird by importing accounts and I have 14 of them. Lazy me.
That's not true at all. It certainly will import Tbird accounts. But even so, you can manually add accounts so MW will list all your email from multiple account in one nice interface.
The best thing about MWP is that it processes the mail on the mail server and not on your machine. All other client-based spam blockers download the entire email to include attachments onto your machine and THEN they analyze it for any malicious code. To me, that is like inviting the stranger into your home and THEN asking what he wants.
The down side to MWP is that it is a totally independent program and so there is a learning curve and required change of habit dealing with your email - but that's the way it is with any new program.
However, for me, as someone who "works" these forums helping people where I can with their problems, MW is perfect. I get many dozens of forum new thread and post reply notifications every day and MW makes it simple to work through them without having to download them into my regular email client (Outlook).
Gmail does a good job of filtering spam.
Not good enough!!!! Most of my email goes through one of several Gmail accounts and I have found it necessary to check the Gmail spam folders periodically to flush out the "false positives" it has incorrectly tagged as spam - and there are always several.
The latest beta version for MW is available
here. This is a mature product so in terms of being a beta and causing unexpected problems - it is not likely to happen. But even so, it uninstalls nicely. I highly recommend it.
