Anti-spam software stops all junk mail/unwanted spam from entering your inbox. With most anti-spam software you get the same key features for each of them. These key features revolve around the concept of stopping any spam emails from entering your inbox and include preset filters for preventing spam. Anti-spam software allows you to fight back against spam by creating custom filters based on email accounts, words, subjects, etc. They give you the option of creating ?friends? lists so that all the emails you wish to receive are not deleted. Also all anti-spam software should be compatible with all types of email accounts.

As well as preventing spam emails entering your inbox, anti-spam software also scans incoming and outgoing messages so that any viruses are deleted. Most anti-spam software should help you with all of your email accounts instead of just focusing on the one.

There are certain things that should be kept in mind when selecting your anti-spam software; you should always keep in mind whether it is user friendly or not. This allows you to be able to handle messages differently for different users as some people prefer to have their spam messages directed straight to their junk mail folder while others prefer any spam to be directed to their inbox for example.

Anti spam software isn't the only thing that is raging war on spam, even the government has had enough. A few years ago the government imposed a law which made it illegal for UK companies to send junk mail messages to individuals unless they have signed up to receive such information. If this law is broken there is a ?5,000 penalty. However this law isn't going to work by itself; extra help will be needed from organisations such as Internet Service Providers (ISP's). Bigger companies also state that any information that they provide them with will not be passed onto third party companies. As well as this you also get the option when filling in information for companies as to whether you want your information to be passed onto third party companies. By answering yes to this option you are leaving yourself open to receiving spam messages from said third party companies as you will have agreed to receive information from them.

Anti spam campaigners have criticised the imposed law as they have stated it wouldn't work considering 90% of spam comes from outside of the UK. Instead it has been said that individuals and businesses will have to take more technical responsibilities to ensure that their inboxes are protected.

Emails consist of two parts the header and the body. The body of an email is the text and any attachments that are featured with the email. The header is all of the information that you will see before that actual body such as the lines stating who the email is to and from, what the subject of the email is and the date. The ?from? line usually states the senders email address so that you can easily contact them. However in the case of spam emails spammers insert fictitious email addresses purposely so that you can't get in touch with them.

My advice to anyone suffering spam emails, which is most people with an email account, is to invest in an anti spam software as this will be the most effective way of eliminating spam from your inbox.