[thelist] OT: Recommendation for Mac Anti-Spam Desktop Software

[Chris Nicholls]

>>I have gone to extreme levels of Anti-SPAM control though.

<tip type="Stopping spam:YMMV" author="Chris Nicholls">

This is a simple technique, but someone still had to point it out to me.

It requires you have to have an email account with unlimited aliases,
e.g. your "root" email account is <yourname at foo.com>, but you can also
use any address like
- chris at yourname.foo.com
- ChrissyWissy at yourname.foo.com
etc.

It also depends on whether you currently use the alias facility.
If not, read on.

My original "root" account is the one that has been tainted by the 
clammy hand of spam, dating back to the days when we used to 
incautiously post and give out our email addresses willy-nilly.

So about 6 months ago I sent all my personal correspondents a request 
asking them to now use 'chris at yourname.foo.com'
I had about 98% immediate take-up by my correspondents; a few 
stubborn/forgetful ones needed a couple of nudges;-)

I now have a mail filter set up (Mozilla Mail/Apple Mail) so all 
old-school "yourname at foo.com" goes straight to my junk folder, where I 
review and purge it.

In addition, I now give any new website or organisation that needs an 
email address its own, new, alias e.g. evolt at axe.dircon.co.uk
I maintain this list in my Palm Pilot, so it's no big hassle to remember.

This means that
1. You can easily create rules for this address based on the 'to' 
address used
2. Block this address if it starts receiving spam
3. Know whom to hold accountable if the address becomes spam-tainted

Pretty soon I'm just going to auto-junk all "root" email (or better 
still, have Apple Mail bounce them, and then auto-junk the inevitable 
bounce-bounces.) Then I'm spam free! (until one of my mates posts the 
new address on usenet!)
</tip>