I never used to get so much spam until sometime last year, when the problem suddenly worsened ten-fold. Maybe it was a general trend that I had no control over, or maybe it was the result of _someone_ using the _visible_ carbon copy field to publicise my main e-mail address to all and sundry. Whatever the case, it became a problem that needed fixing before my computer was crushed under the weight of advertisements for discount Viagra and penile enlargements and so on and so forth. (I mean, if you’re trying to tell me something…) So, encouraged by Merlin’s successful trial run, about a week ago I signed up with Knowspam to try to stem the tide of unsolicited electronic junk flooding my account. I can almost hear you say, _but what is this Knowspam you speak of?_ Basically, it’s a barrier between my inbox and any potential spammers who intend to clog it up, and it works like this — if anyone who isn’t already on my clearance list tries to send me an e-mail, they receive a message to visit a webpage at the Knowspam site; there, they can answer one simple question to prove their sentience and proceed to mail me all they want in perpetuity. Simple, really. And so far, it’s working like a charm. My spam levels in the week or so since I’ve started using the service have dropped to zero. That’s right, a big fat _zero_. And I’ve barely had to lift a finger. It’s almost completely foolproof. (Indeed, my only problem with the service so far is a limitation of my own e-mail set-up: the standard OSX mail application doesn’t handle separate ingoing/outgoing mail servers so I can’t actually _send_ any e-mail via the Knowspam-protected address at present, but seeing as I have two other addresses and they all flow into the same inbox it’s a minor fault that can be addressed later.) So if you’ve been having major problems with spam in your inbox, you should take a look at Knowspam. It’s working for me, let it work for you. (Or alternately, you could just stop abusing yourself with canned meat products. You might get a funny disease.)

Sat 12 Jul 2003 at 10:38   ·