Email filters. If you've tried one, you know how poorly they can work. Most filters - even from well-known companies - will only catch 60-70% of your spam. Best results, after hours of training and many legitimate emails being accidently deleted, you can achieve 90% removal of spam. Oh, but it will still catch some of your legitimate mail. Sorry!

How do these anti-spam filters work?
(From PC World, May 2003):

Spam filters look hard at the return address, which is often fake. In this case, the address consists almost entirely of numbers, a common component of machine-generated spam.

A filter may examine the IP address where the e-mail originated and compare it against lists of addresses known to be sources of spam. If it finds a match, that e-mail is usually blocked.

Some antispam software compares the date on the message against the time it's actually received; spammers will either delete the date or assign one in the future so that the e-mail lands at the top of its victims' mailboxes.

Common catchphrases (like "as seen on TV" and "free gifts") are another giveaway; many spammers also insert garbage characters, misspellings, or odd letter spacing in an attempt to fool simple text filters.

Lines entirely in capital letters--or oversize fonts in HTML mail--are a common spam tactic, so some filters flag messages that contain them.

Did you read that? They check for mail with phrases like "as seen on TV" and "free gifts". Can you imagine how many legitimate emails can be caught because they contain phrases like that? "Hi Sally, yes I was at the store the other day and they had some free gifts. I got one of those neat 'as seen on tv' exercise machines!". Many email filters would guarantee you never receive that email.

How about lines that are entirely in capital letters, or oversized fonts? Yes spammers use them, but so does my grandmother! Do you want emails with capital letters or large fonts automatically deleted? NO!

Email filters have one major flaw: they are not effective. Most email filters require you to look through your piles of spam for any legitimate mail that it captured. If you have to do that, what's the point of having a filter?

Laws haven't helped. Filters are almost useless. Email in Focus offers a real chance to get rid of your spam once and for all - satisfaction guaranteed. So what are you waiting for? Sign up today.