What are Spam Filters used for?

Spam Filters

The need for spam filters has gone up as the number of unwanted pitches the average e-mail user receives increases every year. Fortunately, with more unwanted pitches came better spam filters. In fact, the best of filters can detect 99% of junk mail.

The filters work by searching emails for words frequently used by spammers and words often used by you, your friends, and colleagues. The emails containing words favored by spammers often get x-ed. Spurring, spammers to come up with newer ways to pass filters.

For a while spammers tried breaking up offensive words with the use of periods to produce subject lines like e.hance your pr.formance. Not knowing that this made it easier for the filters to spot the unsolicited offer.

When spammers clued in, they started adding rare words in emails to try fool the filters. They slowly progressed to embedding a few sentences from poems and classical literature like Shakespeare.

But, still some filters recognize that not a lot of people write emails using Shakespearian style language. Causing spammers to drop the ‘to be or not to be?’ line and to burrow text from the works of famous authors like Charles Dickens and George Bernard Shaw.