The Bottom Line
SpamButcher is an easy to use anti-spam tool. If its filters were more precise and would auto-adapt, SpamButcher could be a great anti-spam tool, too.
Pros
- SpamButcher is easy to use
- Deleted spam can be recovered easily
- Sends a daily summary of purged mail
Cons
- SpamButcher produces false positives
- Internal filters aren't transparent
- Supports POP account only
Description
- SpamButcher checks multiple POP email accounts for spam periodically.
- Scoring content-based filters are used to determine spam.
- SpamButcher automatically deletes spam from the account, but it can easily be recovered later.
- A daily email summary of deleted spam can be used to recover false positives, too.
- SpamButcher keeps a white list of trusted senders whose emails are never intercepted.
- Additionally, you can add custom good or bad phrase filters to extend SpamButcher.
- SpamButcher supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/3/XP.
Guide Review - SpamButcher 1.7m - Spam Filter
I don't know why anti-spam tools tend to have cruel metaphors in their names (and logos!), but I can live with that. What I cannot live with are false positives.
Unfortunately, SpamButcher lets its axe fall on legit mail, too. You can prevent this by whitelisting the sender or add a good phrase to SpamButcher's filters. Of course, SpamButcher lets you recover legit mail easily, but having to watch what SpamButcher does all the time somewhat defeats the purpose of an anti-spam tool.
On the bright side are SpamButcher's simplicity and ease of use. SpamButcher even imports account settings from Outlook Express. Still, SpamButcher is not flexible enough, and it errs on the wrong side with its a tad overzealous filtering.
