iHateSpam

by Sunbelt Software

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006RZ9P
• Item model number: BP00IHS
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 7, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,555 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #6 in Software > Business & Office > Communication > E-mail > Security & Filtering
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

If you find yourself deleting most of the e-mails in your inbox without even reading them, iHateSpam may just be the program you need. Available for users of Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, this utility is great for personal users, but may not always be appropriate for business use.

iHateSpam takes only a few moments to install, but the setup process can be somewhat time-consuming. After installation, iHateSpam mines your Outlook contacts and any folders you choose to look for e-mail addresses you do not consider to be spam. It then creates a "friends" list so all the e-mails you do want to receive will be left untouched by the program. Conversely, iHateSpam also has an "enemies" list to which you can add unwanted e-mails that you receive and the sending addresses will be blocked by iHateSpam. You can also bounce an e-mail back to the sender, which includes a message saying that your addresses is unavailable, thus tricking the sender into deleting your e-mail address from their database.

While all of these features seem attractive in theory, we found that the program has some drawbacks in actual use. First, the setup process becomes redundant for the person who uses Outlook for business purposes. It is extremely difficult and time-consuming to manage a friends list when you receive and send e-mails to hundreds of coworkers and associates. Further, creating an enemies list becomes a delicate process as you do not want to inadvertently have a new customer or contact be labeled as an enemy, even though you have not received e-mail from them before.

All in all, iHateSpam would most likely work very well for someone who uses Outlook for personal e-mails only and who is merely trying to get rid of the junk so they can keep in touch with their friends and family. But for anyone who is already managing a wide database of contacts, it creates more trouble than it removes. --Kendra Hayden

Product Description

Eliminate annoying spam. iHateSpam for Outlook and Outlook Express reduces irritating junk e-mails quickly and easily, without any technical knowledge required.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple and effective, November 8, 2002

By 

Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: iHateSpam (CD-ROM)

I tried this product after a horrible experience with McAfee Spamkiller. This software is SO much better!

This software is an e-mail filtering add-in that works with e-mail software such as Outlook Express. Whenever you check your e-mail, the Ihatespam software kicks in and sends all spam directly to your recycle bin. If you like, you can review it there before dumping the trash. About 15% of my spam still gets through the Ihatespam filters. Whenever a spam message lands in the inbox, I just click on a button, which automatically moves the message to the recycle bin with the other spam, but also gives me the option of blocking all e-mail from the same address. The first time I used it, it imported all the names of frequent correspondents from my address book as friends. Other features offered with the click of a button are "bounce", which sends an error message to the spammer, and "report", which sends a complaint to the spammer's mail administrator.

The software was easy to install and updates automatically whenever you open your e-mail software. It's well worth the money.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Limited support for Outlook Express, no support for Netscape, December 27, 2002

By 

Kevin Murphy (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: iHateSpam (CD-ROM)

Nearly all the features of this program are limited to uses of OUTLOOK (the big brother to Outlook Express). Outlook Express users are limited to an automation of the existing Blocked Senders List function. Outook Express users could, in fact, save their money, use the Blocked Senders List, edit the blocked senders down to their domains, and achieve the same spam-blocking results (~80%).

Outlook users should seriously consider this program. Outlook Express users should consider the McAfee program. Netscape users, Eudora users, and all others cannot use this program as only Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express are supported.

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some comments 1 year later, June 14, 2003

By 

magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: iHateSpam (CD-ROM)

I used I Hate Spam! for a year and was quite satisfied with it, and it's a very good spam filter program. I wrote a very positive review some months ago for it, and it has certainly served me well. It was easy to configure and although I was only using it with Outlook Express, which doesn't have all the filter options compared to Outlook, it was still able to catch about 80% of the spam. I had also researched the other spam filter programs before buying this one, and it had very good reviews on Amazon, compared to McAfee's Spamkiller, which I'd already bought, but hadn't opened yet. So I returned it and exchanged it for I Hate Spam!

One nice feature of the program is it allows you to "bounce" unwanted emails back to their source. This sends a return email that looks like its from the main email router that your address is invalid, which hopefully causes it to be removed from the spammer's mailing list sometimes. I don't know how effective this really is, but they're a certain amount of satisfaction in bouncing their message back to them and clogging up their mailbox with unwanted messages too.

My only problem with it is that since I only have 128 megs of RAM with XP, after some months the spam filters got so large my email ran quite slow and my hard disk started thrashing a lot. I was surprised the combination of Outlook and I Hate Spam! had gotten that memory intensive, but the spam filters update regularly from the web, and after a while the filter database gets quite big, and every email gets compared against it, which takes some time.

Anyway, over the last several years my spam load has probably increased 10 times, to the point where I'm getting 10 times as much spam as actual email. That plus the memory issues I was experiencing meant my email downloads were taking a long time even though I only get 2-3 emails a day, and I was getting 20-30 spam messages. That's not much compared to several people I know who get 100 spam emails a day, but still, I finally decided to bite the bullet and change my email account name. You can usually do this through the webmail interface for your ISP. Mine is Earthlink, so I went to their Account Maintenance page, selected eMail, and went through the steps to change my email address. Now I get zero spam and no more viruses either, which were getting more and more frequent, since I'd gotten on probably dozens of spammer mailing lists. Recently I got on the ones for Viagra and was getting lots of those. Then I started getting the ones for penis enlargement products, which I suppose was only inevitable after getting on the Viagra lists. Oh well, that's modern life for you.

Anyway, it was at that point that I decided to change my email name. For some people this isn't practical for professional reasons or business reasons, but I'm retired so although I have about 100 correspondents, it's no big deal. I sent out a message to my entire distribution list that my email name was changing after four or five years, and to make a note of it. Of course, 3/4 of those people won't do that and will fail to put the new name in their address book, but oh well. Anyway, I recommend you do this too if you possibly can. At this point I don't even need I Hate Spam!, but I still run it anyway since it's so much faster now.

One last word of caution. I got all that spam because when I first got online about 5 years ago I not too wisely signed up at various webpages for various online information services such as electronic magazines, or information updates on various subjects I was interested in, and other free stuff, and after awhile, everybody and anybody had my email address. So be careful what you sign up for. Otherwise you'll have more email than you know what to do with.

Another way this happens is if someone you know gets one of those Outlook email viruses that sends emails out to everybody in your address book. Now you'll be getting emails forever with that virus in it since you'll be on the list of people to email. This is one reason why it's important to have an anti-virus program too in addition to a spamkiller.

Overall, a fine program, although if you take my recommendation to change your email name, you probably won't need a spam filter. :-)