Spam has become one of the most controversial forms of marketing on the Internet. You might be receiving up to several hundred spam emails everyday. Several factors contribute to the number of spam emails you receive. The popularity of your email service is a contributing factor to how much spam email you may receive. The age of your email address is also a factor. Even though mail service providers develop spam protection systems, such as filters to reduce the spam received by their users. However, spam intruders still seem to get past these protection systems. Spam also takes up storage space on the service provider’s servers.

Regardless of the strength your service provider’s spam filters, you will still receive spam. To detect and prevent spamming, Microsoft has developed a holistic approach that includes innovative technology to block spam. This technology is found in all of Microsoft’s email services, such as Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Exchange.

One of the leading authentication protocols created by Microsoft is the Sender ID Framework (SIDF). It protects more than 45% of all legitimate e-mail sent worldwide. It also addresses the spam issue by validating a sender’s identity. Another anti-spam tool is Microsoft SmartScreen, which is a smart filtering solution. This technology knows how to distinguish between legitimate emails and spam emails. Almost 95% of spam is blocked or identified as junk mail with this technology.

Recently, IronPort anti-spam has developed a technology to fight the increasing amount of spam. It is a multi-layer defense system that detects threats such as spam, phishing and blended threats.

Engate Technology Corporation has been awarded the 2008 hot companies Anti-Spam Honor. They are a leading supplier of anti-spam, network profiling, e-mail security, and protocol level security. They have helped organizations to secure their networks from dangerous messaging abuse, such as spam, botnet attacks, and more. Engate has proved its ability to deliver 99% anti-spam accuracy at the network level for its customers.

Another reputable company providing intelligent email security solutions is Cloudmark. Their technology was developed to stop the current and growing threat with high efficiency and scalability. Currently, Cloudmark protects over 180 million mailboxes in 163 countries. Other companies like habeas.com, returnpath.biz, mxlogic.com have contributed to protect clients from receiving spam emails.

You can also find different anti-spam software available on the Internet. Spam Eater Pro is an example of spam filtering technology that works independently of your inbox. It has a built-in rule set that allows you to customize your own set of rules.

If you are interested in knowing more about spamming, you can visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website. There you will find more interesting facts and you can also report spammers.