avast! antispam filter
avast! Internet Security includes a fully integrated antispam filter to detect unwanted email.
Spam delivered to your mailbox can result in your mailbox quickly becoming full, as a result which, legitimate emails may not be received. It can also unnecessarily increase the load on the email server, internet connection, local networks etc.
The avast! antispam filter analyses all incoming email based on various criteria to determine whether it is legitimate. This analysis is based partly on a “blacklist” containing the addresses of senders from whom emails should always be marked as spam, and a “whitelist” which contains the addresses of known and trusted senders. These lists can be found in the antispam settings. For emails from senders that are not on either list, a content analysis is also carried out based on the specified scan sensitivity to identify email that should be treated as spam.
In the antispam settings you can also specify how spam emails should be marked. This can then be used to create a new rule in your email client, for example to automatically move the marked emails to another folder. The antispam filter is effective for messages delivered to email accounts installed on your computer such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express etc but not for web based email accounts such as Yahoo, Gmail etc which usually have their own antispam options.