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SpamAssassin is the powerful #1 Open-Source Spam Filter. It can be natively installed on various flavors of Linux, and  then integrated into SendMail/ProcMail. With some additional efforts, it can be used with Windows SMTP Services too.

You can configure SpamAssassin to take different actions to the SPAM e-mails. You can drop them outright, put them into a special SPAM folder, or mark some thing like "[SPAM]" in the Subject line and let the end users make the final decision of how to dispose them. The last approach is recommended as it is more flexible, and safer. We will focus on this approach only.

We also assume the e-mails are scanned by SpamAssassin at the server, not at the client, such that it is easier to maintain (fewer machines to install) and more efficient (actions taken closer to the SPAM source). The Clients who are receiving scanned e-mails can be:

• POP3/IMAP Client, like Outlook Express, Eudora, Etc.
• Microsoft Outlook Client
• Web Mail Client, like SquirellMail Client, or YamaMail