Product Review: Free Anti-Spam Tool
Free Mailblocks Challenge & Response System

Like most people you may find coping with the vast amount of mail spam a bit overwhelming. We have found an online application that we use ourselves and find it to be top-notch in helping users cut down on spam and organizing their email both through applications and via the web.

Mailblocks has created a new challenge and response system web-based mail system which we now use and found to be excellent. When you sign up for Mailblocks, you receive a new email account that you can start using right away to block spam.

You can then set up this account so that messages sent to your other email addresses arrive in the Mailblocks Inbox—spam free. Mailblocks will work with Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo!Mail, AOL, and your POP3 account (the email address you use through your Internet Service Provider). Power users will find that you can access your mail through popular email programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Entourage, Eudora and Apple.

The key to Mailblocks is their Challenge/Response 2.0 technology. Once you sign up for the service, you can bring in your contacts or address books from your other email services or applications and this automatically approves all of these senders to email you.

When they email you, their messages go right into your Inbox. If someone sends email to you and they are not in your address list, their message will be sent to your “Pending” folder and they will automatically be sent an email asking them to prove that they are a human and not a spamming computer. They simply click on a link in this email, visit the Mailblocks web site, type a seven digit code on the page and hit Submit (this one-time process usually takes less than 10 seconds). Once they do this, their message moves from your Pending folder right to your Inbox, their email address is added to your Contacts list and subsequent emails are not challenged.

Our favorite feature at Mailblocks is the ability to setup “trackers”. Trackers are uniquely coded email addresses that you can use for newsletter signups, sweepstakes or shopping accounts. With a tracker you can easily see if someone has sold your email address. You can also easily expire the tracker and halt the spam.

Maiblocks has three levels of service. The free version is advertising supported but a good way to see if you like the service first and there is no credit card needed or obligation. Use this to get your FREE MailBlocks anti-spam service. For other anti-spam solutions visit these sites.