Welcome
Introduction to Spam Buster™

Are you tired of junk email messages cluttering up your inbox?  Would you like a quick and convenient way to filter out those nasty spam-o-grams as they continually assault your hard disk?   If you answered yes to these questions then take action! Use Spam Buster! - the powerful way to filter out junk email.

What is Spam Buster?

Benefits of Spam Buster

Settings

Stats

Why and how to register?

Frequently Asked Questions

Technical Support

License Agreement

Minimum System Requirements:

•	Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT

•	32 Mb RAM

•	A POP3 email account   Spam Buster does NOT work with proprietary email services such as AOL, Juno, MSN, and web-based email accounts such as Hotmail

Spam Buster is a trademark of Contact Plus Corporation.

Copyright © 2001 by Contact Plus Corporation.


What is Spam Buster?

Spam Buster is an email filter designed to help you get rid of that annoying junk email that can clutter up your mail box.  Due to the popularity of the internet and the low cost of sending out advertisements, its possible for anyone to send out hundreds if not thousands of  email advertisements and get rich quick schemes and other undesirable offers.  Use Spam Buster before you check your email using your email program as the first line of defense against the junk. Then from Spam Buster you can launch into your email program to retrieve and read the email that you wish to read after cleaning up the incoming mail.  Since Spam Buster does NOT download the entire message it is much quicker than using your normal email program which will actually have to retrieve the entire message including any attachments.

Spam Buster will delete the junk email before it gets to your mail program.  Then when you get into your mail program you will have a clean set of messages waiting for you after running Spam Buster.  Not only will it flag junk email, it will allow you to preview and selectively delete ANY message (including non-spam) you wish simply by marking it.

What is SPAM?

Popular internet culture has transformed the word, SPAM, into one that really means junk email.  And usually junk email comes in the form of advertisements.  It seems like the most popular ones are those that advocate get rich quick schemes and pornography.  The first time you get one of these junk emails it can be interesting to read, but it sure gets tiresome after the 100th email message advertising a pyramid money making scheme comes into your mailbox.

How does Spam Buster work?

The spammers (those who send junk email) realize that they need to get you to read the email message in order to sell you.  They realize that they only have about 80 characters of the subject line in which to convey a quick message in order for you to keep your finger off of the delete email button.  One effective way to lure you into reading the ad is to clutter the subject with superlatives, and exclamation and question marks.  Generally the spammers are not too creative as they tend to copy other spammers.  Fortunately this allows Spam Buster to easily identify the junk and separate the 'sheep' from the 'goats'.

Most junk email now follows patterns to try to lure you into reading the advertisement.  You can take advantage of some of the known patterns by being able to modify a built in set of rules for the sender, the message subject and the message headers.  For example, those email messages that have to do with money making schemes usually will end with a question or exclamation mark (!) or will have a dollar sign within the message ($).  You can tell Spam Buster to delete all mail that contains a dollar sign or ends with question marks or exclamation points such as the following messages:

•	Make real $$$ quick

•	Are you ready to be a millionaire?

•	You've gotta see this!!!

Also many message subject lines are in ALL UPPERCASE for emphasis.  It is generally unusual to receive a normal email message in all uppercase since by convention it signifies that the sender is SHOUTING. Spam Buster can easily identify these messages as possible spams.

Sometimes the spam will not actually be addressed to you but will be addressed to the originator of the message (due to the mailing software used by the spammer).  This is easily identified by Spam Buster.

Some emailers have started to include keywords in the email message header (the header includes special information that you normally do not care about).  These keywords include the term 'X-Advertisement'.  These are again easily identified by Spam Buster.

Some messages come from junk mailers who have all numbers for a user id such as 84323424@aol.com.  Generally a normal sender will not be named with all numbers. This is a good clue and Spam Buster can handle this case.

If these strategies don't catch the spam, Spam Buster comes with a  list of more than 17,000 pre-entered known spam mailers and allows you to enter any number of built in rules so that you can catch spam and kill it dead in its tracks.

Why doesn't Spam Buster include some sort of retaliation measure?

Responding to junk email rarely stops the sender from sending more junk email.  In fact, it gives the sender a confirmation that there is indeed someone who is reading and responding to the email which can provide an impetus for the sender to send even more junk email.  If the sender of the original junk email didn't care to respect your privacy why would they respect it later?  Also, oftentimes the reply to address is bogus so your complaint simply gets bounced back to you.


Benefits of Spam Buster

We all want freedom of speech but junk mail is getting rather cumbersome.  Rather than suppressing junk email at the source, it is much better to catch the email at the destination and wipe it out automatically.   If you've been pestered by email and need a quick and easy way to stop it then you need Spam Buster.  We've listed 12 reasons for you to get Spam Buster below:

Spam Buster is super fast! Since Spam Buster doesn't have to download the entire email message to determine if the email is junk, therefore it is very quick.

Spam Buster comes with a massive list of over 17,000 known spam senders!  A list of email addresses from known spam senders has been collected and gathered from public sources on the internet.  You can automatically check your incoming email against this massive list of known spammers.  And best of all you can add to the list as you get spammed!

Spam Buster allows you to add your own friends to a list of exceptions.  Those messages sent by friends are never deleted.  In fact a message from a friend will be marked with a special icon to catch your attention.

Spam Buster allows you to add special keywords to a list of exceptions.  Perhaps you are on a mailing list and although the email may look like spam it really isn't.  If the email contains a consistent keyword then it will not be marked for deletion.

Spam Buster can warn you of a potential spam. There are some criteria that may look suspicious (i.e. the presence of !! in the message) however, you may not want to delete it but have Spam Buster draw your attention to it with a special question mark.

Spam Buster can run automatically at preset intervals! Spam Buster can operate in an automatic mode where it will notify you if there is email waiting to be checked in pre-defined intervals (say every 60 minutes or so).

Spam Buster handles numerous multiple mailboxes.  Up to 12 POP mailboxes can be handled on a particular computer.

Spam Buster tells you which strategy is getting the most activity.  As you add and select new strategies to filter out junk, Spam Buster keeps a count of the number of hits a particular strategy has matched.  This allows you to fine tune your selection strategies.

Spam Buster will actually let you view your email message before it gets to your mailbox.  If you can't decide whether you should delete a message, you can actually view the message quickly and easily.  Don't worry, viewing a message will not prevent it from ending up in your default email program.

Spam Buster will tell you in plain English why a particular message is marked for deletion.  A particular message will be marked if it matches any of the criteria.  As you build more and more filter criteria it can get hard to keep track of the different reasons a message is suspected of being a spam.  Spam Buster will tell you why it marked the messages in plain English, allowing you to adjust your criteria if necessary.

BONUS! Spam Buster comes with a unique junk email tension reliever. Go to the About screen, select the Bust a Spam option and then click on the hammer.  Watch as the SpamMeister takes a hammer to the spam.  Can be quite gratifying!


Registering Spam Buster

The evaluation version of Spam Buster is ad supported.  This means that advertising banners appear on the main screen.  To remove the banner advertisements you may purchase the registered version.  Subsequent updates of Spam Buster are available on-line for FREE.

Ordering Spam Buster

When downloaded Spam Buster is only $19.95 (US) and can be purchased immediately with a credit card at the Contact Plus online mall.  All transactions are encrypted for your privacy and safety.  This is  the fastest and easiest way to purchase a registered version of Spam Buster.   To receive a diskette by mail, the price is $24.95 (US).  Forms of payment accepted:  major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) and checks and money orders in US Funds.

Online

To order on-line using a credit card, click on the Register button (located in Settings and Stats) while running the program to be directed to our secure registration web page on the internet.   Or visit the Contact Plus Online Mall at http://www.contactplus.com

Phone

Call the Contact Plus Order Desk at (321) 984-2592 9 am to 5 pm EST Mon – Fri to place your order by phone.Fax

Complete an order form by clicking on the Register button (located from the main screen in Settings and Stats) while running the program.  Fax a completed form  to  (321) 984-8192

Post

Complete an order form by clicking on the Register button (located from the main screen in Settings and Stats) while running the program.  Send  with payment to:

Contact Plus Corporation

PO Box 372577

Satellite Beach, FL 32937-0577  USA

Other Contact Plus Products:

Contact Plus Personal -  Basic contact management software for the home or office user.  Includes quick internet access to favorite sites, popup US map, smart autodialer, word processing and customized letters using both Microsoft Word and WordPerfect, user defined text, date and numeric fields, unlimited multiple databases, categories, easy data entry with quick pick fields, automatic city/state/zipcode entry, appointment calendars with drag and drop rescheduling of events, powerful recurring events, personalized mass email to your customer lists. Also you can view dynamic charts of contact activity, print mailing labels in Avery format, print custom envelopes, search for anything even across multiple databases on one search, perpetual notes, reminder alarms on appointments, transfer contacts between databases easily, categorization of events into meetings/letters/calls/to-do's, uses animated icons, incremental searching on index fields, create unlimited selections, many indexes, powerful import for existing databases or purchased lists, export data to ASCII or Dbase files

Contact Plus Professional - Our most comprehensive customer relationship product available. Keeps track of incoming and outgoing email, phone calls, letters, faxes, etc. Seamless interface to Word, WordPerfect and WinFax. User defined fields, quick popups, quick data entry templates, airport maps, automated followup schedules, computes distance to contact locations, handles sales transactions and quotes. Perfect for a small office has it also handles equipment reservations, interoffice mail, broadcast messages over the network and more. Share data with your co-workers and have all changes immediately available to everyone. Includes the most sophisticated level of security - even limit field access to certain users!  Share information with people in the field with Smart Merge Pro, an optional add on data synchronization tool.   Available in 2, 3, 5, 10, 20,  and 30 concurrent user sizes.

Smart Merge - The data synchronization tool for sharing Contact Plus Professional data with users across town or across the world.   Smart Merge allows you to operate Contact Plus Professional  databases running on laptop or other remote computers without duplicating entries or overwriting information. Whether combining telephone calls,  notes, meetings,  letter history, email, faxes, or biographical information within existing client files or adding new customers, Smart Merge is the answer to shared database information.   Information can be sent via email, the Internet, or on disk to the home office where all recent changes can be immediately made available to everyone! Perfect for the remote user were sharing data with the home office is important. Designed exclusively for Contact Plus Professional.

Task Plus  - A very graphical task and 4-calendar scheduler designed for simplicity and speed. Scheduled an unlimited number of personal tasks on the calendar with holidays and repeating events such as birthdays. The handsome 4 month calendar is color coded for different types of tasks. Filter calendars for different types of tasks. Task Plus runs in system tray and will sound alarm when task is due. With Task Plus create both monthly and yearly HTML calendars. Includes a spell checker and comes with over 230 pre-programmed international holidays from 20 countries. Easy to use from the keyboard with many one key shortcuts

Task Plus Professional  - Designed as a powerful multi-user scheduling calendar handling up to 30 simultaneous users on a local area network. A color coded 4-month calendar is viewable on screen at all times. Dates with pending tasks will be colored red while holidays and completed tasks will have different colors. Each task can be assigned to one or more users. Tasks include priority levels, private flag, rich text format notes, alarms, completion notes, file attachments and assignees. Additionally, the task note may contain embedded websites and email addresses so you or others can access a website contained within the note by a single click. Individual holidays/vacations are noted on the calendar and checked for conflicts. Powerful filters show only those important tasks due for you today. Private tasks can be viewed by one or a group of assigned individuals. The small memory resident alarm will automatically notify you of a new task or message allowing you to respond to the alarm or simply snooze for a period of time. If you wish to display your calendar on the internet, Task Plus Pro can easily publish a monthly or yearly filtered read-only calendar in HTML format. Also includes the ability to broadcast a message to other Task Plus users and send internal email. The alarm will respond to the internal email as it comes in.

More Space - A handy disk utility to help you SAFELY free up valuable disk space by targeting those files that are large, obsolete or duplicated. This powerful utility includes a CRC checking algorithm that will make sure that the contents of all of your duplicate files are indeed the same. This is much more powerful than simply searching by file size, name or date/time. More Space does more than find duplicate files, it also scans for old files, large files, obsolete and large folders allowing you to delete these files and folders very simply. It includes a unique 'SAFE HARBOR' function that will keep you out of trouble by warning you before you delete special files. Functions include duplicate search, file hog search, and date search. A quick clean feature allows you to quickly identify files by extension for deletion such as '*.tmp", *.old, *.bak, etc. Includes plenty of 3D disk statistics.

Plus much more!  Visit the web site at www.contactplus.com for the latest products!


Spam Settings

Spam Buster uses multiple strategies in attempting to identify a spam message.  The number of strategies can get large therefore they are organized onto 6 different tabs.  Each tab focuses on a different set of strategies.

Subject  - strategies that focus on the email subject line

Headers - strategies that will peek inside of the email header

Sender - who is the email sent from and does it follow a known pattern

Size - is the email message too large or too small (zero length)?

Exceptions - list of always accepted email  such as known colleagues ... these messages are never deleted

Blacklist of Known Spammers - a list of the email addresses of known spammers

Valid Domains -  ability to check to see if a domain (i.e the .com .org etc part of email address) is valid

Non English – ability to check if the characters sent in the email is primarily English

How does Spam Buster decide if an email is a spam?

To determine if an email is a spam Spam Buster employs the following procedures:

1) First the exception list is searched to see if the sender is a friend or known user.  If found, then the remaining strategies are skipped.

2) Starting at the top of the Subject Strategies, Spam Buster searches from the top to the bottom until it runs out of strategies or it matches the email with a check mark.

3) If a match using a check mark strategy was found then the remaining strategies are skipped.

4) The Size, Headers, Sender are all checked from top to bottom for a match.  If a match is found anywhere the remaining strategies are skipped.

5) Finally if none of the strategies matched, the blacklist is then searched.

Note that the hit count is updated from the top of the list to the bottom.  Hint: You may want to position the most frequent rules at the top of the list by clicking on the Up or Down arrow or by sorting by 'Hits'.


Spam Settings Subject

When Spam Buster checks your email it does NOT download the entire message which saves much time.  It only will check the subject and from information to quickly make a determination of whether or not to delete the junk email.

The subject line is compared to a number of rules that you can define including:

contains

contains (whole word)

equals

starts with

ends with

is blank or empty

is all UPPERCASE

The messages can be marked with a check mark or a question mark.  Only those messages marked with a check mark will actually be deleted.  The ones with a question mark will not be deleted but only meant to give you a visual clue about a particular email.

Use the check if case matters option if you want a precise match above.


Spam Settings Header

When you receive an email message all kinds of hidden detailed information accompany the message which may help in identifying a spam message.  A typical header will look something like the following:

From ???@??? Sat Sep 15 13:48:05 2001Return-Path: 8535412061@aol.com

Received: from simple.globecomm.net (simple.globecomm.net [188.51.48.4]) by mun.xx.net (8.8.5/8.6.11) with ESMTP id NAA15739 for <freod@mnu.net>; Sat, 15 Sep 2001 13:38:27 -0400 (EDT)

Received: from bluebird.mon.net (bluebird.mon.net [156.100.216.3]) by simple.globecomm.net (8.8.7/8.8.0) with SMTP id NAA05502; Sat, 15 Sep 2001 13:30:13 -0400 (EDT)

Received: from mail.sat.net (1Cust20.max63.los-angeles.ca.ms.uu.net [153.34.101.148]) by bluebird.mon.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id MAA04560; Sat, 15 Sep 2001 12:19:01 –0500

From: 8535412061@aol.com

Date: Sat, 13 Sep 97 10:07:39 EST

To: friendsover@abc123.com

Subject: 25,000,000 Fresh Green Eggs and Ham

Message-ID: <>

Reply-To: bosmansam@concentric.net

Content-Type: text

Email messages are passed over the internet from one computer to another in order to get to the final destination.  The header contains detailed routing information not normally seen or important to the end user.  This information is normally filtered out by email programs since it is generally irrelevant.  However, it is relevant to a filter program such as Spam Buster since the header can give us clues about deleting the junk mail.

For example, sometimes junk mail will have the keyword:

X-Advertisement: Visit http://www.xxx.org for name removal information.

Just the occurrence of the 'X-Advertisement' will enable Spam Buster to delete all messages containing such message within the header.

In the example above, note the From field above does NOT match the Reply-to field.  This can be an indicator of a junk email as it may indicate that the mail was not sent by the originator of the message.  Spam Buster can spot this discrepancy.

Some spams are addressed to the same email as the same name of the sender.  If the message above was from 8535412061@aol.com and addressed to the same 8535412061@aol.com then here is another good indicator of a spam.

You may do a 'contains' type of search on anything within the header.  For example, you can search for the word 'simple' (which appears in the example above) by specifying that the Message Header should contain (Whole word) 'simple'.


Spam Settings Sender

When Spam Buster checks your email it does NOT download the entire message which saves much time.  It only will check the subject and sender information to quickly make a determination of whether or not to delete the junk email.

The Sender line (who the email is from) is compared to a number of rules that you can define including:

Contains

Equals

starts with

ends with

all numeric

50% numeric

first character numeric

Note that there is no upper/lower case comparison check on the email address.  For example, the email address 'SUCCESS@ContactPlus.com' will match 'success@contactplus.com'.

The messages can be marked with a check mark or a question mark.  Only those messages marked with a check mark will actually be deleted.  The ones with a question mark will not be deleted but only meant to give you a visual clue about a particular email.


Spam Settings Size

The size of the email may give you a clue as to whether the email is junk or not.  If the email you normally receive is under 20,000 bytes then you may want to check this value.  Generally the size of the email message is not a very useful indicator.


Spam Buster Exceptions

The list of exceptions allows you to put known email addresses into Spam Buster so that no matter what these individuals send to you they will never be marked to delete.

You can insert either an actual email address such as 'info@contactplus.com' or a domain name such as 'contactplus.com'.  The domain name means that anyone that sends an email message from 'contactplus.com' will be automatically accepted.

Note that you can automatically add people to the exception list by right clicking on the retrieved email messages on the main screen.  A popup will enable you to add the selected email messages to the exception list.


Spam Settings Blacklist

Spam Buster comes with a sorted list of over 15,000 email addresses and domain names of those who are known to send junk email.   As each email message is scanned, it is compared to this list of known spammers and if a match is found, the email will be marked with a BLACK check mark [image].  The black check mark is identical to the red check mark [image] except that it tells you that the spam came from somebody on the black list.

The list is composed of both explicit email addresses such as 'nobody@nowhere.com' and selected domain names such as 'makelotsofmoney.com'.  A domain name is considered to be anything that does not have a '@' symbol within the email address.

Two quick searches are done for a particular email message:

(1) Spam Buster first searches the blacklist for the specific email address which includes the domain name  (upper/lower case does not matter).  If there is an exact match then the email will be considered a spam from a known sender.

(2) Spam Buster will then search for the domain name only if the first search failed.  The domain name of the sender of the email message is then compared to the list of domain names on the black list and if there is a match, the email will be considered a spam.

You can add to and delete from this list if desired.  To edit, simply click on the Edit button and start making your changes.  Once you have finished, click on the Save button to save the changes.  The list of known spammers will be automatically re-sorted.   You'll be surprised as to how quick the comparison is, even with over 15,000 email addresses.

Note that upper/lower case does not matter for email addresses and domain names.  In other words, the email address 'Success@ContactPlus.com' is treated the same as 'success@contactplus.com'

You may elect not to compare the incoming email with this list of known spammers.  If you do not wish to compare then simply click on the option at the top of the screen.


General Settings

There are six general settings tabs that allow you to customize Spam Buster.

Mailboxes - up to 12 mailboxes can be checked.  Many people have more than one POP account.  Spam Buster can check up to 12.

General Settings - Connection - This is your default connection to the internet.  This is the server that will be connected to when ready to collect the email headers.

Automatic  - Spam Buster can run in an unattended automatic mode if you so desire.  It can at predefined intervals check your mail server for new spam messages and notify you automatically or it can also delete the messages.  If you check the automatic/unattended option you can set the interval in minutes.

Start Up - Spam Buster can start up automatically in the system tray.  If this option is set, then the next time you start up Spam Buster you will NOT see the main screen.  Instead, a small hammer icon will be placed in the system tray.  Position the cursor over the hammer and right click to view the options available.  This is really only useful if Spam Buster is set to automatically check the mail.  Set this option and place a shortcut in your startup menu if you want Spam Buster to start in your system tray when you boot up.  Note that if automatic mode is enabled, the small icon will blink indicating that it is ready to check your email automatically.  The number of minutes until it will check your email can be determined by simply placing the cursor over the hammer in the tray.

Activity Logfile - Specify the name of a log file for logging those messages that have been deleted by Spam Buster.  This setting is important if you accidentally delete a legitimate message.  Periodically you may want to clean out the log file.  Just click on the clear button.

Mail Program - The mail program is your default mailing program which can be automatically launched by Spam Buster after the spam messages have been cleaned up.  Click on the search button to locate your mail program.  On installation, Spam Buster will attempt to locate your default email program automatically.


Spam Settings Valid Domains

This feature checks with your Domain Name Server (DNS) to verify if a domain name in an email address (the part after the @ symbol) is a valid domain.  Using this feature can slow down the process of checking for email, as the DNS lookup will take a few seconds to process depending upon your connection speed.


Spam Settings Non English

This setting will mark email as spam if the majority of characters in the email message are Non English characters.


General Settings Mailboxes

There are three items per mailbox or user that need to be defined in the Mail Server Settings in order for Spam Buster to be able to connect to your ISP properly.

1) POP Server - this is the name of the mail server where your mail is normally stored.  It will probably contain the name of your internet service provider (ISP) within the name.  For example, it might be mail.flisp.net for The Florida ISP Company.  If you do not know this you will have to contact your ISP.

2) User or mailbox name - this is the user name or mailbox that is registered on your mail server.   Again, if you do not know this information you can get it by calling your local ISP.

3) Password - this is the password assigned to the user name or mailbox.  You were probably assigned a password and generally your ISP cannot give this out unless they are changing it.

If you select to delete spam automatically without confirmation you can also elect to delete spam from all of the mailboxes listed.

Note: Spam Buster will make an attempt to try and complete this information from your computer settings when you first run Spam Buster.  Unfortunately Spam Buster cannot get the passwords.  These must be specified by you.


General Settings Automatic

Spam Buster can operate automatically where it will go out and check your email for junk spam messages on a periodic basis.  The options on the General Settings - Automatic screen are:

Check email manually - Automatic mode is disabled.  Email will only be checked on your initiative.

When deleting messages interactively, ask for confirmation – use this option to make sure that you really want to delete the email messages.

After deleting spam, launch email program if there is email to read –  use this option to launch the email program after spam is deleted

If no email is on the server, exit after checking email – use this option to exit from Spam Buster automatically if there’s no legitimate email to read.

Check email unattended or automatically - will check email on a regular basis every n minutes.

Delete spam from ALL mailboxes – no confirmation. note this option has the potential of deleting legitimate messages since it will delete spam without your confirmation.  It is possible to over delete with this option!  You may also select a sound (WAV file) to be played when there is email on the server.  Spam Buster comes with two different WAV files.  Of course your speakers must be turned on for the sound to be audible.

Important Note: Be careful of the rules set if you wish to delete SPAM automatically without confirmation.  For example, you may have a rule that looks for trailing exclamation points (!!) but you may get a birthday greeting from your sister looking like 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!' which on the surface looks like a spam but actually is a legitimate message.  If your sister was not on the list of exceptions then that message would be deleted ... obviously a mistake.

What if you accidentally delete an email message?  The activity log displays the subject and email address of all deleted email messages.  If you accidentally delete an email message, you can at least use the subject line to request a re-emailing from the sender.


General Settings Activity Log

The activity log file is an ASCII text file that contains a record of all activity performed by Spam Buster.  Every time you check or delete your email a record of that activity is stored in the log file.  The log file will grow over time as information is continually appended to the bottom of the file.

Since the information in the log file will continue to expand over time, you may wish to use the automatic naming options which will automatically rename the log file thus allowing you to keep shorter separate log files categorized by month or quarter rather than one very large log file.  Spam Buster will automatically generate the name of the file as time goes by.  You do not have to change the name if using the automatic naming options.

There are two options for naming the log files:  (1) pick a new name each month or (2) pick a new name each quarter.  If the month option is selected then the log file will be created for each new month that Spam Buster is run ... Jan01.txt, Feb01txt, Mar01.txt ... etc.  The quarter option will name the files Q1_01txt, Q2_01.txt ... etc.

Spam Buster includes a View Statistics button which will summarize the number of times you have checked your email, how many email messages were deleted and how many messages were waiting on the file server.  The View Statistics function allows you to select different activity log files if you use the automatic naming option.


Settings

There are two types of settings that you can change to suit your particular environment.  You need to tell Spam Buster how to get your mail, what constitutes a junk email and whether it should run automatically.

Spam Settings - rules to filter spam

General Settings - configure automatic mode, log file, sounds, startup options, etc


FAQ's

1.  How do I get rid of the advertisement banners in Spam Buster?

You must purchase the registered version of Spam Buster to remove the advertising banners.  For the quickest way to register, click on the Register button in the Settings & Stats area or go to to the Contact Plus Online Mall at www.contactplus.com

2.  I cannot get Spam Buster to work with AOL, MSN, Juno, or free web based email services. What’s wrong?

Spam Buster requires a POP3 email account.  None of these services are POP3 accounts, or they have their own proprietary email service.   Web based email falls into the same category. Some services such as Yahoo mail do allow you to set up a POP account, and as such could be used with Spam Buster.

3. Which email programs can I use with Spam Buster?

Spam Buster checks the email at the server before it reaches your email program.  Therefore it doesn't matter which email program you use, because the spam has already deleted before you start your email program. The only requirement is that you have a POP3 email account.

4. What is the correct setting for my mail server and my mailbox?

Spam Buster will attempt to complete some of the information for your setup of the email accounts to check.  However it is impossible to obtain your password.  You should verify this information with your internet service provider.

5. Ever since I’ve used Spam Buster all the spam I thought I’d get rid of seems to be getting through. Why?

This could occur for a number of reasons: Assuming that you are using Spam Buster before your email program, 1. Either the filters that you are using aren’t matching the type of spam messages you’re receiving, or you’ve added too many types of messages to the Exceptions list.  If you have automatic checking turned on in your email program, you may be retrieving new messages with your email program before Spam Buster has had a chance to filter them. To prevent this, you should switch off automatic checking in your email program. Also you may want to check the Spam Settings tabs you have activated to see if they are too inclusive of the types of email that you receive.

6. All of my email is being marked as spam. How can I fix this?

This could occur for a number of reasons: you may have inadvertently entered all of the domains that you normally get email from as being spam. To check the list of Spam Settings, go to Spam Settings Senders to make sure that the mail that you want to receive is not being listed as being a spam domain.

7. I received an email that I want to add to the Spam filter list for the future.  How do I do this?

All you need to do is to highlight the email message and right click to display the popup figure below.   Then select the appropriate option, probably add selected message to spam list.  Then choose whether to add the subject or the sender to the spam list.

8. What if you accidentally delete an email message?

The activity log displays the subject and email address of all deleted email messages.  If you accidentally delete an email message, you can at least use the subject line to request a re-emailing from the sender.

9.  How does Spam Buster decide if an email is a spam?

Spam Buster compares the email header information with the options selected in the Spam Settings.

To determine if an email is a spam Spam Buster employs the following procedures:

1) First the exception list is searched to see if the sender is a friend or known user.  If found, then the remaining strategies are skipped.

2) Starting at the top of the Spam Settings Subject Strategies, Spam Buster searches from the top to the bottom until it runs out of strategies or it matches the email with a check mark.

3) If a match using a check mark strategy was found then the remaining strategies are skipped.

4) The Spam Settings Size, Spam Settings Header, Spam Settings Sender , Spam Settings Valid Domain, and Spam Settings Non English, are all checked from top to bottom for a match.  If a match is found anywhere the remaining strategies are skipped.

5) Finally if none of the strategies matched, the blacklist is then searched.

If the email is on the exceptions list, it can be marked with an icon that you select as specified on the exception list page   If the email appears to be included on any item except the exception list, then the spam  is marked with a red checkmark.  If the email does not contain any information in any of these settings, then the email is not marked.  If S


Technical Support

Many times simply updating your product to the latest version will eliminate issues.   To check whether you have the most recent version of Spam Buster, please check the Spam Buster home page at www.contactplus.com  You may download and install the latest evaluation version of Spam Buster over the current installation.  A sample version will automatically be registered if the registered version has previously been installed.

Before contacting Technical Support, please review the Help file, and the Frequently Asked Questions.  If you have a question that is not covered and need to contact Technical Support, please have the following information:

1. The registered user’s name, the product name and version number (located on the About button)

2. A description of the situation.

3. When the situation occurs. Always? Sometimes? Rarely?

4. Can the situation be repeated?

5. Conditions under which the situation occurs.  Please be as complete as possible.  If you cannot describe when the situation happens or cannot repeat it, it may be difficult for Technical Support personnel to assist you.

Technical Support for Spam Buster is provided via email and fax only.  Technical Support is provided for 90 days* from the date of purchase to the registered user of a purchased version.  A purchased version does NOT display advertisement banners on the main screen.  To purchase go to  Registering Spam Buster.

Internet

Contact technical support by:

Completing a Technical Support Request form at http://www.contactplus.com/support

or emailing cpsupport@contactplus.com  (Be sure to include your return email address and the information as described above)

Fax

Send a fax to (321) 984-8192  (Be sure to include your return fax number and the information as described above)

Postal Mail

(Be sure to include your return address and information as described above)

Contact Plus Corporation

Attn. Technical Support

P.O. Box 372577

Satellite Beach, Florida 32937 U.S.A

Subject always to Contact Plus Corporation Technical Support policies, Contact Plus Corporation will attempt to answer your technical support request; however this service is offered on a reasonable efforts basis only, and Contact Plus Corporation may not be able to resolve every support request.  Contact Plus Corporation supports the product only if it is used under conditions and operating systems for which the software is designed.

*Contact Plus Corporation reserves the right to change the technical support policies or hours at any time without notice.


Software License Agreement
Standard Software License Agreement

Spam Buster

Standard Software License Agreement

For the evaluation version, see the Evaluation License Agreement.

IMPORTANT - THIS IS  A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU (EITHER  AN INDIVIDUAL  OR AN  ENTITY) AND CONTACT PLUS CORPORATION.  BY INSTALLING AND/OR  USING YOU ACKNOWLEDGE  THAT  YOU   HAVE  READ  THIS  LICENSE AGREEMENT, UNDERSTAND IT, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS.  YOU FURTHER AGREE THAT  IT IS THE FULL AND COMPLETE AGREEMENT BETWEEN US, SUPERSEDING ALL PRIOR WRITTEN OR VERBAL AGREEMENTS OF ANY KIND. IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND OR DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF  THIS  AGREEMENT,  YOU  MUST  CEASE  USING THIS PRODUCT IMMEDIATELY  AND COMPLETELY REMOVE IT FROM THE COMPUTER(S) ON WHICH IT WAS INSTALLED.

1.	GRANT OF LICENSE.  This License Agreement permits you to use one copy of the enclosed Contact Plus Corporation software program (the "Software") on a single personal computer. The Software is in "use" on a  computer when it is loaded into temporary memory (i.e.  RAM)  or installed into permanent memory e.g. hard disk, CD-ROM,  or other storage device) of that computer.

2.	COPYRIGHT. The Software is owned by Contact Plus Corporation or its suppliers and is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty provisions.  Therefore, you must treat the Software like any other copyrighted material (e.g. a book or musical recording) except that you may either (a)  make one copy  of the Software solely for backup  or archival purposes,  or (b) transfer the Software to a single hard disk provided you keep the original solely for backup or archival purposes. You may not copy the written materials accompanying the Software.

3.	OTHER RESTRICTIONS. You may not  rent or lease the Software, but you may transfer the Software and accompanying written materials on a permanent basis when the ownership of a company purchases the company for which this Software is purchased including all assets provided you retain no copies and the recipient agrees to the terms of this Agreement.   You may not transfer "old" copies of the Software to another person, company or entity when an upgrade version is purchased.  You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software. If the Software is an update or has been updated, any transfer must include the most recent update and all prior versions.

4.	TECHNICAL SUPPORT.  Licensee must register in order to be eligible for technical support via electronic mail.  For a period of ninety (90) days, commencing with the date of purchase. Licensee will have access to technical support for the Software for the registered user,  subject to Licensee's compliance with Contact Plus Corporation's instructions for accessing such support and standard verification procedures.  Upon the expiration of the above-described ninety (90) day period, Licensee may extend technical support on a per-incident or annual fee basis in accordance with Contact Plus Corporation's then pricing and terms. Upgrades to the Software and its documentation,  if any, are not necessarily included and may be sold separately.  Contact Plus Corporation reserves the right to refuse technical support services in accordance with the above conditions

5.	LIMITED WARRANTY. This program is provided "as is" without  any warranty of any kind, either expressed or  implied, including, but not limited to, the implied  warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Software is with you, the licensee.  Should the Software prove defective, you assume the risk and liability for the entire cost of all necessary repair, service, or correction. Some states/jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusion may not apply to you. This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may have other rights which vary from state/jurisdiction to state/jurisdiction.  Contact Plus Corporation does not warranty the functions contained in the Software will meet your requirements, or that the operation of the Software will be error-free or uninterrupted. Contact Plus Corporation does warrant that the disk(s) on which the program is furnished shall be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of purchase, so long as proof of purchase is provided.

6.	CUSTOMER REMEDIES. Contact Plus Corporation's and its suppliers' entire liability and your exclusive remedy shall be, at Contact Plus Corporation's option, either (a) return of the price paid, or (b) repair or replacement of the Software that does not meet Contact Plus Corporation's Limited Warranty and which is returned to Contact Plus Corporation with proof of purchase. This Limited Warranty is void if failure of the Software has resulted from accident, abuse, or misapplication.  Neither these remedies nor any product support services are available outside the United States without proof of  purchase from an authorized non-U.S. source.

7.	NO OTHER WARRANTIES.  To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Contact Plus Corporation and  its suppliers disclaim all other warranties, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, with regard to the Software,  the accompanying written materials, and any accompanying hardware. This limited warranty gives you specific legal rights. You may have others which vary from state/jurisdiction to state/jurisdiction.

8.	NO LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Contact Plus Corporation or its suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use or inability to use this Contact Plus Corporation product, even if Contact Plus Corporation has been advised of the possibility of such damages or for any claim by any other party. Because some states/jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you.

U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS The SOFTWARE and documentation are subject to export controls under the United States Export Administration Act, as amended,  which Act prohibits exports of certain commodities and technical data, including software,  to specified countries. In particular, the Software may not be exported to Cuba,  Iran, Iraq, Libya, North  Korea, Sudan,  or Syria.  You hereby certify that neither the Software nor the documentation  will be transmitted orforwarded outside of your country.   If you acquired this product in the United States, this  Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Florida.

If you have any questions concerning this Agreement, write to:

Contact Plus Corporation

PO Box 372577

Satellite Beach, FL 32937-0577 USA


Evaluation License

Spam Buster

Evaluation Version

This license applies to the evaluation version of Spam Buster.  If you do not have an evaluation version of Spam Buster, see the section titled Standard Software License Agreement.

By using, copying, transmitting, distributing or installing Spam Buster, you agree to all of the terms of this License.  If you do not agree to any of the terms of this License, then do not use, copy, transmit, distribute, or install Spam Buster.

Subject to the terms below, you are hereby licensed by Contact Plus Corporation ("CPC") to use this software for evaluation purposes without charge with advertisement banners appearing in the main screen.

You may, without making any payment to CPC:

a)	give exact copies of the evaluation version of Spam Buster personally to anyone

b)	distribute exact copies of the evaluation version of Spam Buster by any means, electronic, or otherwise for the purpose of including on CD ROM collections, internet software libraries, and the like

You may not under any circumstances distribute the registered version and or unlocking key of Spam Buster to anyone for any reason.

This software, and all accompanying files, data and materials, are distributed "AS IS" and with no warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.  The user must assume the entire risk of using the program.  This disclaimer of warranty constitutes an essential part of the agreement.  In no event shall CPC, or its principals, shareholders, officers, employees, affiliates, contractors, subsidiaries, or parent organizations, be liable for any incidental, consequential, or punitive damages whatsoever relating to the use of Spam Buster, or your relationship with CPC.

This Agreement is the complete statement of the Agreement between the parties on the subject matter, and merges and supersedes all other or prior understandings, agreements and arrangements. This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of Florida.  Exclusive jurisdiction and venue for all matters relating to this Agreement shall be in courts located in the State of Florida.


Evaluation Version

An evaluation version of Spam Buster contains advertisement banners which appear on the main screen.


General Settings Connection

The Connection tab specifies how you connect to the internet.  If you use a broadband connection such as cable or DSL, select NONE otherwise select your local dial up service from the drop down list.


Contains

A string is contained within the subject if it is located anywhere within the subject.  For example, the string adult is contained in the following lines:

Hot new adult site for you

Adults only!!

Don’t adulterate this message!

This is for the adult in you

On adultery

Adult web sites

Adult supervision required


Equals

A string will equal another string if all characters within both strings match on a character-by-character basis.  If there is even only one character difference from one string to another it will not match.  If the case sensitivity is turned on, both the UPPER case and the lower case letters much match exactly.


Contains (whole word)

This is similar to the ‘contains’ type of match except that it will only match on whole words instead of a partial word.  For example, the search string come with match the following if you use the simple contains type of match:

Welcome to the show

Become a better speaker!

Come to our web site

With a whole word match, the search is more restrictive and will only match the following:

Be sure to come to our site

Come to our web site

Please do come to our anniversary party


Blank or Empty

If a subject is blank or empty you may want to erase it. Some spam messages have been known to be sent with a blank or empty from subject line or sender address.


Starts with

A string that uses a condition of Starts With if the characters start at the left hand side and matches character by character.

For example,  the string HOT

will match

HOT new site

Hot babes

Hot hot hot

but will NOT match

a hot new site

Check out this hot site


Ends With

A sting ends with another string if character by character it matches at the end of a string. This is especially useful when looking for punctuation as many spam messages will end with either a question mark or exclamation mark.

For example ends with !!!

will match:

Check this out!!!

Want to make some money!!!

Have you seen this?!!!

But will not match

Hello!!! What have you been up to?


is all UPPERCASE

A spam subject line oftentimes is in all UPPERCASE letters.  Use this option to identify it.  For example:

TRY THIS

NEW VIAGRA TREATMENT

READ THIS MESSAGE


Ad Supported

Ad supported software is software that displays banner advertisements.  These banner advertisements may be removed by purchasing the registered version of the software.  Note the ads in Spam Buster do not communicate with any server or service and your personal information or web habits are not broadcast in any way.


Register Button

The register button is available on the Settings & Stats button.


All numeric

The send address is all numbers (which many spam email messages follow this convention.) For example, 32455664@aol.com.   Note that the domain name (the portion to the right of the @) is ignored in determining if the sender address is all numeric.


50% Numeric

The characters in the Sender’s email address are composed of 50% or more numbers.  For example, 1234abc@hotmail.com would qualify as there are 7 letters in the email account name (1234abc) and 4 of them are numeric.  Many spam email addresses have this characteristic which is not generally true of non spam email messages.   Note that the domain name (the portion to the right of the @) is ignored in determining if the sender’s email address is 50% numeric.


First character numeric

The first character of the sender’s email address is a number.   This can be another clue to the fact that the incoming a message is from an advertiser.  Generally most email accounts do not start their email account with a number.


Stats

Spam Buster can create interesting Statistics for the Spam email deleted based upon the activity logfile created when deleting spam.  The stats include colorful charts in bar graphs, pie charts, and line charts for the day of the week, and more plus the top 10 spam domains and top 10 spammers.