Spam can be defined as unsolicited emails sent en masse. These may be sent for advertising purposes, in which case they may be seen as irritating but harmless. They may attempt to deceive the recipient into sending money to the scammer; typical examples are pretending to be a friend or relative who has lost their wallet while abroad, and so needs money to get home, or claiming that by paying a relatively small administration fee, the recipient will receive a much larger sum as lottery winnings. Other malicious spam emails may contain links to phishing pages or malware, or simply include malware as an attachment.

In this first Anti-Spam Test Report, AV-Comparatives had a look at 13 consumer anti-spam products for their ability to filter out spam emails.