SPAM could be taken off the menu for local Internet users. Guernsey.Net has launched a new anti-spam service that scans the mailbox on the server and includes an alert in the subject line if it detects unsolicited mail.

The company carries more than one million e-mails for Channel Island customers every day and estimated that 80% of those were spam.

The new free service enables users to set up a simple filter or rule on their program to delete or move any messages that arrive with the alert.

‘E-mail is the single most important aspect of being online, so we want to minimise the bugbear of spam,’ said Guernsey.Net managing director Ian Hickton.

‘Customers just register for the free service and then set up a simple rule on their desktop e-mail system to delete or divert incoming spam so they can concentrate on the messages they do want to read.’

Parents using the new service have been particularly enthusiastic about it, he said.

‘Because of the adult content of many of the unsolicited spam sales messages, they welcome the filter which keeps nasty material away from their computer screens.’

Guernsey.Net has a complex system that looks at the e-mail going through and compares it to what it knows to be spam before applying the filter.

* More details can be found on www.guernsey.net