Spam Filter

Bayesian spam filtering (pronounced /ˈbeɪzi.ən/ BAY-zee-ən, after Rev. Thomas Bayes) is a statistical technique of e-mail filtering. It makes use of a naive Bayes classifier to identify spam e-mail.

The first known mail-filtering program to use a Bayes classifier was Jason Rennie's iFile program, released in 1996. The program was used to sort mail into folders. The first scholarly publication on Bayesian spam filtering was by Sahami et al. (1998). Variants of the basic technique have been implemented in a number of research works and commercial software products.

Bayesian spam filtering has become a popular mechanism to distinguish illegitimate spam email from legitimate email (sometimes called "ham" or "bacn"). Many modern mail clients implement Bayesian spam filtering. Users can also install separate email filtering programs. Server-side email filters, such as DSPAM, SpamAssassin, SpamBayes, Bogofilter and ASSP, make use of Bayesian spam filtering techniques, and the functionality is sometimes embedded within mail server software itself.