The SimpleText Filter is a plug-in filter for EIMS 2.x and later. Using this filter, you can reject messages based on any of the following criteria:

• Text, including special wildcards, within the headers or body of the message. Messages that are sent as quoted-printable or base64 are decoded into clear text prior to being scanned. There are options to remove spaces, non-alphanumerics and text surrounded by <> to help ferret out the actual text of the message regardless of how spammers attempt to hide it.
• Name or IP address of the server sending the mail.
• Verify the validity of headers to ensure they are correctly formatted.
• Require that a specific header exist.
• Ensure that no line in a message is greater than 1000 characters.
• Ensure that there are no null characters in the message.
• Ensure that all lines are correctly terminate with a cr/lf pair.
• You can set up "whitelist" entries allowing some email to get through without being checked.

You can download the current production version, which is 2.0, and documentation here.

The SimpleText Filter is trialware. Until the filter is registered, it will only filter messages for 12 hours after startup. To register the filter, which is $75, connect to our secure order site. If you already have a license for a version prior to 2.0, you can upgrade to 2.0 here.

Tom Shaw keeps a very complete set of SimpleText Filter rules available for download at http://www.oitc.com/EIMS/DownloadArea.html. If you find his rules useful, you should treat them as shareware and compensate Tom for his time. Tom also provides a automated rule generation subscription service. See http://winnow.oitc.com/ for further information.

Neil Ticktin, publisher of MacTech Magazine, had this to say:
"True spam -- you know the kind of message where you've never worked with someone, have no interest in what they do, and they send out messages in bulk -- has obviously become an incredible problem. Until a better solution comes about, the only thing you can do is use filters ... and for EIMS, STF is a great solution. We've done some testing here with STF and Tom Shaw's filter definitions, and it's had a tremendous impact on reducing spam. Install and watch with caution -- as it's a powerful tool -- but a must have if you use EIMS and want to reduce spam."

MCF Software hosts a mailing list for people interested in the SimpleText Filter. You can subscribe by sending an email to stfsubscribe@mcfsoftware.com.