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Forty trillion spam messages are expected to be sent in 2008 – up from the 30 trillion messages sent in 2007 and the 18 trillion in 2006. This barrage of SPAM makes you wonder what can be done to ensure your network’s filter is the right bouncer for your needs.

I’ll admit that filtering techniques aren’t my forte – I know how to test SPAM scores, maintain high deliverability and other best practices… but when it comes to setting up the networking architecture, it’s a different game. Thankfully there are writers like ComputerWorld’s Calvin Sun who provide an overview of available options to filter the potentially SPAM-y messages.

Sun’s August 6, article gives a great overview, listing the options of CAPTCHA (completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart) – you know the block with the squiggly letters? Besides being a very long acronym, CAPTCHA requires actual visual recognition of the randomized pattern, something that cannot easily be done by an automated SPAMMER. He also lists techniques associated with blacklisting, whitelisting and graylisting – how they differ from each other and from reputation services.

SPAM filtering is a serious game and one additional item to juggle as you balance valuable information with killer creative and the right mix compliance… now, if you’re deleted from the inbox without being read, that’s another challenge.