Although the Microsoft Outlook email client has a built-in spam filter, it's not as effective as other seperate filters. Spam filters are available in many different guises, generally though, filters that work exclusively with particular email clients tend to perform better than the more generic tools. Spammers are constantly working on more canny ways of distributing malicious mail, so up-to-date protection is vital. Also, most separate filters will benefit from regular updates. 10 Sep 2008