Firm claims e-mail spam success
Thursday, 29th April 2004 – by BBC News
A fledgling Swansea company claims to have made a breakthrough in the fight against spam e-mail.
NetBop Technologies says its new filter has so far proved effective in stopping 99.5% of junk messages.
Founder Andrew Downie, a graduate of the city’s university, says his BopSpam filter operates differently to many of the competitors on the market.
It works at the server end of the chain by intercepting e-mails before they are downloaded.
It also studies a user’s e-mail history to work out the probability of a message being spam.
Users are regularly updated on e-mails that have been caught before they reach their inbox in case there are any they want to see.
Spam is a problem for everyone with an e-mail account.
Spammers tend to send huge amounts of e-mail in the hope that a few of the messages will get through to working accounts or simply tempt people to respond.
BopSpam, which was launched in February, has won praise from computer magazines and fans on internet chat rooms.
Mr Downie established NetBop Technologies while still an undergraduate studying mechanical engineering, but it has become a full-time job since he graduated last summer.
He has had help from the Welsh Development Agency’s Graduating to Enterprise scheme and the university.
“When I was in school I always had a keen interest in computers but at the time wanted to do engineering,” he explained.
“When I was at university I decided I wanted to develop web applications and started building something up before I finished.”
“BopSpam had been on mind for quite a while because I had been receiving a lot of junk e-mails.”
“There has been a lot of interest since it was launched and there are a lot of people on the free trial at the moment.”
“People have a tolerance to receiver 10 to 15 spam emails a day but some people are having hundreds and that’s not manageable.”
“There are free applications that you can use but they are nowhere near as efficient.”
Mr Downie is hoping his company will expand to new premises on the university’s campus and he also plans to recruit graduates in the summer.
“The plan is to follow two routes – web development and applications,” he added.
“I want to make three to four applications a year and have just started work on a hotel booking system.”

“People have a tolerance to receive 10 to 15 spam e-mails a day but some people are having hundreds and that’s not manageable”
Andrew Downie
Press Articles
- Web Development Company completes investment in prime city centre premises
14th May 2014 - NetBop invest in a City Centre commercial premises
10th December 2013 - NetBop is delighted to sponsor the Dylan Thomas Prize
8th November 2013 - NetBop acquires Carmarthenshire web business and expands into West Wales
20th August 2013 - Web firm celebrates Investors in People Accreditation in Swansea
21st May 2013 - A spring Marathon fundraiser raised £2700 for Swansea Cancer Charity
23rd April 2013 - NetBop Celebrates its Tenth Anniversary in business!
5th December 2012 - NetBop is delighted to judge the Swansea Bay Young Business Dragons 2012
16th November 2012 - NetBop pledges their support to Entrepreneurship Academy Wales by sponsoring a Student
17th August 2012 - NetBop continues its expansion into High Wycombe and the South East
11th May 2012 - NetBop's Director appointed on the Strategy Board for Swansea Employability Academy
15th March 2012 - Web Company goes for a run
26th September 2011 - NetBop Awarded 'Business of the Month' for July 2011.
11th July 2011 - Welsh web company announces UK expansion
12th May 2011 - Web firm NetBop completes new acquisition (PVM Web Design)
3rd February 2011 - NetBop continues its expansion and appoints a new Web Developer to join the current team
1st December 2010 - NetBop's Director appointed on the board of Swansea Business Improvement District (BID)
18th October 2010 - NetBop supports Knowledge Exchange Wales
31st March 2010 - Swansea company scales new height in customer service
7th January 2010 - NetBop expansion gets new office site
19th October 2009 – South Wales Evening Post - Expansion’s no gamble for Swansea firm
18th September 2009 - NetBop is awarded Nominet UK membership becoming a .UK accredited registrar and managing domain names directly with the registry
12th August 2009 - NetBop becomes Qualified Google Advertising Professionals with 2 staff members being awarded recognition
2nd July 2009 - NetBop becomes the first company in Swansea to be approved by the Prompt Payment Code an initiative devised by the government with The Institute of Credit Management (ICM)
21st May 2009
Credentials
- Google Partner
- Cyber Essentials
- Member of Nominet UK
- Rising Stars
- Web User Gold Award
- British Small Business Champions
- Listed under Wales Hot 100
- We support Bee Carbon Free