Method and system for categorizing and processing e-mails based upon information in the message header and SMTP session
First Claim
1. In a network, a method of processing received e-mail messages comprising:
- a) identifying information about an origin of a received e-mail message, the origin-identifying information based on data from at least one item of data in the message or at least one item of data used to send the message, the origin-identifying information including at least one of the following;
i) an actual sender of the message;
ii) a final IP address;
iii) a final domain name;
iv) a normalized reverse DNS lookup of the final IP address;
or v) an IP path used to send the message;
b) categorizing whether the received message is solicited or unsolicited e-mail by using statistics based on information about the origin of the message; and
c) processing the received message based on its categorization.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An e-mail filtering method and system that categorizes received e-mail messages based on information about the origin, such as the sender sending the message or the site from where the message was sent, which is contained in the message header and the SMTP session used to send the message. This data, whether the sender is familiar to the receiver, and other information about the message is then sent by each member of an e-mail network to one or more central databases (in one embodiment, the information will also be stored at a database associated with the recipient'"'"'s e-mail program and filtering software) which stores the information and compiles statistics about e-mails sent from the origin to indicate the likelihood that the e-mail is unsolicited and determine the reputation of the origin (a good reputation indicates the sender sends solicited messages while a bad reputation indicates the sender sends unsolicited e-mail messages). Information from the central database is then sent to recipients in order to determine the likelihood that a received e-mail message is spam (information may also be obtained from the local database associated with the recipient'"'"'s e-mail program and filtering software).
320 Citations
26 Claims
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1. In a network, a method of processing received e-mail messages comprising:
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a) identifying information about an origin of a received e-mail message, the origin-identifying information based on data from at least one item of data in the message or at least one item of data used to send the message, the origin-identifying information including at least one of the following;
i) an actual sender of the message;
ii) a final IP address;
iii) a final domain name;
iv) a normalized reverse DNS lookup of the final IP address;
orv) an IP path used to send the message;
b) categorizing whether the received message is solicited or unsolicited e-mail by using statistics based on information about the origin of the message; and
c) processing the received message based on its categorization. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions which, when read, cause a computer to perform a method of processing received e-mail messages comprising:
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a) identifying information about an origin of a received e-mail message, the origin-identifying information based on data from at least one item of data in the message or at least one item of data used to send the message, the origin-identifying information including at least one of the following;
i) an actual sender of the message;
ii) a final IP address;
iii) a final domain name;
iv) a normalized reverse DNS lookup of the final IP address;
orv) an IP path used to send the message;
b) categorizing whether the received message is solicited or unsolicited e-mail by using statistics based on information about the origin of the message; and
c) processing the received message based on its categorization. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. In a network, a method for categorizing received e-mail messages comprising:
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a) collecting information about an origin of an e-mail message, the origin-identifying information including at least one of the following;
i) an actual sender;
ii) a final IP address;
iii) a final domain name;
iv) a normalized reverse DNS lookup of the final IP address;
orv) an IP path used to send the message; and
b) compiling statistics at at least one database about the origin based on the origin-identifying information, wherein the statistics are used to categorize whether the received message is solicited or unsolicited. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification