System for policing junk e-mail massages

• US 20060031303A1
• Filed: 09/04/2003
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mind Fusion, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Stephen Y.F. Pang
• Inventors: Pang, Stephen Y.F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,275,082 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

A system for policying an unsolicited e-mail communication. The system has a plurality of clients, each coupled together using a wide area network of computers, such as the Internet or an internet. Each of the clients is adapted to send an indication of an unsolicited e-mail message through an e-mail device for a display. The system also has a policying server coupled to each of the plurality of clients through the wide area network of computers. The policying server is adapted to receive the indication from at least one of the clients. The e-mail device comprises an SPAM icon on the display. The SPAM icon is adapted to send the indication from the client to the policying server.

Claims

1. A method for a computer system comprises

receiving a first unsolicited commercial electronic mail message initiated by an e-mail sender;

sending a request not to receive any future unsolicited commercial electronic mail messages initiated by the e-mail sender at an electronic mail address where the unsolicited commercial electronic mail message was received;

receiving a second unsolicited commercial electronic mail message;

automatically determining whether the e-mail sender is in violation of the request, in response to the second unsolicited commercial electronic mail message; and

when the e-mail sender is in violation of the request, reporting the violation of the request.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein requesting not to receive any future unsolicited commercial electronic mail messages initiated by the e-mail sender comprises sending to the e-mail sender a communication selected from the group:

reply electronic mail message, Internet-based communication.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing in a file an e-mail address of the e-mail sender; and

wherein automatically determining whether the e-mail sender is in violation of the request comprises comparing an e-mail address of a sender of the second unsolicited commercial electronic mail message to the e-mail address of the e-mail sender in the file.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein reporting the violation of the request comprises reporting the violation of the request to one or more of the following:

a user associated with the electronic mail address, an internet service provider, a governmental entity.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the governmental entity is selected from the group:

law enforcement authorities, state authorities, federal authorities.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the internet service provider is selected from the group:

internet service provider associated with the user, internet service provider associated with the e-mail sender.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein reporting the violation of the request comprises reporting the violation of the request to a third-party clearing house of request violations.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining an electronic mail rule in response to the first unsolicited commercial electronic mail message initiated by the e-mail sender,

wherein the electronic mail rule determines whether subsequent e-mail messages are initiated by the e-mail sender,

wherein when a subsequent e-mail was initiated by the e-mail sender, the electronic mail rule generates a violation report;

wherein when the subsequent e-mail was initiated by the e-mail sender, the electronic mail rule automatically deletes the subsequent e-mail;

wherein automatically determining whether the e-mail sender in violation of the request is performed by the electronic mail rule; and

wherein reporting the violation of the request comprises outputting the violation report.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the first unsolicited commercial electronic mail message comprises receiving the first unsolicited commercial electronic mail message via an e-mail interface selected from the group:

Outlook, GroupWise, HotMail, Yahoo!, Excite, Earthlink, GeoCities, AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy, MSN.

12. A method for a computer system comprises

receiving reports of unwanted e-mail request violations by e-mail senders from users at user e-mail addresses, wherein each unwanted e-mail request violation includes an indication of a first unsolicited commercial e-mail message initiated by an e-mail sender, an indication of a request to the e-mail sender not to initiate any future unsolicited commercial e-mail messages to a user e-mail address, and an indication of a second unsolicited commercial e-mail message initiated by an e-mail sender in violation of the request;

determining whether a number of reports of unwanted e-mail request violations by a specific e-mail sender exceeds a threshold number; and

when the number of reports of unwanted e-mail request violations exceeds the threshold number, reporting the unwanted e-mail request violations.

7. The method of claim 16 wherein reporting the violation of the request comprises providing the first unsolicited commercial electronic mail message, the request, and the second unsolicited commercial electronic mail message to the internet service provider.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the internet service provider determines that the second unsolicited commercial electronic mail message includes header information that uses a domain name of the internet service provider without permission of the internet service provider, in response to the violation of the request.

13. The method of claim 12

wherein reporting the unwanted e-mail request violations comprises providing the reports of unwanted e-mail request violations by the specific e-mail sender;

and

wherein the threshold number exceeds one.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

when the number of reports of unwanted e-mail request violations exceeds the threshold number, determining updated filter-out lists to include the specific e-mail sender; and

sending the updated filter-out lists e-mail service providers.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the e-mail service providers comprise:

internet service providers, HotMail, Yahoo!, Excite, Earthlink, GeoCities, AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy, MSN.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the e-mail service providers filter-out subsequent e-mail messages from the specific e-mail sender in response to the updated filter-out lists.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein reporting the unwanted e-mail request violations comprises providing the reports of unwanted e-mail request violations by the specific e-mail sender to a governmental entity selected from the group:

law enforcement authorities, state authorities, federal authorities.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein the threshold number is selected with respect to a number of reports of unwanted e-mail request violations by other e-mail senders.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the threshold number is selected in response to a number of reports of unwanted e-mail request violations for most frequent e-mail senders;

wherein the most frequent e-mail senders are selected from the group comprising;

one hundredth, five hundredth, one thousandth.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein determining whether a number of reports of unwanted e-mail request violations by a specific e-mail sender exceeds a threshold number further comprises determining whether a threshold number of reports of unwanted e-mail request violations occur within a set time period.

21. The method of claim 13 wherein reporting the unwanted e-mail request violations comprises providing the reports of unwanted e-mail request violations by the specific e-mail sender to service providers selected from the group:

internet service providers, Yahoo!, Earthlink, GeoCities, AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy, MSN.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the service providers determines whether the specific e-mail sender includes header information that uses a domain name of the service providers without permission of the internet service providers, in response to the violation of the request.

23. A computer system comprises:

a processor configured to execute code; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory includes;

code that directs the processor to provide a first junk e-mail message initiated by an e-mail sender to a user at a user e-mail address;

code that directs the processor to receive a remove request from the user regarding the first junk e-mail message;

code that directs the processor to send a request to the e-mail sender not to initiate any future junk e-mail messages to the user e-mail address, code that directs the processor to store the request in the memory;

code that directs the processor to determine receipt of a second junk e-mail message initiated by the e-mail sender to the user e-mail address;

code that directs the processor to generate a report of a violation of the request in response a determination of receipt of the second junk e-mail message.

24. The computer system of claim 23 wherein the report of the violation includes an indication of the first junk e-mail message, an indication of the second junk e-mail message, an indication of the e-mail sender, and an indication of the request.

25. The computer system of claim 24 wherein the memory further comprises:

code that directs the processor to identify the e-mail sender when a number of reports of violations of requests including an indication of the e-mail sender exceeds a threshold.

26. The computer system of claim 23 wherein the memory further comprises:

code that directs the processor to send the report of the violation to a third-party server.

29. The computer system of claim 26 wherein the third party server comprises a governmental entity comprising:

law enforcement authorities, state authorities, federal authorities.

30. The computer system of claim 26 wherein the third party server comprises a service provider associated with the second junk e-mail message.

31. The computer system of claim 30 wherein the service provider associated with the second junk e-mail message determines that the second junk e-mail message includes header information that uses a domain name of the service provider without permission of the service provider, in response to the report of the violation.

32. The computer system of claim 23 wherein the code that directs the processor to send the request to the e-mail sender comprises code that directs the processor to sending to the e-mail sender a communication selected from the group:

reply electronic mail message, Internet-based communication.

33. The computer system of claim 32 wherein the memory also includes:

code that directs the processor to provide the report of the violation of the request to the user at the user e-mail address.

27. The computer system 26

wherein the third party server provides e-mail filtering-out services, and

wherein the third party server returns updated e-mail filters in response to the report of the violation.

28. The computer system 27 wherein the memory further comprises

code that directs the processor to filter-out subsequent junk e-mail messages from the e-mail sender, in response to the updated e-mail filters.

34. A computer program product for a computer system including a processor and a display comprises:

code that directs the processor to initiate sending a request to an e-mail sender of a first unsolicited commercial e-mail message to not send any future unsolicited commercial e-mail message to a user e-mail address where the first unsolicited commercial e-mail message was addressed in response to a user input;

code that directs the processor to maintain a log of the first unsolicited commercial e-mail message and the request;

code that directs the processor to generate a report when a second unsolicited commercial e-mail message to the user e-mail address is from the e-mail sender; and

code that directs the processor to output the report;

wherein the codes reside on a tangible media.

35. The computer program product of claim 34 wherein the request comprises a communication selected from the group:

reply electronic mail message, Internet-based communication.

36. The computer program product of claim 35 further comprising:

code that directs the processor to initiate an e-mail rule configured to filter out e-mail messages from the e-mail sender in response to the user input and the first unsolicited commercial e-mail message.

37. The computer program product of claim 36 wherein the e-mail rule is configured to determine if a second unsolicited commercial e-mail message to the user e-mail address is from the e-mail sender.

38. The computer program product of claim 34 wherein the report comprises an indication of the first unsolicited commercial e-mail message, the second unsolicited commercial e-mail message, and the request.

39. The computer program product of claim 38 wherein code that directs the processor to output the report comprises code that directs the processor to output the report to the user.

40. The computer program product of claim 38 wherein code that directs the processor to output the report comprises code that directs the processor to output the report to a party selected from the group:

internet service provider, e-mail service provider, third-party server, governmental authority.

41. The computer program product of claim 40

wherein the report is output to a third party server;

wherein the third party server updates a filter-out rule to include the e-mail sender in response to the report; and

wherein the computer program product further comprises code that directs the processor to receive and implement the filter-out rule from the third party server.

42. The computer program product of claim 40 wherein the report is output to a governmental authority selected from the group:

law enforcement agency, state agency, federal agency.

43. The computer program product of claim 40 wherein the report is output to a service provider associated with the user e-mail address.

44. The computer program product of claim 34 wherein the codes are compatible with e-mail services selected from the group:

Outlook, GroupWise, HotMail, Yahoo!, Excite, Earthlink, GeoCities, AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy, MSN.