User interface and anti-phishing functions for an anti-spam micropayments system

• US 20060053293A1
• Filed: 09/07/2004
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Iconix Incorporated (Matthews Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Iconix Incorporated (Matthews Group LLC)
• Inventors: Zager, Robert Philip, Picazo, Jose Jesus Jr., Duvvoori, Vikram, Trytten, Chris David, Ames, William, Vempaty, Nageshwara Rao
• Granted Patent: US 7,413,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/29 characterised by micropayments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1483 service impersonation, e.g. phishing, pharming or web spoofing detection of rogue wireless access points H04W12/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3271 using challenge-response

Abstract

A protocol for protected email transmission using micropayments and a segregated inbox in which protected emails are displayed. The protocol also involves authentication of the sender to defeat phishers and an opt out protocol which can be used to block protected emails from sources from which the user no longer wishes to receive emails even if the source has made a micropayment. Branded email is also taught wherein a sender of protected emails can pay extra to have a miniature version of its brand logo or trademark displayed with its email in the segregated inbox. A white list is maintained on the protected email server (along with the opt out black list) so that recipients can designate specific senders who may send email to that recipient without paying a micropayment and still have the protected email displayed in the segregated inbox.

Claims

1. In a recipient computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a selection device, a method of segregating paid emails and white list email from other email on said display, said method comprising:

A) displaying a navigation pane and a content pane in a browser or email client application window;

B) retrieving and displaying in said navigation pane a set of navigation icons including a paid email icon representing an inbox in which paid and white list emails will be displayed and an inbox icon representing an inbox in which will be displayed all other emails which are not paid or white list emails;

C) receiving a selection signal when an icon in said navigation pane is selected with said selection device;

D) when said selection signal indicates said paid email icon has been selected, responding to said selection signal by populating said content pane with selected Exsis emails which include in a header of each said email data indicating a micropayment was made to send said email or which indicates the sender of said email is on a white list of the recipient;

E) when said selection signal indicates said inbox icon has been selected, responding to said selection signal by displaying a content pane in which are displayed emails which are not paid and are not from a sender which is on a white list of the recipient.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein step D further comprises:

displaying a content pane which has a friends tab and a logo mail tab each of which can be selected by said selection device;

receiving a selection signal which indicates either said friends tab or said logo mail tab has been selected;

if said selection signal indicates said friends tab has been selected, responding thereto by displaying in said content pane only Exsis emails which have data in their headers which indicate they originated from a sender which is on a white list of said recipient;

if said selection signal indicates said logo mail tab has been selected, responding thereto by displaying in said content pane only Exsis emails which have data in the headers thereof indicating a micropayment has been made to send said email.

3. [simultaneous display of interspersed white list and paid emails] The method of claim 1 wherein step D further comprises simultaneously displaying in a single content pane both paid emails and white list emails interspersed with each other.

4. [simultaneous display of white list and logo mail in separate panes] The method of claim 1 wherein step A further comprises displaying a split content pane with two distinct portions thereof and wherein step D further comprises simultaneously displaying in said split content pane both paid emails and white list emails with paid emails being displayed in one portion of said split content pane and whitelist emails being displayed in another portion of said split content pane.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein step A comprises displaying a split content pane, and wherein step D comprises populating a first pane of said split content pane with today'"'"'s Exsis emails and populating a second pane of said split content pane with yesterday'"'"'s Exsis emails.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein step A comprises displaying a split content pane, with a first pane displaying today'"'"'s Exsis white list emails and a second pane displaying yesterday'"'"'s white list emails when the friends tab is selected, and, when said logo mail tab is selected, said first pane displays todays paid Exsis emails and said second pane displays yesterday'"'"'s paid Exsis emails.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein step A comprises displaying third and fourth panes of said first pane of said split content pane and displaying fifth and sixth panes of said second pan, and wherein step D comprises populating said third pane with today'"'"'s Exsis white list emails and populating said fourth pane with yesterday'"'"'s white list emails and populating said fifth pane of said second pane with todays paid Exsis emails and populating said sixth pane of said second pane with yesterday'"'"'s paid Exsis emails.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein step A comprises displaying a split content pane comprised of first and second panes, and wherein step D comprises populating said first pane with today'"'"'s Exsis white list and paid emails interspersed together, and populating said second pane with yesterday'"'"'s white list and paid Exsis emails.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein step D further comprises displaying a source icon with each Exsis email the presence of which indicates at least that the email can be authenticated as to its source or already has been automatically authenticated as to its source, and wherein the particular type of source icon displayed gives a visual indication as to whether the protected email is from a white list member designated by said recipient to be able to send emails to said recipient for free or is from a company or individual who has paid a subscription to have its emails segregated into said Exsis inbox and to have a miniature replica of its logo, called a Truemark type source icond, displayed as the source icon, or is from a company or individual who did not pay a subscription to have its logo displayed as a Truemark type source icon but did make a micropayment to have its email segregated away from the other spam in said Exsis inbox.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein step D further comprises displaying a Truemark logo with each Exsis email from a sender who has paid extra to have its company logo displayed in miniature as the source icon, but displaying said Truemark only for Exsis emails which have been authenticated and which have paid extra for a Truemark type source icon.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the following steps carried out in a sender computer coupled to a protected email server and to said recipient computer system via a wide area network:

A) at said sender computer, receiving data from a sender to compose a proposed email message and receiving a user command to send proposed email message to a particular, identified recipient;

B) sending a message to said protected email server requesting a code in the form of a stemp for inclusion in the header of said proposed email and passing information with said message which identifies said sender;

C) at said protected email server, authenticating the identity of the sender using information from said message and verifying the sender has an account with sufficient money in it to pay for the code requested in step B and is not on a black list or opt out list of the recipient or that the sender is on a white list of said recipient;

D) at said protected email server, if conditions in step C are proper to send said proposed email, said protected email server generates a transaction number, encrypts a stemp which contains the identification of the sender and the transaction number, saves the encryption key, deducts the amount of the micropayment from the account of the sender if the sender is not on the white list of the recipient, sends back to said sender the proposed email message header with said stemp encoded therein;

E) protected email server sends said encryption key used in step D and the transaction number generated in step D and a Truemark or generic logo identifying the sender of the email associated with the transaction number to said recipient computer system operated by said recipient;

D) at said sender computer, attaching said header received from said protected email server to said proposed email message and sending said email message to said recipient computer system via said wide area network and normal email sending processes;

E) at said recipient computer system, receiving said encryption key, transaction number and Truemark or generic logo from said protected email server;

F) at said recipient computer, receiving said email message sent by said sender computer, and responding thereto by retrieving the encryption key used to encrypt said stemp and attempting to decrypt said stemp to retrieve the account number and transaction number encrypted therein;

G) if the stemp decrypts properly and the decrypted transaction number matches the transaction number received from said protected email server, said recipient computer places said email in a segregated inbox folder and stores the appropriate Truemark or generic logo with said email for display when a user gives a command to display the contents of said segregated inbox folder and said sender has been authenticated.

12. In a recipient computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a selection device, a method of segregating paid emails and white list email from other email on said display, said method comprising:

A) displaying a navigation pane and a split content pane in a browser or email client application window, said split content pane having a first pane and a second pane, and displaying a friends tab and a logo mail tab associated with said content pane;

B) retrieving and displaying in said navigation pane a set of navigation icons including an Exsis email icon representing an inbox in which paid and white list emails will be displayed and an inbox icon representing an inbox in which will be displayed all other emails which are not paid or white list emails;

C) receiving a selection signal when an icon in said navigation pane is selected with said selection device;

D) when said selection signal indicates said Exsis email icon has been selected and another selection signal indicating said logo mail tab has been selected, responding to said selection signals by populating said first pane of said content pane with paid Exsis emails from today and populating said second pane with paid Excis emails from yesterday, said paid Exsis emails including in a header of each said email data indicating a micropayment was made to send said email;

E) when said selection signal indicates said Exsis email icon has been selected and another selection signal indicating said friends tab has been selected, responding to said selection signals by populating said first pane of said content pane with white list Exsis emails from today and populating said second pane with white list Excis emails from yesterday, said white list Exsis emails including in a header of each said email data indicating the sender is on a white list of said recipient; and

F) when said selection signal indicates said inbox icon has been selected, responding to said selection signal by displaying a content pane in which are displayed emails which are not paid and are not from a sender which is on a white list of the recipient.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising the following steps carried out in a sender computer coupled to a protected email server and to said recipient computer system via a wide area network:

A) at said sender computer, receiving data from a sender to compose a proposed email message and receiving a user command to send proposed email message to a particular, identified recipient;

B) sending a message to said protected email server requesting a code in the form of a stemp for inclusion in the header of said proposed email and passing information with said message which identifies said sender;

C) at said protected email server, authenticating the identity of the sender using information from said message and verifying the sender has an account with sufficient money in it to pay for the code requested in step B and is not on a black list or opt out list of the recipient or that the sender is on a white list of said recipient;

D) at said protected email server, if conditions in step C are proper to send said proposed email, said protected email server generates a transaction number, encrypts a stemp which contains the identification of the sender and the transaction number, saves the encryption key, deducts the amount of the micropayment from the account of the sender if the sender is not on the white list of the recipient, sends back to said sender the proposed email message header with said stemp encoded therein;

E) protected email server sends said encryption key used in step D and the transaction number generated in step D and sends a Truemark or generic logo associated with said transaction number, to said recipient computer system operated by said recipient;

D) at said sender computer, attaching said header received from said protected email server to said proposed email message and sending said email message to said recipient computer system via said wide area network and normal email sending processes;

E) at said recipient computer system, receiving said encryption key, transaction number and Truemark or generic logo from said protected email server;

F) at said recipient computer, receiving said email message sent by said sender computer, and responding thereto by retrieving the encryption key used to encrypt said stemp and attempting to decrypt said stemp to retrieve the account number and transaction number encrypted therein;

G) if the stemp decrypts properly and the decrypted transaction number matches the transaction number received from said protected email server, said recipient computer places said email in a segregated inbox folder and stores the appropriate Truemark or generic logo associated with said transaction number for display when a user gives a command to display the contents of said segregated inbox folder.

14. In a recipient computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a selection device, a method of segregating paid emails and white list email from other email on said display, said method comprising:

A) displaying a navigation pane and a content pane in a browser or email client application window;

B) retrieving and displaying in said navigation pane a set of navigation icons including a paid email icon representing a segregated inbox in which paid and white list emails will be displayed and an inbox icon representing an inbox in which will be displayed all other emails which are not paid or white list emails;

C) receiving a selection signal when an icon in said navigation pane is selected with said selection device;

D) when said selection signal indicates said paid email icon has been selected, responding to said selection signal by populating said content pane with selected Exsis emails which include in a header of each said email data indicating a micropayment was made to send said email or which indicates the sender of said email is on a white list of the recipient;

E) when said selection signal indicates said inbox icon has been selected, responding to said selection signal by displaying a content pane in which are displayed emails which are not paid and are not from a sender which is on a white list of the recipient;

F) displaying a user interface mechanism which provides an ability for a user of said recipient computer system to select a particular Exsis email in said segregated inbox and provide an option to give a command to authenticate said Exsis email;

G) responding to selection of an Exsis email and giving of a command to authenticate said Exsis email by preparing and sending an authentication request message to a protected email server which includes at least an encrypted micropayment account number and a transaction number, both said transaction number and said encrypted micropayment account number being extracted from said selected Exsis email header;

H) receiving a message back from said protected email server which includes either the identity of the sender of the selected Exsis email or an indication that it is or is not from who it purports to be from, as the case may be.

15. The process of claim 14 further comprising the following steps carried out in a protected email server coupled to said recipient computer:

I) receiving said authentication request message from said recipient computer containing said encrypted micropayment account number and said transaction number;

J) using said transaction number to look up an encryption key used to encrypt said micropayment account number which was encrypted in a stemp in the header which was sent back to a sender computer which requested a micropayment transaction to send and email which became said selected Exsis email on said recipient computer;

K) using said encryption key to attempt to decrypt said encrypted micropayment account number received from said recipient computer with said authentication request message;

L) if said encrypted micropayment account number does not decrypt properly, sending a message to said recipient computer that said selected Exsis email is not from who it purports to be from;

M) if said encrypted micropayment account number does decrypt properly, using said micropayment account number to look up the identity of the sender of said selected Exsis email;

N) sending a message to said recipient computer system containing the identity of the sender of said selected Exsis email or containing an indication that said selected Exsis email is authenticated and is from whom it purports to be from.

16. In a recipient computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a selection device, a method of segregating paid emails and white list email from other email on said display, said method comprising:

A) displaying a navigation pane and a content pane in a browser or email client application window;

B) retrieving and displaying in said navigation pane a set of navigation icons including a paid email icon representing a segregated inbox in which paid and white list emails will be displayed and an inbox icon representing an inbox in which will be displayed all other emails which are not paid or white list emails;

C) receiving a selection signal when an icon in said navigation pane is selected with said selection device;

D) when said selection signal indicates said paid email icon has been selected, responding to said selection signal by populating said content pane with selected Exsis emails which include in a header of each said email data indicating a micropayment was made to send said email or which indicates the sender of said email is on a white list of the recipient;

E) when said selection signal indicates said inbox icon has been selected, responding to said selection signal by displaying a content pane in which are displayed emails which are not paid and are not from a sender which is on a white list of the recipient;

F) displaying a user interface mechanism which provides an ability for a user of said recipient computer system to select a particular Exsis email in said segregated inbox and provide an option to give a command to opt out of receiving any more Exsis emails from the source of said selected Exsis email;

G) responding to selection of an Exsis email and giving of a command to opt out by preparing and sending an opt out request message to a protected email server which includes at least an encrypted micropayment account number and a transaction number, both said transaction number and said encrypted micropayment account number being extracted from said selected Exsis email header.

17. The process of claim 16 further comprising the following steps carried out in a protected email server coupled to said recipient computer:

I) receiving said opt out request message from said recipient computer containing said encrypted micropayment account number and said transaction number;

J) using said transaction number to look up an encryption key used to encrypt said micropayment account number which was encrypted in a stemp in the header which was sent back to a sender computer which requested a micropayment transaction to send and email which became said selected Exsis email on said recipient computer;

K) using said encryption key to attempt to decrypt said encrypted micropayment account number received from said recipient computer with said authentication request message;

L) if said encrypted micropayment account number does not decrypt properly, sending a message to said recipient computer that said selected Exsis email is not from who it purports to be from;

M) if said encrypted micropayment account number does decrypt properly, using said micropayment account number to look up the identity of the sender of said selected Exsis email;

N) adding the identity of the sender to an opt out list maintained on said protected email server for the recipient of said selected Exsis email.