Technique for detecting and blocking unwanted instant messages

• US 20060101021A1
• Filed: 11/09/2004
• Published: 05/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Davis, John F., Jeffries, Clark D., Himberger, Kevin D., Peyravian, Mohammad
• Granted Patent: US 7,711,781 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/922 Communications

Abstract

A technique for tracking one or more thresholds relating to the blocking of a particular screen name used on an IM system is disclosed. If the number of people who have blocked a particular screen name reaches a threshold amount, a determination is made that the screen name is being used by a spimmer or other bothersome person, and disciplinary action can be taken. In a preferred embodiment, the email address associated with a user name of a suspected spimmer is identified and all screen names associated with that email address are also subjected to disciplinary action, if desired. Thus, an IM company can suspend all screen names of a spimmer that are tied to the same email address, even though not all (or even none) of the screen names individually have reached a threshold level for discipline/suspension.

Claims

1. A method of identifying and controlling undesirable use of an instant messaging system, comprising the steps of:

storing, in a database, each instance of the blocking of a screen name of a user by another user of said instant messaging system; and

identifying as an undesirable user of said instant messaging system, any user that has reached a threshold level of screen name blockages.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying step includes the steps of:

correlating each screen name used in said instant messaging system with a unique user identification; and

associating each screen name blockage with the unique user identification to which said screen name is correlated.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said unique user identification comprises an email address submitted as part of a registration process.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

automatically disciplining each identified undesirable user upon their reaching of said threshold level.

5. A system of identifying and controlling undesirable use of an instant messaging system, comprising:

means for storing, in a database, each instance of the blocking of a screen name of a user by another user of said instant messaging system; and

means for identifying as an undesirable user of said instant messaging system, any user that has reached a threshold level of screen name blockages.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said means for identifying includes:

means for correlating each screen name used in said instant messaging system with a unique user identification; and

means for associating each screen name blockage with the unique user identification to which said screen name is correlated.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said unique user identification comprises an email address submitted as part of a registration process.

8. The system of claim 5, further comprising:

means for automatically disciplining each identified undesirable user upon their reaching of said threshold level.

9. A computer program product for identifying and controlling undesirable use of an instant messaging system, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer-readable program code comprising:

computer-readable program code that stores, in a database, each instance of the blocking of a screen name of a user by another user of said instant messaging system; and

computer-readable program code that identifies as an undesirable user of said instant messaging system, any user that has reached a threshold level of screen name blockages.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein said computer-readable program code that identifies includes:

computer-readable program code that correlates each screen name used in said instant messaging system with a unique user identification; and

computer-readable program code that associates each screen name blockage with the unique user identification to which said screen name is correlated.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein said unique user identification comprises an email address submitted as part of a registration process.

12. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising:

computer-readable program code that automatically disciplines each identified undesirable user upon their reaching of said threshold level.

13. A method of controlling unwanted messages in an instant messaging system, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from an instant messaging user to block messages from a sender;

determining whether said sender is a human by sending a message including a question to said sender and monitoring an answer to said question; and

taking temporary blocking measures against all messages sent by said sender depending on the number of said requests and whether the sender is a human.