Email provider prevention/deterrence of unsolicited messages

• US 20080034046A1
• Filed: 08/07/2006
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shah, Mehul, DiPlacido, Marco
• Granted Patent: US 7,603,425 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

An email sending service embeds identifying information within emails sent on behalf of its service consumers. A recipient notifies their email provider that an email received from the service is a spam email (e.g., an unsolicited message). The email provider forwards a complaint, including a copy of the email, to the email sending service. The service utilizes the information embedded in the email to identify the responsible service consumer. The email sending service then takes corrective action as necessary to prevent or deter the identified service consumer from sending subsequent spam emails.

Claims

1. A system for supporting the prevention or deterrence of the utilization of an email sending service to send, to a recipient, an email that the recipient does not wish to receive, the system comprising:

a service consumer;

a recipient;

an email service provider configured to provide email service to the recipient;

an email sending service configured to send an email to the recipient on behalf of the service consumer, and being further configured to identify the service consumer based on information contained in a report received from the email service provider, the report being related to the email sent to the recipient.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the report includes information from the email sent to the recipient.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the email sending service is configured to identify the service consumer based on information added received with the report.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the email service provider is configured to receive an indication from the recipient that the email received from the email sending service is spam.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the email service provider is configured to generate the report based on the indication received from the recipient.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the email service provider is further configured to provide the recipient with means for indicating that the email received from the email sending service is spam.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the email sending service is further configured to respond to the report by blocking subsequent emails to the recipient from the service consumer.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the email sending service is further configured to archive information related to the report.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the email sending service is configured to identify the service consumer based on a data cross-referencing mechanism added to the email before being sent to the recipient.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the email sending service is configured to identify the service consumer based on a string of characters added to the email before being sent to the recipient.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the email sending service is configured to identify the service consumer by cross-referencing an identifier contained in the email against a collection of data.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the email service provider is configured to identify the email sending service based on an IP address associated with the email.

13. A computer-implemented method for supporting the prevention or deterrence of the utilization of an email sending service to send, to a recipient, an email that the recipient does not wish to receive, the method comprising:

attaching identifying information to an email;

sending the email, with the identifying information, to a recipient; and

receiving a copy of the email.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein attaching comprises attaching a cross-referencing mechanism.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving comprises receiving from an email service provider that provides email service to the recipient.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving comprises receiving as part of a report.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises taking a corrective action to deter a service consumer associated with the email from sending additional emails to the recipient.

18. A computer-implemented method for supporting the prevention or deterrence of the utilization of an email sending service to send, to a recipient, an email that the recipient does not wish to receive, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from a recipient that an email is undesirable;

identifying an email sending service associated with the email;

providing the original email, or a copy thereof, to the identified email sending service.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein identifying comprises identifying based an indication of a mail server from which the email was sent.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein providing comprises providing as part of a report.