RETROSPECTIVE SPAM FILTERING

• US 20100082749A1
• Filed: 09/26/2008
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: KUNDU, Anirban, RISHER, Mark, RAMARAO, Vishwanath Tumkur, WEI, Stanley
• Application Number:
  US12/239,530
• Publication Number:
  US 20100082749A1
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

A mail system and mail delivery method wherein messages are tracked even after delivery and can be removed from a spam folder post delivery. In a disclosed embodiment mail features indicative of spam or normal email are analyzed and appended to the message header, which is later examined and used to move a reclassified message. False negative and false positive classification can be rectified.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for minimizing spam messages present in a user'"'"'s inbox, comprising:

analyzing features of an incoming email message;

extracting select of the analyzed features of the incoming email message;

appending indications of the select analyzed features to a header of the incoming email message;

delivering the incoming message to the user'"'"'s inbox;

extracting the indications of the appended features from the header of one or more instances of the incoming email message;

determining, after delivery of the email message to the user'"'"'s inbox that the email is a spam message;

and removing the spam message from the inbox, after said delivery to the inbox.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the features comprises analyzing:

an originating IP address of the message;

an originating URL of the message; and

content of the message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining after delivery that the email is a spam message comprises monitoring whether other users who have received the same email in their inbox do not open the message within a threshold period of time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining after delivery that the email is a spam message comprises analyzing a vector comprising data related to:

time series features;

geographic features;

sending features; and

content features.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a time stamp of user login or inspection of the inbox.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising referencing the stored time stamp and determining whether a message was delivered prior to the last user login or inspection of the inbox, prior to removing the spam message from the inbox.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the spam message is removed from the inbox only if it was delivered prior to the last user login or inspection of the inbox.

8. A computer-implemented method for minimizing spam messages present in a user'"'"'s inbox, comprising:

classifying an email message as a spam message;

associating a positive indication of the classification as spam with the classified message;

delivering the spam message to a spam folder;

evaluating post delivery information relating to the delivered spam message;

determining that the positive indication associated with the delivered spam message was incorrectly specified, and rectifying the false positive indication by moving the message to the user'"'"'s inbox.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the positive indication is stored in a memory cache server of a mail provider.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

analyzing features of the email message;

extracting indications of select of the analyzed features of the email message;

appending indications of the select analyzed features to a header of the incoming email message.

11. A computer-implemented method for minimizing spam messages present in a user'"'"'s inbox, comprising:

associating a negative indication of the classification as spam with an incoming email message;

delivering the email message to the user'"'"'s inbox;

evaluating post delivery information relating to the delivered message;

determining that the negative indication associated with the delivered message was incorrectly specified, and rectifying the false negative indication by moving the message to a spam folder.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the negative indication is stored in a memory cache server of a mail provider.

13. A computer system for providing email to a group of users, the computer system configured to:

analyze features of an incoming email message;

extracting select of the analyzed features of the incoming email message;

append indications of the select analyzed features to a header of the incoming email message;

deliver the incoming message to a user'"'"'s inbox;

extract the appended feature indications from the header of one or more instances of the incoming email message;

determine, after delivery of the email message to the user'"'"'s inbox that the email is a spam message;

and remove the spam message from the inbox, after said delivery to the inbox.