System for determining email spam by delivery path

• US 7,580,981 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Issued: 08/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Golub, Seth
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Quang N.
• Application Number:
  US10/883,335
• Time in Patent Office: 1,882 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/206, 709/224, 709/225, 709/226, 713/201
• 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 spam detector for determining likelihood of forgery of a source in an email addressed to a destination is provided, comprising extraction means for extracting delivery path information from one or more packets in the packet flow of the email, and comparison means for comparing the extracted delivery path information with trusted delivery path information from the source to the destination.

Claims

1. A method for determining email spam, comprising:

recording a trusted delivery path, comprising;

choosing a trusted sender;

sending a test message to the trusted sender requesting a return message for recording a delivery path of the return message;

receiving an email addressed to a user from the trusted sender;

obtaining a delivery path of the email;

recording the delivery path associated with the trusted sender as a trusted delivery path in a whitelist of senders associated with the user;

receiving an email addressed to the user from a sender on a whitelist of senders associated with the user;

obtaining a delivery path of the email;

further processing the email by;

comparing the delivery path to one or more trusted delivery paths for the sender;

if the delivery path matches at least one of the trusted delivery paths, marking the email as a trusted message; and

if the delivery path does not match at least one of the trusted delivery paths, marking the email as a potential spam message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein choosing a trusted sender comprises choosing a sender from a list of one or more contacts in an address book belonging to the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein choosing a trusted sender comprises choosing a trusted sender from a data pool of whitelists for all subscribers of an email server.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising marking the trusted message as a message to be opened.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the trusted message to the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed at a server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed at a workstation associated with the user.

8. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon a set of instructions that cause a machine to perform a method comprising:

recording a trusted delivery path, comprising;

choosing a trusted sender;

sending a test message to the trusted sender requesting a return message for recording a delivery path of the return message;

receiving an email addressed to a user from the trusted sender;

obtaining a delivery path of the email;

recording the delivery path associated with the trusted sender as a trusted delivery path in a whitelist of senders associated with the user;

receiving an email addressed to the user from a sender on a whitelist of senders associated with the user;

obtaining a delivery path of the email;

further processing the email by;

comparing the delivery path to one or more trusted delivery paths for the sender;

if the delivery path matches at least one of the trusted delivery paths, marking the email as a trusted message; and

if the delivery path does not match at least one of the trusted delivery paths, marking the email as a potential spam message.

9. The medium of claim 8, wherein choosing a trusted sender comprises choosing a sender from a list of one or more contacts in an address book belonging to the user.

10. The medium of claim 8, wherein choosing a trusted sender comprises choosing a trusted sender from a data pool of whitelists for all subscribers of an email server.

11. The medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions for marking the trusted message as a message to be opened.

12. The medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions for sending the trusted message to the user.

13. The medium of claim 8, wherein the machine is a server.

14. The medium of claim 8, wherein the machine is a workstation associated with the user.