Email provider prevention/deterrence of unsolicited messages

• US 7,603,425 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2006
• Issued: 10/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: DiPlacido, Marco, Shah, Mehul
• Primary Examiner(s): LIN, WEN TAI
• Application Number:
  US11/500,200
• Publication Number:
  US 20080034046A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,163 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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:

an email sending service that, on behalf of a service consumer, utilizes a computer processor that is a functional component of a computing device to send a separate email to each of a plurality of recipients,

wherein each of the separate emails contains an identical collection of content selected by themselves consumer for mass distribution to the plurality of recipients,

wherein the email sending service adds an item of content to a message body of each of the separate emails, the item of content in each of the separate emails being recipient-specific in that it is selected so as to be customized for the one of the plurality of recipients to which it is sent by the email sending service,

wherein the email sending service adds to each separate email an encrypted representation of the service consumer'"'"'s identity,

wherein the encrypted representation is encrypted in that it is an identifier that uniquely identifies the service consumer such that the identifier is not directly indicative of the identity of the service consumer but can be utilized to derive the identity of the service consumer,

wherein the recipient'"'"'s email service provider integrates, into an interface of each of the separate emails, a mark-as-spam component in the form of a control that when activated by the recipient of the email identifies the email as spam,

wherein when the email is identified as spam, the email service provider forwards the encrypted representation to the email sending service for identifying the service consumer, thereby enabling prevention of subsequent emails from the identified service consumer to the recipient, and

wherein said control is of a nature that makes it such that said activation by the recipient does not require navigation of a hyperlink.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the encrypted representation is an encoded representation of the service consumer'"'"'s identity.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the email sending service applies a key to the identifier so as to determine the service consumer'"'"'s identity.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein applying the key to the identifier comprises cross referencing the identifier within a collection of cross referencing data maintained by the email service provider, wherein the collection of cross referencing data correlates the identify of the service consumer to the identifier.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein applying the key to the identifier comprises applying a decryption key to the identifier so as to decipher the service consumer'"'"'s identity.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the recipient-specific item of content in each of the separate emails is a postal mailing address of the recipient to which it is sent by the email sending service.

7. The system of claim 1, the recipient-specific item of content in each of the separate emails is a unique uniform resource locator containing identifying information specifically indicative of the recipient to which it is sent by the email sending service.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the email sending service identifies the service consumer by cross-referencing said identifier that uniquely identifies the service consumer.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the email sending service adds said identifier to each of the separate emails before they are sent to the plurality of recipients.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said control is of a nature that makes it such that said activation by the recipient does not require activating an unsubscribe link.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said control is a check box control.

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

utilizing a computer processor that is a functional component of a computing device to attach identifying information to an email;

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

receiving a copy of the email,

wherein the identifying information is encrypted to uniquely identify the customer of the bulk email sending service,

wherein said steps of utilizing, sending, and receiving are all steps performed by an email sending service,

wherein the email contains a collection of content selected by a service consumer on whose behalf the bulk email sending service sends the email to the recipient,

wherein the bulk email sending service utilizes the computer processor to add an item of content to the email, the item of content being recipient-specific in that it is selected so as to be customized for the recipient,

wherein the recipient'"'"'s email service provider integrates into an interface of each of the separate emails, a mark-as-spam component in the form of a control that when activated by the recipient of the email identifies the email as spam,

wherein when the email is identified as spam, the email service provider forwards the encrypted representation to the bulk email sending service for identifying the service consumer, thereby enabling prevention of subsequent emails from the identified service consumer to the recipient, and

wherein said control is of a nature that makes it such that said activation by the recipient does not require navigation of a hyperlink.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein attaching comprises attaching a cross-referencing mechanism.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving comprises receipt by the bulk email sending service from the email service provider that provides email service to the recipient.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving comprises receipt by the bulk email sending service as a report received from the email service provider that provides email service to the recipient.