System for eliminating unauthorized electronic mail
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving, via an Internet email-sending protocol from an email-sending server, a first email message to an email-receiving server identifying a sender address of a sender and a recipient address of a recipient for an email attempted to be sent by the email-sending server to the email-receiving server;
maintaining for each of at least a portion of a plurality of recipients whose email-receiving is handled by the email-receiving server those authorized sender addresses that are authorized to send email to said recipient;
checking whether the identified sender address for the first email message is included among those authorized sender addresses for the identified recipient; and
in response to the sender address identified in the first email message not being recognized as one of those authorized sender addresses for the recipient, sending via the Internet email-sending protocol from the email-receiving server to the email-sending server a second email message rejecting the sending of the first email message to the email-receiving server, wherein the email-sending server is prevented from sending the first email message to the email-receiving server under the Internet email-sending protocol.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for eliminating unauthorized email sent to a user on a network employs an email-receiving server connected between the network and the user'"'"'s email client for receiving email addressed to the user and rejecting those in which the sender address does not match any of sender addresses maintained on an “authorized senders” list (ASL list). The ASL lists are maintained by an ASL manager in an ASL database operable with a spam processor module. A redirector module rejects the email if, upon sending a request for validation to the spam processor module, the sender'"'"'s address does not match any authorized sender address on the ASL list. Email rejected by the redirector module is redirected to a web-based messaging (WBM) module which sends a message to the sender to confirm that the sender is a legitimate sender of email to the intended recipient. If the sender logs on to confirm their status, the WBM module executes an interaction procedure which can only be performed by a human, in order to ensure that the confirmation procedure is not performed by a mechanical program. The ASL manager maintains the ASL lists based upon sender address data collected from various sources and analyses of various email usage factors, including sent email, received email, contact lists maintained by the user, user preference inputs, third party programs, etc.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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receiving, via an Internet email-sending protocol from an email-sending server, a first email message to an email-receiving server identifying a sender address of a sender and a recipient address of a recipient for an email attempted to be sent by the email-sending server to the email-receiving server; maintaining for each of at least a portion of a plurality of recipients whose email-receiving is handled by the email-receiving server those authorized sender addresses that are authorized to send email to said recipient; checking whether the identified sender address for the first email message is included among those authorized sender addresses for the identified recipient; and in response to the sender address identified in the first email message not being recognized as one of those authorized sender addresses for the recipient, sending via the Internet email-sending protocol from the email-receiving server to the email-sending server a second email message rejecting the sending of the first email message to the email-receiving server, wherein the email-sending server is prevented from sending the first email message to the email-receiving server under the Internet email-sending protocol. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method comprising:
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receiving via an Internet email-sending protocol an email-sending server a first email message to an email-receiving server identifying a sender address of a sender and a recipient address of a recipient for an email attempted to be sent by the email-sending server to the email-receiving server; maintaining for each of at least a portion of a plurality of recipients whose email-receiving is handled by the email-receiving server those not-authorized sender addresses that are not authorized to send email to said recipient; checking whether the identified sender address for the first email message is included among those not-authorized sender addresses for the identified recipient; and in response to the sender address identified in the first email message being one of those not-authorized sender addresses for the recipient, sending via the Internet email-sending protocol the email-receiving server to the email-sending server a second email message rejecting the sending of the first email message to the email-receiving server, wherein the email-sending server is prevented from sending the first email message to the email-receiving server under the Internet email-sending protocol. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:
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instructions to receive via an Internet email-sending protocol from an email-sending server a first email message to an email-receiving server identifying a sender address of a sender and a recipient address of a recipient for an email attempted to be sent by the email-sending server to the email-receiving server; instructions to maintain for each of at least a portion of a plurality of recipients whose email-receiving is handled by the email-receiving server those authorized sender addresses that are authorized to send email to said recipient; instructions to check whether the identified sender address for the first email message is included among those authorized sender addresses for the identified recipient; and instructions to send via the Internet email-sending protocol from the email-receiving server to the email-sending server a second email message rejecting the sending of the first email message to the email-receiving server if the sender address identified in the first email message is not recognized as being one of those authorized sender addresses for the recipient, wherein the email-sending server is prevented from sending the first email message to the email-receiving server under the Internet email-sending protocol.
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Specification