Method and device for processing electronic mail undesirable for user

• US 8,176,125 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2003
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Access Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Access Company Limited
• Inventors: Yamakami, Toshihiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Elchanti, Hussein
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anwari, Maceeh
• Application Number:
  US10/505,064
• Publication Number:
  US 20050198142A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,366 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• 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 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

Emails are received and the received emails are classified and accumulated based on relay path information contained in the header of each email. For each of the classified groups, a judgment is made according to a judgment rule including at least (1) the number of received emails per unit time is a first threshold or more and (2) the number of emails having an invalid destination address is a second threshold or more. For emails included in a classified group satisfying at least a prescribed number of items of the judgment rule, a mail process including (a) blockage of delivery to the user and (b) transmitting a pseudo error message replicating an undelivery mail to the source is carried out.

Claims

1. An email processing method for selecting emails of a prescribed type undesirable to users and processing the selected emails, comprising the steps of:

receiving each email at a point on a path from a source of the email to a user;

classifying and accumulating received e-mails based on two or more classification rules, wherein the two or more classification rules that are used to classify received e-mails include;

a relay path, wherein the relay path includes a relay order in which an e-mail is relayed from a source terminal to a destination terminal through one or more relay devices; and

names of one or more relay devices regardless of the relay order in which an e-mail is relayed through the one or more relay devices; and

judging whether the emails accumulated in each of classified groups are emails of the prescribed type or not according to a prescribed algorithm,

wherein the emails accumulated in one classified group of emails being judged were classified based on relay path, wherein the relay path includes relay order in which an e-mail is relayed from a source terminal to a destination terminal through one or more relay devices; and

wherein the emails accumulated in another classified group of emails being judged were classified based on names of one or more relay devices regardless of the relay order in which an e-mail is relayed through the one or more relay devices.

2. The email processing method according to claim 1, wherein another classification rule includes information for specifying a group of emails as having been transmitted by the same source.

3. The email processing method according to claim 1, wherein the names of one or more relay devices include server names or domain names of relay devices on relay paths of the emails, and the classification is made by the server names or domain names.

4. The email processing method according to claim 1, wherein the judgment on whether emails of the prescribed type or not according to a prescribed algorithm includes ranking of the emails in regard to whether emails are of the prescribed type or not.

5. The email processing method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of executing different processes to the emails of different classified groups, respectively, depending on the result of the ranking.

6. The email processing method according to claim 4, wherein the emails of each of the classified groups are ranked by the prescribed algorithm among three ranks:

emails of the prescribed type, emails that might be of the prescribed type, and normal emails.

7. The email processing method according to claim 4, wherein the number of ranks in the ranking is variable.

8. The email processing method according to claim 4, wherein the prescribed algorithm includes threshold values corresponding to the ranks to be used as criteria for ranking the emails of each of the classified groups, and the threshold values are variable.

9. The email processing method according to claim 1, wherein the prescribed algorithm is alterable.

10. The email processing method according to claim 1, wherein the prescribed algorithm includes judgment on whether or not the emails accumulated in each of the classified groups satisfy each item of a judgment rule containing at least one of the following items:

(1) the number of received emails per unit time is a first threshold or more, or

(2) the number of emails having an invalid destination address is a second threshold or more, and judges whether the emails of each of the classified groups are emails of the prescribed type or not based on the result of the judgment.

11. The email processing method according to claim 1, wherein the prescribed algorithm includes judgment on whether or not the emails accumulated in each of the classified groups satisfy each item of a judgment rule containing at least one of the following items:

(1) the number of received emails per unit time is a first threshold or more,

(2) the number of emails having an invalid destination address is a second threshold or more,

(3) the source address is invalid,

(4) the degree of difference of the destination address between emails in the classified group is a third threshold or more,

(5) the mail text contains prescribed contents, and

(6) the mail text contains a prescribed URL,

and judges whether the emails of each of the classified groups are emails of the prescribed type or not based on the result of the judgment.

12. The email processing method according to claim 11, wherein the degree of difference of the destination address in the item (4) of the judgment rule is calculated based on Hamming distance between destination address codes.

13. The email processing method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of continuing the reception, classification and accumulation of the emails until an accumulation condition, specifying at least one of accumulation time and the number of accumulated emails, is satisfied.

14. The email processing method according to claim 1, further comprising:

for an email judged to be of the prescribed type, preventing transmission of information to the source of the email, the information being information on the user at the destination of the email.

15. The email processing method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of executing a process including at least one of the following items for the emails judged to be of the prescribed type:

(a) blockage of delivery to the user,

(b) transmitting a pseudo error message, replicating an undeliverable mail which is returned by a mail server to the source when undeliverable, to the source,

(c) deletion,

(d) blocking an undeliverable mail from being returned to the source when the undeliverable mail is transmitted by a prescribed mail server,

(e) transmitting a warning message to the source,

(f) preserving information on the emails of the classified group,

(g) inquiring of each user whether to deliver each email of the classified group or not and processing the email according to a reply of the user to the inquiry,

(h) rejection of domain name service regarding a prescribed mail server requested by a device corresponding to the source of the emails of the classified group, and

(i) rejection of requests for connection to a prescribed mail server made from the IP address of a device corresponding to the source of the emails of the classified group.

16. The email processing method according to claim 1, wherein the emails include undeliverable mails each of which is transferred from a prescribed mail server to the source when an email to a user at the destination is undeliverable.

17. An email processing method, comprising the steps of:

receiving emails while classifying and accumulating the received emails based on two or more classification rules, wherein the two or more classification rules that are used to classify received e-mails include;

a relay path, wherein the relay path includes a relay order in which an e-mail is relayed from a source terminal to a destination terminal through one or more relay devices; and

names of one or more relay devices regardless of the relay order in which an e-mail is relayed through the one or more relay devices;

continuing the reception, classification and accumulation of the emails until an accumulation condition, specifying at least one of accumulation time and the number of accumulated emails, is satisfied;

judging whether or not the emails accumulated in each of classified groups satisfy each item of a judgment rule containing at least one of;

(1) the number of received emails per unit time is a first threshold or more,

(2) the number of emails having an invalid destination address is a second threshold or more,

(3) the source address is invalid,

(4) the degree of difference of the destination address between emails in the classified group is a third threshold or more,

(5) the mail text contains prescribed contents, and

(6) the mail text contains a prescribed URL according to a judgment rule application condition specifying which items of the judgment rule should be applied,

wherein the emails accumulated in one classified group of emails being judged were classified based on relay path, wherein the relay path includes relay order in which an e-mail is relayed from a source terminal to a destination terminal through one or more relay devices; and

wherein the emails accumulated in another classified group of emails being judged were classified based on names of one or more relay devices regardless of the relay order in which an e-mail is relayed through the one or more relay devices;

judging whether or not each of the classified groups obeys a comprehensive judgment rule which employs the number of satisfied items of the judgment rule in the items specified by the judgment rule application condition as its condition of judgment; and

executing a prescribed mail process including at least one of the following items for the emails of the classified groups judged to obey the comprehensive judgment rule;

(a) blockage of delivery to the user, and

(b) transmitting a pseudo error message, replicating an undeliverable mail which is returned by a mail server to the source when undeliverable, to the source.

18. The email processing method according to claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

collecting statistics on the result of the judgment on the comprehensive judgment rule by executing the sequence of processes described in the email processing method at least once; and

setting or altering contents of at least one of the accumulation condition, the judgment rule, the judgment rule application condition and the comprehensive judgment rule depending on the collected statistics.

19. The email processing method according to claim 17, further comprising the step of receiving input for setting or altering contents of at least one of the accumulation condition, the judgment rule, the judgment rule application condition and the comprehensive judgment rule via a user interface.

20. The email processing method according to claim 17, wherein classified groups corresponding to a prescribed exceptional rule are excluded from the targets of the prescribed mail process even when the classified groups obey the comprehensive judgment rule.

21. The email processing method according to claim 20, wherein the prescribed exceptional rule includes at least one of the address of a source to be excepted, the domain name of a source to be excepted, a time slot in which the prescribed mail process is not executed, and a time period in which the prescribed mail process is not executed.

22. The email processing method according to claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

acquiring a delivery rejection condition, containing at least one of a domain name and a source address for rejecting email delivery, from a prescribed server when a user has registered the delivery rejection condition with the prescribed server; and

determining classified groups as the targets of the prescribed mail process based on the acquired delivery rejection condition.

23. The email processing method according to claim 17, wherein:

the number of satisfied items of the judgment rule in the items specified by the judgment rule application condition is defined in the comprehensive judgment rule as a factor for ranking, and

each of the classified groups is ranked according to the comprehensive judgment rule so that the rank will become higher as the number of satisfied items of the judgment rule gets larger, and

the prescribed mail process is executed at least for emails of a classified group that is ranked among the highest rank by the ranking.

24. The email processing method according to claim 23, wherein the accumulation condition is altered and the sequence of processes described in the email processing method is continued further for at least one classified group that is not ranked among the highest rank by the ranking.

25. A server device for selecting emails of a prescribed type undesirable to users and processing the selected emails, comprising:

a network interface configured to receive emails;

a disk unit having stored thereon programs having;

a mail classification unit for classifying and accumulating the received emails based on two or more classification rules, wherein the two or more classification rules that are used to classify received e-mails include;

a relay path, wherein the relay path includes a relay order in which an e-mail is relayed from a source terminal to a destination terminal through one or more relay devices; and

names of one or more relay devices regardless of the relay order in which an e-mail is relayed through the one or more relay devices;

a judgment unit for judging whether the emails accumulated in each of classified groups are emails of the prescribed type or not according to a prescribed algorithm,

wherein the emails accumulated in one classified group of emails being judged were classified based on relay path, wherein the relay path includes relay order in which an e-mail is relayed from a source terminal to a destination terminal through one or more relay devices; and

wherein the emails accumulated in another classified group of emails being judged were classified based on names of one or more relay devices regardless of the relay order in which an e-mail is relayed through the one or more relay devices; and

an email processing unit for executing a process based on the result of the judgment;

and

a central processing unit configured to execute the programs stored on the disk unit.

26. A non-transitory computer-readable record medium storing a program for instructing a computer to implement:

a classification function for classifying and accumulating received emails based on two or more classification rules, wherein the two or more classification rules that are used to classify received e-mails include;

a relay path, wherein the relay path includes a relay order in which an e-mail is relayed from a source terminal to a destination terminal through one or more relay devices; and

names of one or more relay devices regardless of the relay order in which an e-mail is relayed through the one or more relay devices;

a judgment function for judging whether the emails accumulated in each of classified groups are emails of the prescribed type or not according to a prescribed algorithm,

wherein the emails accumulated in one classified group of emails being judged were classified based on relay path, wherein the relay path includes relay order in which an e-mail is relayed from a source terminal to a destination terminal through one or more relay devices; and

wherein the emails accumulated in another classified group of emails being judged were classified based on names of one or more relay devices regardless of the relay order in which an e-mail is relayed through the one or more relay devices; and

an email processing function for executing a process based on the result of the judgment.