Method and system for handling unwanted email messages

• US 8,577,968 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2006
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: McAfee, LLC
• Original Assignee: McAfee, Inc. (McAfee, LLC)
• Inventors: Shinde, Rajesh, Awasthi, Harish Mohan
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): MIAH, RAZU A
• Application Number:
  US11/598,728
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114843A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,548 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-207, 370/352
• 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

A method, system, and computer program product for scanning incoming emails reduces the server resources needed, which improves server throughput and reduces costs. A method for processing incoming email messages comprised the steps of scanning incoming email messages to obtain an address of a sender of each incoming email message and to determine whether the email message is spam, for each email message that is determined to be spam, incrementing a count of email messages that are spam for a sender of the email message, determining that a count of email messages that are spam for a sender of an email message has exceeded a threshold, and thereafter, discarding all incoming email messages from the sender for which the count of email messages that are spam for a sender of an email message has exceeded a threshold without scanning the email messages to determine whether they are spam.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

scanning incoming email messages with scanning software to obtain an email address of each incoming email message;

incrementing a particular count of email messages that are spam for a sender of an email message in a database;

determining that a first count of email messages that are spam for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a first predefined time period;

determining that a second count of email messages that are clean for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a second predefined time period; and

placing a particular email address of the sender in a clean list such that the scanning software is subsequently prevented from scanning additional messages from the sender, wherein the particular count is incremented in a row of the database that matches an email address of the sender, and wherein the database includes an email address column, a count of spam email messages column, and a count of clean email messages column.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining the first count of email messages are spam for the sender, placing the particular email address of the sender in a spam list.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

discarding additional email messages from the sender based on the spam list.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein email addresses are added to the spam list at an end of the period of time.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending additional incoming email message from the sender to a recipient inbox if the particular email address of the sender is found in the clean list.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein email addresses are added to the clean list at an end of the period of time.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first count of email addresses that are spam and the second count of email messages that are clean for the sender are reset a predefined time period after a last reset of the first count of email addresses that are spam and the second count of email messages that are clean.

10. A system for processing incoming email messages comprising:

a processor operable to execute computer program instructions;

a memory operable to store computer program instructions executable by the processor; and

computer program instructions stored in the memory and executable to perform;

scanning incoming email messages with scanning software to obtain an email address of each incoming email message;

incrementing a particular count of email messages that are spam for a sender of an email message in a database;

determining that a first count of email messages that are spam for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a first predefined time period;

determining that a second count of email messages that are clean for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a second predefined time period; and

placing a particular email address of the sender in a clean list such that the scanning software is subsequently prevented from scanning additional messages from the sender, wherein the particular count is incremented in a row of the database that matches an email address of the sender, and wherein the database includes an email address column, a count of spam email messages column, and a count of clean email messages column.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

in response to determining the first count of email messages are spam for the sender, placing the particular email address of the sender in a spam list.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

discarding additional email messages from the sender based on the seam list.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein email addresses are added to the spam list at an end of the period of time.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

sending additional incoming email message from the sender to a recipient inbox if the particular email address of the sender is found in the clean list.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein email addresses are added to the clean list at an end of the period of time.

18. A tangible computer program product for processing incoming email messages comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium;

computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable storage medium, executable by a processor, for performing;

scanning incoming email messages with scanning software to obtain an email address of each incoming email message;

incrementing a particular count of email messages that are spam for a sender of an email message in a database;

determining that a first count of email messages that are spam for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a first predefined time period;

determining that a second count of email messages that are clean for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a second predefined time period; and

placing a particular email address of the sender in a clean list such that the scanning software is subsequently prevented from scanning additional messages from the sender, wherein the particular count is incremented in a row of the database that matches an email address of the sender, and wherein the database includes an email address column, a count of spam email messages column, and a count of clean email messages column.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:

in response to determining the first count of email messages are spam for the sender, placing the particular email address of the sender in a spam list.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising:

discarding additional email messages from the sender based on the spam list.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein email addresses are added to the spam list at an end of the period of time.

23. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:

sending additional incoming email message from the sender to a recipient inbox if the particular email address of the sender is found in the clean list.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein email addresses are added to the clean list at an end of the period of time.