Crowdsourcing e-mail filtering

• US 9,544,256 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2013
• Issued: 01/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Charles Schwab & Company Incorporated (Charles Schwab Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TD Ameritrade IP Company Incorporated (Charles Schwab Corporation)
• Inventors: Steinberg, Louis, Hyda, Teresa, Vincent, Jason, Ponticelli, Vincent M., McAuliff, Trent, Kelly, Joseph, Strear, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Pollack, Melvin H
• Application Number:
  US13/931,719
• Publication Number:
  US 20150006647A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,292 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for crowdsourcing e-mail filtering. An embodiment operates by receiving an input from a community member indicating that an e-mail received by the community member is unwanted, counting a number of inputs received from community members indicating that e-mail is unwanted based on one or more criteria, flagging future e-mails based on the criteria when the number of inputs counted reaches a threshold for penalizing an originator or a group associated with the originator of the unwanted e-mail, and denying delivery of future e-mails from the originator or the group associated with the originator until a penalty period expires.

Claims

1. A method for crowdsourcing e-mail filtering, comprising:

receiving, at a crowdsourcer, a data structure from an e-mail client of a community member, the data structure indicating that an e-mail received from an originator or a group associated with the originator by the community member is unwanted, wherein the data structure includes data from the community member and the e-mail;

aggregating indicia included in the data and the e-mail in the data structure with indicia within a plurality of data structures received from e-mail clients of other community members, the plurality of data structures indicating that one or more e-mails received from the originator or the group are unwanted, wherein the aggregated indicia is based on one or more criteria;

flagging the originator or the group as a source of unwanted e-mails responsive to a determination that the aggregated indicia reaches or exceeds a threshold;

reviewing future e-mails, received at the crowdsourcer, to identify whether the received future e-mails are sent by the flagged originator or the group; and

denying delivery of every future e-mail, from the reviewed future e-mails, identified as being sent by the flagged originator or the group to the e-mail client of the community member until a penalty period associated with the flagged originator or the group expires.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying the originator or the group associated with the originator that the received future e-mail has not been delivered to its intended recipient because the originator or the group associated with the originator has exceeded the threshold.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the e-mail is unwanted based on a number of indicia aggregated from data structures received from unique community members.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving further comprises:

displaying a voting input element in a user interface associated with the e-mail client of the community member, the voting input element configured to receive data from the community member indicating that the e-mail received by the community member is unwanted.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregating further comprises:

measuring a number of data structures received over a predetermined period of time from each community member; and

calculating a frequency associated with the unwanted e-mail included in the data structures based on the one or more criteria, wherein the one or more criteria includes a named individual or a domain associated with the unwanted e-mail.

6. The method of claim 1, the flagging further comprising:

redirecting, using an e-mail receiver, a normal flow of e-mail through a filter such that, once flagged, any inbound e-mail from the originator or the group associated with the originator is rejected using a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) rejection protocol.

7. The method of claim 1, the denying further comprising:

specifying that the penalty period expires within a predetermined time period; and

increasing a duration of the penalty period each time the same originator is flagged.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregated indicia includes characteristics included in the e-mail.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

formatting the e-mail and the data into a format amenable to parsing; and

including the formatted e-mail and the data into the data structure.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the flagged future e-mail is received from the originator, the denying comprising:

denying delivery of a future e-mail from other originators sharing a same corporate domain with the originator of the flagged future e-mail.

8. A system, comprising:

a crowdsourcer stored in a memory and operable to execute on at least one processor and configured to;

receive a data structure from an e-mail client of a community member, the data structure indicating that an e-mail received from an originator or a group associated with the originator by the community member is unwanted, wherein the data structure includes data from the community member and the e-mail;

aggregate indicia included in the data and the e-mail in the data structure with indicia within a plurality of data structures received from e-mail clients of other community members, the plurality of data structures indicating that one or more e-mails received from the originator or the group are unwanted, wherein the aggregated indicia is based on one or more criteria;

flag the originator or the group as a source of unwanted e-mails responsive to a determination that the aggregated indicia reaches or exceeds a threshold;

review future e-mails, received at the crowdsourcer, to identify whether the received future e-mails are sent by the flagged originator or the group; and

deny delivery of every future e-mail, from the reviewed future e-mails, identified as being sent by the flagged originator or the group to the e-mail client of the community member until a penalty period associated with the flagged originator or the group expires.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the crowdsourcer is further configured to:

notify the originator or the group associated with the originator that the received future e-mail has not been delivered to its intended recipient because the originator has exceeded the threshold.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the crowdsourcer is further configured to:

determine whether the e-mail is unwanted based on a number of indicia aggregated from data structures received from unique community members.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the e-mail client of the community member is configured to:

display a voting input element in a user interface associated with the e-mail client of the community member, the voting input element configured to receive data from the community member indicating that the e-mail received by the community member is unwanted.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the crowdsourcer is further configured to:

measure a number of data structures received over a predetermined period of time from each community member; and

calculate a frequency associated with the unwanted e-mail included in the data structures based on the one or more criteria, wherein the one or more criteria includes a named individual or a domain associated with the unwanted e-mail.

13. The system of claim 8, further comprising an e-mail-receiver configured to:

redirect a normal flow of e-mail through a filter such that, once flagged, any inbound e-mail from the originator or the group associated with the originator is rejected using a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) rejection protocol.

14. The system of claim 8, further comprising an e-mail-receiver configured to:

specify that the penalty period expires within a predetermined time period; and

increase a duration of the penalty period each time the same originator is flagged.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one computing device, causes the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at a crowdsourcer, a data structure from an e-mail client of a community member, the data structure indicating that an e-mail received from an originator or a group associated with the originator by the community member is unwanted, wherein the data structure includes data from the community member and the e-mail;

aggregating indicia included in the data and the email in the data structure with indicia within a plurality of data structures received from e-mail clients of other community members, the plurality of data structures indicating that one or more e-mails received from the originator or the group are unwanted, wherein the aggregated indicia is based on one or more criteria;

flagging the originator or the group as a source of unwanted e-mails responsive to a determination that the aggregated indicia reaches or exceeds a threshold;

reviewing future e-mails, received at the crowdsourcer, to identify whether the received future e-mails are sent by the flagged originator or the group; and

denying delivery of every future e-mail, from the reviewed future e-mails, identified as being sent by the flagged originator or the group to the e-mail client of the community member until a penalty period associated with the flagged originator or the group expires.

16. The computer-readable device of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

notifying the originator or the group associated with the originator that the received future e-mail has not been delivered to its intended recipient because the originator or the group associated with the originator has exceeded the threshold.

17. The computer-readable device of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

determining whether the e-mail is unwanted based on a number of indicia aggregated from data structures received from unique community members.

18. The computer-readable device of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

displaying a voting input element in a user interface associated with the e-mail client of the community member, the voting input element configured to receive data from the community member indicating that the e-mail received by the community member is unwanted.

19. The computer-readable device of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

measuring a number of data structures received over a predetermined period of time from each community member; and

calculating a frequency associated with the unwanted e-mail included in the data structures based on the one or more criteria, wherein the one or more criteria includes a named individual or a domain associated with the unwanted e-mail.

20. The computer-readable device of claim 15, the operation of flagging further comprising:

redirecting a normal flow of e-mail through a filter such that, once flagged, any inbound e-mail from the originator or the group associated with the originator is rejected using a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) rejection protocol.