Managing self-addressed electronic messages

• US 7,627,635 B1
• Filed: 07/28/2004
• Issued: 12/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Goldman, legal representative, Heiner, Jeffrey N., Goldman, Phillip York, Logue, Jay
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr.; William C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anwari; Maceeh
• Application Number:
  US10/900,657
• Time in Patent Office: 1,952 Days
• Field of Search: 709206-207
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

A system may include an electronic messaging system that may access user identifier information, which may be used to identify self-addressed electronic messages. The electronic messaging system may determine how to process an incoming electronic message using at least a portion of the user identifier information. The electronic messaging system determines whether to send a challenge-response message to a sender of an electronic message using at least a portion of the user identifier information. The electronic messaging system may be configured to identify self-addressed electronic messages and, in response to such identification, process the messages appropriately.

Claims

1. In an electronic message system in which challenge messages can be sent to purported senders of electronic messages to determine whether the purported senders appear to be persons rather than machines, the electronic message system implementing a computing device comprising a computer-readable memory including computer-executable instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processor on the computing device, causes the computing device to perform a method for delivering a self-addressed electronic message without issuing a challenge message, comprising:

storing two or more user identifier data structures associated with a particular recipient, each data structure containing;

a user identifier field to identify a particular system user,

an electronic messaging identifier field to identify a mechanism for electronically contacting the particular system user, and

an electronic messaging account type field to identify whether the electronic messaging identifier field is associated with an external account from which the electronic message system can retrieve messages or whether electronic messaging identifier field is associated with a forwarding account from which electronic messages are automatically forwarded to the electronic message system;

receiving an electronic message with a sender address and a recipient address;

accessing the two or more user identifier data structures to determine that the sender address and the recipient address are contained in the two or more user identifier data structures to conclude that the sender address and the recipient address are both associated with the recipient; and

determining whether to accept delivery of the electronic message based on the relationship between the sender address and the recipient address, wherein

when the sender address and the recipient address are different and the electronic messaging account type field for a particular user identifier data structure associated with the sender address indicates at least one of an external account or a forwarding account, the electronic message is delivered to the recipient address; and

when the sender address and the recipient address are identical, the electronic message is subjected to an additional filtering process and delivery of the electronic message is performed, only if the additional filtering process is successfully completed.

2. A method for managing the delivery of an electronic message, the method comprising:

storing two or more user identifier data structures associated with a particular recipient, each data structure containing;

a user identifier field to identify a particular system user,

an electronic messaging identifier field to identify a mechanism for electronically contacting the particular system user, and

an electronic messaging account type field to identify whether the electronic messaging identifier field is associated with an external account from which the electronic message system can retrieve messages or whether electronic messaging identifier field is associated with a forwarding account from which electronic messages are automatically forwarded to the electronic message system;

at an electronic messaging system, receiving an electronic message;

receiving a sender identifier associated with the electronic message;

receiving a recipient identifier associated with the electronic message; and

determining whether to issue a challenge-response process comprising accessing at least one user identifier data structure to determine that the sender identifier and the recipient identifier indicate that the electronic message is a self-addressed electronic message and determining that any of the following exists;

when the recipient identifier is a primary recipient identifier and the sender identifier is associated with an electronic messaging account type field indicating an external account from which electronic messages may be retrieved by the electronic messaging system, then sending the electronic message to an inbox associated with the recipient identifier without issuing a challenge-response process;

when the recipient identifier is a primary recipient identifier and the sender identifier is associated with an electronic messaging account type field indicating a forwarding account from which electronic messages may be automatically sent to the electronic messaging system, then sending the electronic message to an inbox associated with the recipient identifier without issuing a challenge-response process;

when the recipient identifier is a secondary recipient identifier and the sender identifier is associated with an electronic messaging account type field indicating an external account from which electronic messages may be retrieved by the electronic messaging system, then sending the electronic message to an inbox associated with the recipient identifier without issuing a challenge-response process;

when the recipient identifier is a secondary recipient identifier and the sender identifier is associated with an electronic messaging account type field indicating a forwarding account from which electronic messages may be automatically sent to the electronic messaging system, then sending the electronic message to an inbox associated with the recipient identifier without issuing a challenge-response process;

when the recipient identifier is associated with an electronic messaging account type field indicating an external account from which electronic messages may be retrieved by the electronic messaging system, and the sender identifier is at least one of

     1) a primary recipient identifier,

     2) a secondary recipient identifier,

     3) a derived recipient identifier,

     4) associated with an external account from which electronic messages may be retrieved by the electronic messaging system, or

     5) associated with a forwarding account from which electronic messages may be automatically sent to the electronic messaging system, then sending the electronic message to an inbox associated with the recipient identifier without issuing a challenge-response process; and

when the recipient identifier is associated with an electronic messaging account type field indicating a forwarding account from which electronic messages may be automatically sent to the electronic messaging system, and the sender identifier is at least one

     1) a primary recipient identifier,

     2) a secondary recipient identifier,

     3) a derived recipient identifier,

     4) associated with an external account from which electronic messages may be retrieved by the electronic messaging system, or

     5) associated with a forwarding account from which electronic messages may be automatically sent to the electronic messaging system, then sending the electronic message to an inbox associated with the recipient identifier without issuing a challenge-response process.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the sender identifier and the recipient identifier is received within a portion of the electronic message.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the sender identifier and the recipient identifier is received using a electronic message protocol.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether the sender identifier and the recipient identifier indicate that the electronic message is self-addressed comprises:

determining whether the recipient identifier is a derived recipient identifier.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether the sender identifier and the recipient identifier indicate that the electronic message is self-addressed comprises:

determining whether the sender identifier is the same as the recipient identifier.