Automatic mail rejection feature

• US 7,707,252 B1
• Filed: 10/16/2000
• Issued: 04/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Harris Technology LLC
• Original Assignee: Harris Technology LLC
• Inventors: Harris, Scott C.
• Primary Examiner(s): DENNISON, JERRY B
• Application Number:
  US09/690,002
• Time in Patent Office: 3,480 Days
• Field of Search: 709206-208, 709/752, 345/752, 715/752
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A spam defining system defines rules about emails depending on user'"'"'s reactions to emails. A user can delete an email as spam, or not spam, or without committing to whether the email is spam or not. If the user indicates whether the email is spam or not spam; characteristics of the email are used to update a database. Incoming emails are compared against the database, to determine a likelihood of whether they are spam.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an electronic mail message in a computer;

using the computer for displaying information about the electronic mail message;

using the computer for displaying all of first, second and third controls, where said first control causes the computer to delete the message without indicating whether the message does represent a spam message or does not represent a spam message, the second control causes the computer to delete the message while indicating that it does represent a spam message, and the third control causes the computer to delete the message while indicating that the message does not represent a spam message; and

using the computer for storing a database of scam likelihood, and wherein said deleting using said second and third controls causes changes to information in the database of spam likelihood, and said deleting using said first control does not cause changes to information in said database of spam likelihood.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein said deleting using said second and third controls changes at least one rule in a rules database, and said deleting using said first control does not cause changes of said rules in said rules database.

3. A method as in claim 2 wherein said rules include information about fields from said electronic mail message.

4. A method as in claim 3 wherein said fields from said electronic mail message which are used to change said rules include at least a sender of the e-mail message, text of the e-mail message, and a subject of the e-mail message, and wherein each of said fields are used as parts of rules in said rules database.

5. A method as in claim 4 wherein said fields from said electronic mail message which are used to change said rules also include a domain of a sender of the e-mail message.

6. A method as in claim 2, wherein said fields from said electronic mail message which are used to change said rules include links within the e-mail message, where certain links in an email message represent that the electronic mail message is more likely to represent spam.

7. A method as in claim 2, further comprising using the computer to automatically classify an incoming message as a spam message, or not as a spam message, based on said rules in said database as changed by said first and second controls.

8. A method as in claim 7, further comprising displaying the messages along with an indication of whether they have been classified to represent spam or not to represent spam.

9. A method as in claim 7, further comprising displaying messages that have not been classified to represent spam in a first view, and displaying messages that do represent spam in a second view.

10. A product as in claim 7, further comprising displaying messages that have not been classified to represent spam in a first view, and displaying messages that do represent spam in a second view that is wholly separate from the first view.

11. A method as in claim 2, wherein one of said fields from said electronic mail message includes a domain of the sender, said domain being used to change said rules in said database.

12. A method as in claim 11, wherein the first rule is changed to represent a higher probability of spam when all senders from a specific domain represent spam, and to represent a lower probability of spam when some senders from said domain represent spam and other senders from said domain do not represent spam.

13. A method as in claim 2, wherein said changes to said rules in said database uses multiple different techniques to analyze the message and to determine that the message likely represents a spam message.

14. A method as in claim 1, further comprising using the computer for displaying said spam likelihood as a numerical percentage indicating a likelihood that the message represents spam.

15. A method as in claim 1, further comprising displaying a message in a color, where the color represents a likelihood that the message represents spam.

16. A computer product, comprising a processor and memory storing executable instructions that when executed, implement an email program, said executable instructions comprising:

an email receiving part that receives emails;

a display output which produces an output which displays a plurality of said e-mails and also displays and accepts input from a plurality of controls including both of;

a first control which selects deleting an e-mail while indicating that said e-mail is spam and reports information indicative of said email to a spam determining database, and

a second control which selects deleting an e-mail while indicating that said e-mail is not spam and reports information indicative of said email to said spam determining database;

a database update part that adds information indicative of said information reported by said first control and said second control to said spam determining database; and

a spam determining part that analyzes said emails received by said email receiving part based on information in said database as updated by said database update part.

17. A program as in claim 16, wherein said display output displays a likelihood of spam coefficient which indicates a numerical percentage likelihood that the associated message represents spam.

18. A program as in claim 16, wherein said display output further displays a third control which selects deleting an e-mail without indicating or not indicating whether said e-mail represents spam.

19. A product as in claim 16, further comprising a display part which displays the messages analyzed by said spam determining part along with an indication of whether they have been classified to represent spam or not to represent spam.

20. A product as in claim 16, wherein said database update part uses a domain of the sender to change said rules in said database.

21. A product as in claim 20, wherein the first rule is changed to represent a higher probability of spam when all senders from a specific domain represent spam, and to represent a lower probability of spam when some senders from said domain represent spam and other senders from said domain do not represent spam.

22. An apparatus, comprising:

a computer which receives an electronic mail message over an electronic channel;

said computer automatically comparing said electronic mail message with information indicative of undesired electronic mail messages; and

said computer producing a user interface that displays information about said electronic mail message, and which user interface allows a selection to all of;

A) delete the message without indicating whether or not the message represents spam,

B) delete the message while indicating that the message does indicate spam, and using information from a first message deleted as spam to change said information indicative of undesired electronic mail messages; and

C) delete the message while indicating that the message does not indicate spam, and using information from a second message deleted as spam to change said information indicative of desired electronic mail messages;

said computer comprising a database of information indicating likelihood of spam, and wherein said delete while indicating that the message does indicate spam changes information in said database and said delete while indicating that the message does not indicate scam changes information in said database.

23. An apparatus as in claim 22, further comprising displaying a message in a color, where the color represents a likelihood that the message represents spam.

24. A method as in claim 22, wherein said computer automatically classifies an incoming message as being a spam message, or not being a spam message, based on said information indicative of undesired electronic mail messages as updated by said first and second messages.

25. A method as in claim 24, wherein said computer produces an output that displays the messages along with an indication of whether they have been classified to represent spam or not to represent spam.

26. A method as in claim 24, wherein said computer produces an output that displays the messages that have not been classified to represent spam in a first view, and displaying messages that do represent spam in a second view that is separate from said first view.

27. A method as in claim 24, wherein said information from said first and second messages includes a domain of the sender, said domain being used to change said information indicative of undesired electronic mail messages.

28. A method as in claim 27, wherein the first rule is changed to represent a higher probability of spam when all senders from a specific domain represent spam, and to represent a lower probability of spam when some senders from said domain represent spam and other senders from said domain do not represent spam.

29. A method as in claim 24, wherein said changes to said rules in said database uses multiple different techniques to analyze the message and to determine that the message likely represents a spam message.