Method and software product for identifying unsolicited emails
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for filtering email messages having an intended recipient email address identifying a user'"'"'s mailbox, the method including, the steps of:
- receiving an email message on a computer sent to or from an electronic mail application;
identifying a pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the intended recipient email address;
generating an email message validation pattern based on the identified pattern;
comparing the email message validation pattern to a stored email message validation pattern;
providing filtering instruction to the electronic mail application for the email message based on the comparison;
wherein the received email message comprises a reply to a prior email message sent from a sender'"'"'s email address that is the intended recipient email address of the received email message, the method further including the additional steps of (a) applying case alterations to letters used to form the sender'"'"'s email address of the prior email message producing a pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the sender'"'"'s email address, (b) generating the email message validation pattern based on the pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters symbols used to form the sender'"'"'s email address, and (c) storing the email message validation pattern for subsequent reference during said comparing step; and
wherein the sender'"'"'s email address comprises a local portion and a domain portion and wherein the email message validation pattern stored in step (c) comprises the pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the local portion of the sender'"'"'s email address produced during step (a).
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and software product for detecting unsolicited emails, e.g. spam, involves altering the case of at least some symbols comprising an email user'"'"'s email address according to a predetermined criteria prior to transmitting an email message. The altered case sequence of the email user'"'"'s address is stored in a database. Subsequently, as email'"'"'s are received in the email user'"'"'s mailbox their intended recipient addresses are processed to determine if they include symbols whose case sequence, i.e. uppercase and lowercase, matches one of the sequences that was previously stored. If no match is found then the incoming email is treated as potentially constituting spam and is handled as such. Embodiments of the invention take advantage of a property of most Internet post office email servers being that they are generally case insensitive in respect of the symbols that make up an email address.
33 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method for filtering email messages having an intended recipient email address identifying a user'"'"'s mailbox, the method including, the steps of:
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receiving an email message on a computer sent to or from an electronic mail application; identifying a pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the intended recipient email address; generating an email message validation pattern based on the identified pattern; comparing the email message validation pattern to a stored email message validation pattern; providing filtering instruction to the electronic mail application for the email message based on the comparison; wherein the received email message comprises a reply to a prior email message sent from a sender'"'"'s email address that is the intended recipient email address of the received email message, the method further including the additional steps of (a) applying case alterations to letters used to form the sender'"'"'s email address of the prior email message producing a pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the sender'"'"'s email address, (b) generating the email message validation pattern based on the pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters symbols used to form the sender'"'"'s email address, and (c) storing the email message validation pattern for subsequent reference during said comparing step; and wherein the sender'"'"'s email address comprises a local portion and a domain portion and wherein the email message validation pattern stored in step (c) comprises the pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the local portion of the sender'"'"'s email address produced during step (a). - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A computer configured to execute instructions embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium of the computer, the instructions being executable by the computer to perform a series of steps, including
receiving an email message sent to or from an electronic mail application; -
identifying a pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form an intended recipient email address; generating an email message validation pattern based on the identified pattern; comparing the email message validation pattern to a stored validation pattern; providing filtering instruction for the email message based on the comparison; applying a computer-implemented anti-Spam filter to the email message; wherein the received email message comprises a reply to a prior email message sent from a sender'"'"'s email address that is the intended recipient email address of the received email message, the method further including the additional steps of (a) applying case alterations to letters used to form the sender'"'"'s email address of the prior email message producing a pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the sender'"'"'s email address, (b) generating the email message validation pattern based on the pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters symbols used to form the sender'"'"'s email address, and (c) storing the email message validation pattern for subsequent reference during said comparing step; and wherein the sender'"'"'s email address comprises a local portion and a domain portion and wherein the email message validation pattern stored in step (c) comprises the pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the local portion of the sender'"'"'s email address produced during step (a). - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A computer-implemented method for filtering email messages having an intended recipient address identifying a user'"'"'s mailbox, the method including, for each of said messages, the steps of:
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receiving an outgoing email message at a first computer; applying case alterations to letters used to form the intended recipient email address of the outgoing email message producing a pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the recipient email address and generating an email message validation pattern based on the pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the recipient email address; wherein the recipient email address comprises a local portion and a domain portion and wherein the email message validation pattern comprises a pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the local portion of the recipient email address; storing the email message validation pattern in association with the intended recipient email address on the first computer for subsequent reference; receiving a reply incoming email message from a sender'"'"'s email address that is the intended recipient email address; comparing the stored email message validation pattern to an email message validation pattern generated based on a pattern of uppercase and lowercase letters used to form the sender'"'"'s email address in the reply incoming email message; and providing filtering instruction for the email message based on the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification