Patent ID: 9544256
Date: 2017-01-10
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
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.