Patent ID: 8392357
Filing Date: 2013-03-05
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of determining whether an e-mail message is spam, said method comprising: receiving at a computer an e-mail message from a sender having a sender e-mail address that is addressed to a recipient at a recipient e-mail address; determining that said sender is a legitimate sender; sending said sender e-mail address and said recipient e-mail address over a telecommunications network to a trust network service that maintains a trust network database, said trust network database including a plurality of user identifiers and trust links, each trust link indicating that an e-mail message has been sent between pairs of users identified by said user identifiers; accessing said trust network database by said service to identify a first user identifier that matches said sender e-mail address and a second user identifier that matches said recipient e-mail address; determining that a trust link exists between said first user identifier and said second user identifier; updating said trust network database to reflect that said trust link is a strong trust link; determining a spam indicator based upon the existence of said trust link between said first user identifier and said second user identifier; sending said spam indicator back over said telecommunications network to said computer; and determining whether or not to deliver said e-mail message to said recipient as a valid e-mail message based upon said spam indicator.