Patent ID: 6732157
Filing Date: 2004-05-04
Classification: G06Q,H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for filtering unwanted electronic mail messages, comprising:receiving electronic mail messages; filtering the electronic mail messages that are unwanted utilizing: compound filters, paragraph hashing by hashing a plurality of paragraphs and utilizing a database of hashes of paragraphs, wherein the paragraph hashing excludes at least one of a first paragraph and a last paragraph of content of the electronic mail messages wherein a plurality of hashes each has a level associated therewith, and the hashes having a higher level associated therewith are applied to the electronic mail messages prior to the hashes having a lower level associated therewith, and Bayes rules; and categorizing the electronic mail messages that are filtered as being unwanted; wherein the utilization of the Bayes rules includes identifying words of the electronic mail messages; wherein the utilization of the Bayes rules further includes identifying a probability associated with each of the words; wherein the probability associated with each of the words is identified using a Bayes rules database; wherein the electronic mail messages are filtered as being unwanted based on a comparison involving the probability and a Bayes rules threshold; wherein the threshold is user-defined.