Patent ID: 7257564

Claim:
A method for blocking delivery of unwanted spam messages, comprising the steps of: recognizing patterns including words and groups of words in a messages; applying a plurality of machine learning techniques including a two-level neural network responsive to the recognized patterns in order to classify the message, the two levels of neural networks include: a primary neural network level that determines if the message is likely a non-spam message or likely a spam message; and a secondary neural network level that includes a pair of neural networks including: a first secondary level neural network that determines if a likely non-spam message from the first neural network level is actually a non-spam message or a bulk message, and a second secondary level neural network, different from said first secondary level neural network, that determines if a likely spam message from the first neural network level is a spam message or a bulk message; for messages classified as bulk, providing user access to at least a listing of message subject field data corresponding to said bulk messages; and for messages classified as spam, blocking delivery of the messages to at least one intended recipient.