Patent ID: 7222158

Claim:
A method of facilitating electronic communications, the method comprising: filtering, at a communications service provider associated with a recipient, messages sent to the recipient from a sender by applying message filtering rules associated with the recipient, the message filtering rules being configured to block at least one future message from the sender; receiving, at the communications service provider, an electronic communication from a third party service provider, the third party service provider being configured to facilitate a transaction of goods or services between the sender and the recipient, and the received electronic communication being configured to be used by the communications service provider to enable the recipient to receive the at least one future message from the sender at a future time for a limited amount of time, the at least one future message being associated with the transaction for goods or services between the sender and the recipient; in response to receipt of the electronic communication from the third party service provider, modifying the message filtering rules associated with the recipient to enable the recipient to receive the at least one future message from the sender during the limited amount of time; enabling receipt by the recipient of messages, including the at least one future message, until the limited amount of time has lapsed; and after the limited amount of time has lapsed, changing the message filtering rules associated with the recipient to again filter messages from the sender as if the electronic communication from the third party service provider had not been received by the communications service provider.