Patent ID: 8918870

Claim:
A method for identifying content in electronic messages, the method comprising: receiving an electronic message over a communication network; and executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor: determines one or more image-based content types of one or more images contained within the electronic message; associates each of the one or more image-based content types with one or more metadata extraction routines; extracts metadata from each of the one or more images using the one or more metadata extraction routines; generates a numerical signature based on the extracted metadata from each of the one or more images, the numerical signature comprising a plurality of numerical values, each numerical value characterizing a different aspect of the one or more images; generates one or more thumbprints using the numerical signature; compares the one or more thumbprints to a plurality of thumbprints stored in a thumbprint database, the plurality of thumbprints associated with one or more other electronic messages that have previously been classified as spam; classifies the electronic message as spam when at least one of the one or more thumbprints matches one of the plurality of thumbprints in the thumbprint database; and identifies a spam outbreak based on a number of matches identified between the thumbprints of the classified message and thumbprints of the one or more other electronic messages previously classified as spam.