Patent ID: 7751836

Claim:
A method for screening short message service (SMS) messages, the method comprising: (a) receiving, at a network element separate from an electronic mail (e-mail)-based spam filter, an SMS message that includes a short message payload; (b) creating, at the network element, an e-mail message that includes at least a portion of the SMS message; and (c) transmitting the e-mail message to the e-mail-based spam filter, wherein the e-mail-based spam filter determines whether the at least a portion of the SMS message contained in the e-mail message includes spam content, and wherein the method further comprises, in response to the determination by the e-mail-based spam filter that the at least a portion of the SMS message contained in the e-mail message does not include spam content, notifying the network element and routing the SMS message from the network element to its destination.