Patent ID: 7406502

Claim:
A method for classifying a message, comprising: receiving a message, the message including a message body; parsing the message body to determine whether the message body includes one or more items of a certain type, wherein the one or more items of a certain type may be used to classify the message; identifying all instances of the items of a certain type for each of the one or more items of a certain type identified during parsing of the message body; reducing each of the all instances of the items of a certain type for each of the one or more items of a certain type to a canonical equivalent that identifies a group of synonymous words, numbers, symbols, or phrases, and wherein the canonical equivalent represents each of the all instances of items of a certain type regardless of individual format of each of the all instances of items of the certain type; determining whether the canonical equivalent of each of the all instances of the items of a certain type for each of the one or more items of a certain type meets a criterion, the criterion corresponding to an acceptable item; classifying the message based on whether the canonical equivalent of each of the all instances of the items of a certain type for each of the one or more items of a certain type are determined to meet the criterion; and processing the message in accordance with the classification of the message.