Patent ID: 8135780

Claim:
A computer implemented method for assisting email users, comprising: receiving a plurality of email messages, each message addressed to at least one email user and identifying a sender identity; recording a plurality of characteristics associated with each email sent from a sender identity; determining whether characteristics of new emails purported to be received from the sender identity match characteristics of a plurality of previously received emails from the sender identity, the determining performed after a user views an email in the interface, and a known good pattern is established when at least a plurality emails from the sender identity share the same plurality of characteristics when the user reads the email; presenting at least a portion of a received new email message to the user in a user interface, the user interface including a set of user actions which may be performed by the user via the user interface; and if the characteristics in the received new email message do not match the characteristics recorded for the plurality of previously received emails from the sender identity, transforming the user interface to include an indication along with at least a portion of the message field of the email, associated with the received new email message, to the at least one email user, that the received new email message purported to be from the sender identity is not likely to be from the sender identity and enabling further actions on the received new email message in the user interface, the indication comprising a warning which includes a first greater severity when a pattern of matching a stronger characteristic is not matched and a lesser severity when a pattern of matching a weaker characteristic is not matched, and if the characteristics in the received new email message match the characteristics recorded, not transforming the user interface.