Patent ID: 7580981

Claim:
A method for determining email spam, comprising: recording a trusted delivery path, comprising: choosing a trusted sender; sending a test message to the trusted sender requesting a return message for recording a delivery path of the return message; receiving an email addressed to a user from the trusted sender; obtaining a delivery path of the email; recording the delivery path associated with the trusted sender as a trusted delivery path in a whitelist of senders associated with the user; receiving an email addressed to the user from a sender on a whitelist of senders associated with the user; obtaining a delivery path of the email; further processing the email by: comparing the delivery path to one or more trusted delivery paths for the sender; if the delivery path matches at least one of the trusted delivery paths, marking the email as a trusted message; and if the delivery path does not match at least one of the trusted delivery paths, marking the email as a potential spam message.