Patent ID: 8611856

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of identifying illegitimate requests for information, comprising: identifying a first telecommunications carrier that delivers an electronic promotional item and associating the first telecommunications carrier with the electronic promotional item; receiving, at a computer system, an electronic request that relates to the electronic promotional item from a submitter of the request; identifying a second telecommunications carrier that carried the request and that corresponds to and is different than the submitter of the request; determining with the computer system whether the first telecommunications carrier is different than the second telecommunications carrier; identifying the request as illegitimate based on a determination that the first telecommunications carrier is different than the second telecommunications carrier; and in response to identifying the request as illegitimate, storing, with the computer system, data indicating an occurrence of the illegitimate request, wherein the first and second telecommunications carriers are each organizations that operate telecommunications networks and provide telecommunication services to subscribers or relay services that originate on networks operated by other organizations.