Patent ID: 7016937

Claim:
A method for automatically checking an e-mail message in an e-mail communication for an indicator that a user intends to transmit an e-mail attachment, comprising the steps of: storing a list of trigger terms in a memory; checking text in an e-mail message for the presence of any of the trigger terms; prompting the user to edit the e-mail message to remove a reference to an e-mail attachment upon detecting a trigger term in an e-mail communication without an attachment; storing in the memory, separate from the list of trigger terms, a second list of terms found in at least one e-mail message of an e-mail communication having at least one attachment; storing in the memory, for each of the terms stored in the second list, a second value associated with the number of times that an e-mail message in an e-mail communication having at least one attachment includes the term in the second list; incrementing the second value associated with the term in the second list for each occurrence of an e-mail message in an e-mail communication having at least one attachment that includes the term in the second list; and prompting the user to add the term from the second list to the list of trigger terms when the second value associated with the term exceeds a predetermined threshold.