Patent ID: 7603425

Claim:
A system for supporting the prevention or deterrence of the utilization of an email sending service to send, to a recipient, an email that the recipient does not wish to receive, the system comprising: an email sending service that, on behalf of a service consumer, utilizes a computer processor that is a functional component of a computing device to send a separate email to each of a plurality of recipients, wherein each of the separate emails contains an identical collection of content selected by themselves consumer for mass distribution to the plurality of recipients, wherein the email sending service adds an item of content to a message body of each of the separate emails, the item of content in each of the separate emails being recipient-specific in that it is selected so as to be customized for the one of the plurality of recipients to which it is sent by the email sending service, wherein the email sending service adds to each separate email an encrypted representation of the service consumer's identity, wherein the encrypted representation is encrypted in that it is an identifier that uniquely identifies the service consumer such that the identifier is not directly indicative of the identity of the service consumer but can be utilized to derive the identity of the service consumer, wherein the recipient's email service provider integrates, into an interface of each of the separate emails, a mark-as-spam component in the form of a control that when activated by the recipient of the email identifies the email as spam, wherein when the email is identified as spam, the email service provider forwards the encrypted representation to the email sending service for identifying the service consumer, thereby enabling prevention of subsequent emails from the identified service consumer to the recipient, and wherein said control is of a nature that makes it such that said activation by the recipient does not require navigation of a hyperlink.