Patent ID: 8073917

Claim:
A method for determining email spam, comprising: determining that an email addressed to a user is from a sender on a whitelist of senders associated with the user; upon determining that the email is from a sender on the whitelist of senders, obtaining a delivery path of the email including a plurality of delivery path nodes; matching the plurality of delivery path nodes of the email with a plurality of delivery path nodes of a trusted delivery path for the sender; upon determining that the plurality of delivery path nodes of the email match the plurality of delivery path nodes of the trusted delivery path for the sender, marking the email as a trusted message; and upon determining that less than all of the delivery path nodes of the email match delivery path nodes of the trusted delivery path for the sender, performing further spam checks comprising determining that the delivery path of the email includes any nodes for a foreign country, and upon determining that the delivery path of the email includes any nodes for a foreign country marking the email as spam.