Patent ID: 7239866

Claim:
In a telecommunications network interfacing with another telecommunications network, a method for identifying and blocking spam messages originated in the other network and destined for a terminal served by the telecommunications network, comprising the steps of: receiving a send routing information (SRI) message in said telecommunications network; responsive to receipt of said SRI message, deriving an SRI spam status code of said SRI message in said telecommunications network; returning said SRI spam status code and a correlation identifier to said another network in an SRI acknowledge message; storing said SRI spam status code; said another network returning a mobile termination (MT) message comprising said correlation identifier to said telecommunications network; in said telecommunications network, using said correlation identifier to find said SRI spam status code; and blocking transmission of messages for said MT message if said SRI spam status code indicates a spam message; wherein the step of blocking transmission comprises the step of substituting an address of a Short Message Service Center (SMSC) for an address of said destination terminal so that subsequent of the message are intercepted at the SMSC.