Patent ID: 7917655

Claim:
A computing system implemented process for identifying scam e-mails using phone number analysis comprising: defining one or more potential scam e-mail identification rules; storing data representing the one or more potential scam e-mail identification rules in a data storage device; defining one or more phone number detection parameters; storing data representing the one or more phone number detection parameters in a data storage device; using one or more processors associated with at least one computing system to scan e-mails directed to a given computing system using the one or more phone number detection parameters to identify any potential phone numbers in the e-mails directed to the given computing system; identifying one or more potential phone numbers in at least one of the e-mails directed to the given computing system; using the one or more processors associated with at least one computing system to normalize the identified one or more potential phone numbers in at least one of the e-mails directed to the given computing system; using the one or more processors associated with at least one computing system to analyze the normalized one or more potential phone numbers in at least one of the e-mails directed to the given computing system using the data representing the one or more potential scam e-mail identification rules to identify potential scam phone numbers of the one or more potential phone numbers in at least one of the e-mails directed to the given computing system; and applying the one or more potential scam e-mail identification rules to the at least one of the e-mails directed to the given computing system that includes the identified potential scam phone numbers to transform a status of the at least one of the e-mails directed to the given computing system that includes the identified potential scam phone numbers to the status of potential scam e-mail.