Patent ID: 7949759

Claim:
A method for handling a communication from a sender to an intended recipient, the method comprising: receiving a communication from a sender, wherein the communication is directed to an intended recipient; identifying the sender of the communication; identifying the intended recipient of the communication; accessing a contact list of the intended recipient, the contact list of the intended recipient being maintained in association with a different form of communication than the communication from the sender to the intended recipient and including at least a first user identifier associated with the different form of communication; accessing a contact list of the first user identifier, the contact list of the first user identifier including at least a second user identifier; determining, based in part on the accessed first contact list and the accessed second contact list, whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than a threshold number of degrees of separation; and determining whether the communication is a spam communication based at least in part on whether the sender and the intended recipient are linked by less than the threshold number of degrees of separation.