Patent ID: 7912905

Claim:
A method for filtering network messages in a computer system including a server and at least one email client, the method comprising the steps of: generating one or more lists of unacceptable identities within a database accessible by a server, wherein each of the one or more lists is user-specific to a particular user of the at least one email client; polling the at least one email client with the server to automatically obtain one or more updated lists of unacceptable identities, the updated lists stored at the at least one email client; merging the one or more updated lists into the one or more lists of unacceptable identities stored within the database; determining an identity associated with a network message received by the server; determining an intended recipient of the network message; selecting a user-specific list of unacceptable identities that corresponds to the intended recipient; comparing, at the server, the identity with the user-specific list of unacceptable identities; and deleting the network message from the server if the identity matches an identity on the user-specific list of unacceptable identities.