Recalling spam email or viruses from inboxes
View Patent ↗A method for operating an apparatus to recall email which has already passed through a spam filter to user mailboxes. An apparatus stores a highly efficient database for a brief period of time after an email is received, filtered, and transmitted to an email server. Message id, recipient, connecting IP address and other spam attributes are stored in a searchable format. After receiving updated spam attributes, a spam filter apparatus under software control queries the database for messages that were not detected as spam before transmittal to the email clients and servers, and sends spam recall messages. Improved email clients and servers adapted by software instructions, move or modify email user mailboxes upon receipt of the spam recall.
1. An apparatus for searching a database of received email profiles to identify spam comprising
a spam filter coupled to a wide area network, the wide area network coupled to
a received email profile database, wherein the received email profile database comprises
reading and writing circuits for to read from and write to a non-transitory computer readable media,
the non-transitory computer readable media, and
a circuit to receive a query from a spam filter comprising a connecting Internet Protocol (IP) address spam attribute, and
a circuit to reply to a spam filter with a message id when the connecting Internet Protocol (IP) address spam attribute is found encoded on the computer readable media, wherein the connecting IP address is not a source IP address, not a sender address, and not a mail-from field value;
wherein the spam filter is configured to search said received email profile database to identify spam by
requesting an update of spam attributes from a reference,
retrieving a message id having a match with one of the spam attributes, wherein the matched spam attribute comprises a connecting IP address;
retrieving a recipient of an email having the matched spam attribute, and
recalling the email having the matched spam attribute from the mailbox of the recipient by modifying at least one of a font, text, and icon of the spam email.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the spam filter comprises:
a network interface,
a circuit to request and receive an updated profile of spam attributes from a spam reference,
a circuit to query a received email profile database with spam attributes and receive a message id when the connecting Internet Protocol (IP) address spam attribute is found, and
a circuit to transmit a recall for a message having a certain message id to an email server.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the spam reference apparatus comprises:
a network interface,
a circuit for receiving an update request from a spam filter,
a circuit for transmitting an updated profile of spam attributes, and
a circuit for reading a spam attribute store.
4. A method for operating an improved spam filter apparatus for to recall spam email after transfer to an email server comprising:
building a database of received email profiles;
searching said database of received email profiles to identify spam, wherein searching comprises
requesting an update of spam attributes from a reference,
retrieving any message id having a match with a spam attribute;
retrieving a recipient of an email having a spam attribute, wherein a spam attribute comprises a connecting IP address; and
recalling a spam email having the spam attribute from the mailbox of the recipient by modifying at least one of a font, text, and icon of the spam email;
wherein building a database of received email profiles comprises:
receiving email,
forwarding said email to an email server, and
storing a message id and connecting IP address for each email forwarded to an email server, wherein the connecting IP address is not a source IP address, not a sender address, and not a mail-from field value.
5. The method of claim 4 further comprising
removing oldest records of received email profiles from the database of received email profiles after an update to spam attributes has been received from a reference.
6. An apparatus for building a database of received email profiles comprises
a spam filter coupled to a wide area network, the spam filter further coupled to a received email profile database, wherein the spam filter comprises
a network interface,
a circuit to receive an email,
a circuit to read at least a message id, at least one connecting Internet Protocol (IP) address, and a source IP address, and write into a searchable received email profile database,
a circuit to transmit the email to an email server, and a processor and memory,
wherein the spam filter is configured to search said received email profile database to identify spam by
requesting an update of spam attributes from a reference,
retrieving a message id having a match with one of the spam attributes, wherein the matched spam attribute comprises a connecting IP address;
retrieving a recipient of an email having the matched spam attribute, and
recalling the email having the matched spam attribute from the mailbox of the recipient by modifying at least one of a font, text, and icon of the spam email.
7. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising
a circuit to write spam attributes into a received email profile database wherein the received email profile database comprises
reading and writing circuits for to read from and write to a non-transitory computer readable media,
the computer readable media, and
a circuit to receive a record from a spam filter comprising a message id, a connecting IP address, a recipient, and a time of receipt organized to be efficiently searchable and compact.