System and method for email fraud risk assessment
View Patent ↗Email address Fraud Risk Assessment using a system of data element collection and computation. Data elements for each potion of an email address's local and domain portion is acquired from internal and external data sources, captured, evaluated, and then assigned a value. Data acquisition may include use of domain information, databases, Email Service Providers, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, corporate and social media services, and search engine services. Using the assigned values, a Fraud Risk Score is computed and then displayed to a user along with additional information, explanations and recommendations.
1. A method of assessing email address data elements from numerous sources, validating and verifying the existence of email addresses, and calculating and describing fraud risk indicators for email addresses, the method comprises at least one processor or at least one firmware application configured to:
(a) enable a user to input at least one email address into a graphical user interface, select at least one data element to be queried for each email address, and select at least one internal or external source to be searched for each email address;
(b) query the internal data source for email addresses that the user has manually marked as fraudulent or credible, and if nor result is found, query the external data source;
(c) capture the at least one data element for each email address from the at least one data source;
(d) assign a value to each captured data element;
(e) compute a total value of captured data elements for each email address;
(f) illustrate results for each email address through the graphical user interface; and
(g) provide a recommendation to the user based on predefined threshold limits;
wherein selecting an external data source involves cross-referencing the email address via social media networks and services, third-party proprietary database and application programming interface (API), or via publicly accessible services available through a query and response protocol; and
wherein the captured data elements include the following to assess the risk of fraud: Email Validation to verify whether the email address exists, Email Creation Date, Email First Seen Date, Email Last Consultation, Email Owner, Email Owner Date of Birth, Email Owner Gender, Email Owner Location, Email Owner Friends SM, Email Owner Photo, Email Hits, Email Unique Hits, Domain Exist to verify whether a domain exists, Domain Creation Date, and Domain Country.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor or at least one firmware application selects data elements for a domain portion of the at least one email address.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor or at least one firmware application selects data elements for a local portion of the at least one email address.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein an Email Service Provider, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or Search Engine, is used to query an external data source for an email creation date.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein an Email Service Provider, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or Search Engine, is used to query an external data source for an Email First Seen Date; said Email First Seen Date being calculated based on a combination of a first posting date associated with the email address and the creation date of external data repositories, and corporate and social media accounts.