Method and system for handling unwanted email messages
View Patent ↗A method, system, and computer program product for scanning incoming emails reduces the server resources needed, which improves server throughput and reduces costs. A method for processing incoming email messages comprised the steps of scanning incoming email messages to obtain an address of a sender of each incoming email message and to determine whether the email message is spam, for each email message that is determined to be spam, incrementing a count of email messages that are spam for a sender of the email message, determining that a count of email messages that are spam for a sender of an email message has exceeded a threshold, and thereafter, discarding all incoming email messages from the sender for which the count of email messages that are spam for a sender of an email message has exceeded a threshold without scanning the email messages to determine whether they are spam.
1. A method, comprising:
scanning incoming email messages with scanning software to obtain an email address of each incoming email message;
incrementing a particular count of email messages that are spam for a sender of an email message in a database;
determining that a first count of email messages that are spam for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a first predefined time period;
determining that a second count of email messages that are clean for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a second predefined time period; and
placing a particular email address of the sender in a clean list such that the scanning software is subsequently prevented from scanning additional messages from the sender, wherein the particular count is incremented in a row of the database that matches an email address of the sender, and wherein the database includes an email address column, a count of spam email messages column, and a count of clean email messages column.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to determining the first count of email messages are spam for the sender, placing the particular email address of the sender in a spam list.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
discarding additional email messages from the sender based on the spam list.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein email addresses are added to the spam list at an end of the period of time.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending additional incoming email message from the sender to a recipient inbox if the particular email address of the sender is found in the clean list.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein email addresses are added to the clean list at an end of the period of time.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first count of email addresses that are spam and the second count of email messages that are clean for the sender are reset a predefined time period after a last reset of the first count of email addresses that are spam and the second count of email messages that are clean.
10. A system for processing incoming email messages comprising:
a processor operable to execute computer program instructions;
a memory operable to store computer program instructions executable by the processor; and
computer program instructions stored in the memory and executable to perform:
scanning incoming email messages with scanning software to obtain an email address of each incoming email message;
incrementing a particular count of email messages that are spam for a sender of an email message in a database;
determining that a first count of email messages that are spam for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a first predefined time period;
determining that a second count of email messages that are clean for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a second predefined time period; and
placing a particular email address of the sender in a clean list such that the scanning software is subsequently prevented from scanning additional messages from the sender, wherein the particular count is incremented in a row of the database that matches an email address of the sender, and wherein the database includes an email address column, a count of spam email messages column, and a count of clean email messages column.
11. The system of claim 10 , further comprising:
in response to determining the first count of email messages are spam for the sender, placing the particular email address of the sender in a spam list.
12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising:
discarding additional email messages from the sender based on the seam list.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein email addresses are added to the spam list at an end of the period of time.
15. The system of claim 10 , further comprising:
sending additional incoming email message from the sender to a recipient inbox if the particular email address of the sender is found in the clean list.
16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein email addresses are added to the clean list at an end of the period of time.
18. A tangible computer program product for processing incoming email messages comprising:
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium;
computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable storage medium, executable by a processor, for performing:
scanning incoming email messages with scanning software to obtain an email address of each incoming email message;
incrementing a particular count of email messages that are spam for a sender of an email message in a database;
determining that a first count of email messages that are spam for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a first predefined time period;
determining that a second count of email messages that are clean for the sender has exceeded a threshold over a second predefined time period; and
placing a particular email address of the sender in a clean list such that the scanning software is subsequently prevented from scanning additional messages from the sender, wherein the particular count is incremented in a row of the database that matches an email address of the sender, and wherein the database includes an email address column, a count of spam email messages column, and a count of clean email messages column.
19. The computer program product of claim 18 , further comprising:
in response to determining the first count of email messages are spam for the sender, placing the particular email address of the sender in a spam list.
20. The computer program product of claim 19 , further comprising:
discarding additional email messages from the sender based on the spam list.
21. The computer program product of claim 20 , wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.
22. The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein email addresses are added to the spam list at an end of the period of time.
23. The computer program product of claim 18 , further comprising:
sending additional incoming email message from the sender to a recipient inbox if the particular email address of the sender is found in the clean list.
24. The computer program product of claim 23 , wherein the incrementing step is performed for a period of time.
25. The computer program product of claim 24 , wherein email addresses are added to the clean list at an end of the period of time.