Patent Application
20060135168
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for blocking unsolicited, unwanted (spam) messages.
With the advent of the Internet, it has become easy to send messages to a large number of destinations at little or no cost to the sender. These messages include unsolicited and unwanted messages (spam) which are a nuisance to the receiver of the message who has to clear the message and determine whether it is of any importance. Further, it is a nuisance to the carrier of the telecommunications network used for transmitting the message, not only because it presents a customer relations problem with respect to irate customers who are flooded with spam, but also because these messages, for which there is usually little or no revenue, use network resources. An illustration of the seriousness of this problem is given by the following two statistics. In China in 2003, two trillion short message service (SMS) messages were sent over the Chinese telecommunications network; of these messages, an estimated three quarters were spam messages. The second statistics is that in the United States an estimated 85-90% of e-mail messages are spam.
A number of arrangements have been proposed and many implemented for cutting down on the number of delivered spam messages. Various arrangements have been proposed for analyzing messages prior to delivering them. According to one arrangement, if the calling party is not one of a pre-selected group specified by the called party, the message is blocked. Spam messages can also be intercepted by permitting a called party to specify that no messages destined for more than N destinations are to be delivered.
A called party can refuse to publicize his/her telephone number or e-mail address. In addition to the obvious disadvantages of not allowing callers to look up the telephone number or e-mail address of the called party, such arrangements are likely to be ineffective. An unlisted e-mail address could be detected by a sophisticated hacker who intercepts e-mail message headers without opening the message. An unlisted called number simply invites the caller to send messages to all 10,000 telephone numbers of an office code; as mentioned above, this is very easy with present arrangements for sending messages to a plurality of destinations.
A problem of the prior art is that the methods of intercepting spam messages are inefficient and/or use excessive amounts of network resources.
The above problem is substantially alleviated in accordance with the principles of Applicants' invention wherein a called party is assigned a security code; the called party notifies callers from which it is willing to receive messages of this security code, callers attempting to reach that called party supply the security code as well as the identification (e.g., e-mail address or telephone number) of the called party. Advantageously, only messages from callers who know the called party's security code are transmitted to that called party.
In accordance with one feature of Applicants' invention, certain parties (e.g., the government or a law enforcement agency) are allowed to transmit messages to the called party without supplying the security code. Advantageously, this arrangement allows legitimate transmitters of messages to transmit their messages to the called party without knowing the security code of that called party.
In accordance with one feature of Applicants' invention, the security code is identified by a delimiter and is transmitted either before or after the identification of the called party.
In accordance with another feature of Applicants' invention, the security code preceded by an identifiable delimiter such as a combination of an asterisk (*) and pound (#) sign can be inserted within the text of a message. This security code can then be identified in order to allow it to be checked against the security code assigned to the called party. Advantageously, this avoids placing the security code in the called address field of the message header.
In one preferred embodiment, a database is attached through a server to the telecommunications network serving the called party. In the database are stored the identification of the called parties having a class of service for blocking unwanted calls in accordance with the principles of this invention, and for each such called party, the security code for that party is stored. Advantageously, such a database can be accessed through the signaling arrangements of the network without requiring that a circuit connection to that database be established.
The preferred embodiment for this invention is for short message service (SMS); however, the same arrangement and principles can be applied to e-mail, to paging systems (the paging server acting as a network blocks transmission of the paging message if the appropriate security code is not provided), calls from and/or to landline telephones, calls from/to or between mobile stations, and calls from/to or between IP terminals.
In addition, this type of arrangement can be used as a substitute for unlisted telephone numbers by requiring that callers to such numbers, which can now be listed, must identify themselves as legitimate callers by providing the security code for the equivalent of the unlisted number. Advantageously, using this arrangement, called parties may block calls from harassing callers by requiring that all callers provide the security code. If the security code should be lost or revealed, the user of the called terminal can arrange to change the security code and notify all allowed callers without requiring the intervention of the telephone carrier to change the unlisted number.
The SMSC can also store security codes for e-mail addresses when the SMS message has an IP (email) destination. In case the short message is also an e-mail message, the SMSC can check for the presence of the correct security code and, if that code is present, pass the message via the Internet Network 15 to an e-mail server 17, for subsequent access and delivery to an e-mail user (not shown). The access and delivery to the destination e-mail user is provided as in the prior art.
In this particular embodiment, the mobile terminal directly signals its security code to the SMSC and the associated database. In other embodiments, the contents of the associated database are under the control of the carrier and are accessed via a data terminal of the carrier. The advantage of this latter arrangement is that a greater degree of security can be obtained because of the controlled access to the carrier terminal. The disadvantage is the necessity for involving the carrier in order to set up or change the security code.
The above description is of one preferred embodiment of Applicants' invention. Other embodiments will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. The invention is limited only by the attached claims.
