JP2003218946A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail system capable of automatically eliminating the need for troublesome address revision notice attended with automatic revision of an address of a mobile phone terminal of a user itself under a prescribed condition in order to prevent spam mail. <P>SOLUTION: The electronic mail system includes: an avoidance means by which a mobile phone terminal 20 detects spam mail addressed to itself and revises its own address under a prescribed condition so as to avoid reception of spam mail; and a means for automatically informing a registered notice destination about the revision address, and a mail server 10 is provided with a warranting means for warranting the uniqueness of the address revised by the mobile phone terminal 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail system, and more particularly to an electronic mail system having means for automatically avoiding unsolicited mail reception.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, when an address of each mobile phone terminal is detected by a spam mail sender, a large amount of spam mail such as unwanted mail or direct mail that is not desired to be received is sent, and sometimes communication charges are received. The person may have to bear the situation. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-92114 is a conventional example of a method for preventing this junk mail. According to this publication, an e-mail transfer device that transfers an e-mail received from an internet router to an e-mail server stores a specific phrase included in the e-mail so that the e-mail in which the phrase is detected is not transferred.
The sender address of the mail is registered as the non-transferred sender. When the sender of the received mail is a non-forwarding target sender, the mail is replaced with a message indicating that the mail cannot be received, or the destination address is replaced with the sender address and the return is performed. There is. According to the invention, the electronic mail transfer device needs a means for checking whether or not there is an inappropriate word / phrase in the mail content, and in order to service many clients, such as registering or updating an unsuitable specific word / phrase, an electronic mail is required. There are problems such as the scale of the transfer device is large and daily management is required.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-244553 describes an invention in which a password registered in advance is collated with a password of a received electronic mail, and if they do not match, the electronic mail is discarded. In the invention, there is a problem that the sender is informed of the password in advance, and there is a risk that preventing the leakage of the password depends on the reliability of the sender. In addition, it is not possible to avoid the hassle of notifying the other party when the password is changed.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-139164 describes an invention in which address change information is transmitted and received to automatically update an address book. This address book can be provided in the computer that constitutes the electronic mail system. However, with the opportunity to change the address by each computer itself and the guarantee that the updated address to be notified is unique,
There is a problem of, as a system to avoid junk mail,
It does not have enough functions.

[0005]

As a method for preventing spam mail, a user may automatically change the address of his or her mobile phone terminal under a predetermined condition. Therefore, the mobile phone terminal itself has a spam mail judging means, a means to change the address, a means to automatically notify the other party of the change, and a unique address where the changed address is not duplicated in the email system. And means for ensuring that there is. The condition for changing the address is that a mail of a sender address which is not expected to be received is received a predetermined number of times or more, or the address is automatically changed after a predetermined time has elapsed. The troublesome notification work load for this change is to be automated by the system and omitted.

A first object of the present invention is to prevent spam mail to a mobile phone terminal, spam mail judging means, means for changing an address under a predetermined condition, and means for notifying the change of address at that time. And a means of ensuring the uniqueness of the changed address.

A second object is to provide a judging means, a changing means, and a notifying means in a mobile phone terminal, and the uniqueness assurance means uses a user address registration means possessed by a mail server. The first object is to easily realize the purpose by using the existing means.

Further, a third object is that the owner of the mobile phone terminal can avoid the troublesome notification work and address registration work involved in changing his / her own address.

[0009]

Therefore, according to the present invention,
In an e-mail system consisting of a mobile phone terminal for receiving and sending e-mail and a mail server for relaying e-mail, the mobile phone terminal detects junk mail for itself, changes its address, and receives junk mail And a guarantee means for guaranteeing the uniqueness of the address candidates notified from the mobile phone terminal by the mail server. The feature is that

Further, the avoidance means registers an address change condition setting file for setting conditions for changing the address of the mobile phone terminal itself in response to the reception of unwanted mail, and a normally used destination and source addresses. Refer to the registered address list for checking the registered address list, the address candidate file for registering the changed address candidates, the mail receiving unit for receiving mail from the mail server, and whether the received mail is junk mail. When the email is junk, it refers to the address change condition setting file to detect whether or not the address change condition is satisfied, and an email monitoring unit that detects whether the address change condition is satisfied or not. The address candidate is read from the candidate file, and whether or not the uniqueness of the address candidate is guaranteed is checked by the mail server. An address notification unit for inquiring through the mail transmission unit, an address changing unit for changing the working address to a new address when the uniqueness of the address candidates is guaranteed from the mail server, and the registered address list. And a change notification mail creating unit for notifying the destination of the new address, with reference to the new address.

Further, the mail server includes a list of registered addresses for registering all destination addresses, and a mail transmitting unit for transmitting relayed mail to a mobile phone terminal as a communication destination.
An email receiving unit that receives emails from mobile phone terminals,
An address uniqueness inquiry from the mail receiving unit by searching the registered address list for determination, and an address searching unit for registering a reply to the inquiry and a new address through the mail transmitting unit. Characterize.

Further, the address change condition is characterized in that the number of times of mail reception of a sender address not registered in the registered address list exceeds a predetermined number.

Further, the address changing condition is characterized in that a predetermined time has elapsed after the address setting.

Further, the uniqueness is that the same address as the address candidate is not registered in the registered address list.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Referring to FIG. 1, an electronic mail system 1 showing an embodiment of the present invention includes a mail server 10 and a mobile phone terminal 20.

The mail server 10 stores the mail receiving unit 13 for receiving mail from the mobile phone terminal 20, the mail transmitting unit 12 for sending mail to the mobile phone terminal 20, and the address of each mobile phone terminal 20 subscribed to. The registered address list 11 to be registered and whether or not the designated address is registered in the registered address list 11 are searched to guarantee uniqueness in which the same address as the address is not registered, and the uniqueness is guaranteed. An address search unit 14 that registers an address as a new address.

The mobile phone terminal 20 has a mail receiving unit 28 for receiving mail, a mail monitoring unit 24 for monitoring address changing conditions for the received mail, and an address changing condition setting file for setting conditions for changing addresses. 21
, A registered address list 22 for registering addresses, an address candidate file 23 for previously registering addresses to be changed, and an address candidate for the address candidate file 2
3, the address notification unit 24 that notifies the mail server 10 of the change, the address change unit 26 that converts the currently used address into a new address, and the change notification mail creation unit that creates the change notification mail associated with the address change. 27
And a mail sending unit 29 for sending a mail.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. The entire operation will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. Mobile phone terminal 2
Referring to FIG. 2 showing the operation of initial setting of 0, the mobile phone terminal 20 sets the address of the communication destination and its own address candidate in the address change condition setting file 21 and the address candidate file 23 in advance. The address change condition setting file 21 includes address change conditions such as when the mobile phone terminal 20 receives an email with an unregistered address more than a specified number of times, or when a specified time has elapsed since the address was changed. (Step 3 in FIG. 2)
1). A plurality of address candidates to be selected when changing the address are registered in the address candidate file 23 (step 32 in FIG. 2).

Referring to FIG. 3 showing the address changing operation of the electronic mail system 1, the mail monitoring unit 24 of the mobile phone terminal 20 refers to the registered address list 22 and the address changing condition setting file 21 to send a mail. Receiver 28
Monitor the mail sent to (Step 4 in Figure 3
0). The mail monitoring unit 24 checks the condition specified in the address change information setting file 21 for each received mail,
It is determined whether or not the change conditions are met (step 41 in FIG. 3). When the change conditions are met, the mail monitoring unit 24 resets the monitoring information such as the address change time interval of the corresponding address and the number of mail receptions of unregistered addresses, and notifies the address notification unit 25 of the address change (see FIG. 3). Step 42). The address notification unit 25 acquires one of the address candidates from the address candidate file 23 and notifies the mail server 10 of the address candidate by mail using the working address through the mail transmission unit 29 (step 43 in FIG. 3). .

In the mail server 10, the mail receiving unit 13 receives the notification of the address candidate, and notifies the address searching unit 14 to search for the same address. The address search unit 14 searches the registered address list 11 to see if the same address as the notified address candidate is registered in the registered address list 11 (step 44 in FIG. 3). As a result of the search, when the address candidate is not registered (Y in step 45 of FIG. 3), the address search unit 14 registers the address candidate as a new address in the registered address list 11 and deletes the conventional address,
Through the mail transmitting unit 17, the mail receiving unit 15 of the mobile phone terminal is notified that the address candidate is suitable as the changed address (step 46 in FIG. 3). When the same address as the address candidate is already registered, the address search unit 1
4 notifies the mail receiving unit 28 of the mobile phone terminal that the address candidate is not suitable for the changed address through the mail transmitting unit 12 (N in step 46 in FIG. 3).

The mail receiving unit 28 of the mobile phone terminal 20 passes the received notification to the address notifying unit 25. The address notifying unit 25 determines the received information, and when the information is an appropriate notification, the address notifying unit 25 determines the address changing unit 2
6 is notified of the address change (O in step 47 in FIG. 3).
K notification). If the information is the inappropriate notification, the address notification unit 25 acquires a new address candidate from the address candidate file 23 (step 4 in FIG. 3).
3). The address notification unit 25 repeats the retry until the mail server 10 recognizes the uniqueness of the address candidates.

On the basis of the appropriate notification, the address changing unit 26 sets the address candidate, whose uniqueness the mail server 10 guarantees, as the new address (step 48 in FIG. 3). The change notification mail creating unit 27 creates a change notification mail for each of the addresses registered in the registered address list file 22 as a destination of the change notification, and stores the address before the change and the address information after the change in the mail. Place (step 49 in FIG. 3). After creating the change notification mail, the change notification mail creating unit 27 sends the change notification mail to each destination through the mail sending unit 29 (step 50 in FIG. 3).

[0023]

The effects of the present invention are as follows: When the address of the user's mobile phone terminal is received at regular intervals, or when the number of receptions of mail whose sender is an unregistered address exceeds a predetermined number,
By automatically changing the address, it is possible to avoid receiving unsolicited e-mail even if the address is detected by a junk e-mail sender.

Further, since other effects can be realized by utilizing the existing means of the mobile phone terminal and the mail server,
It can be put into practical use easily without adding new means.

Further, as another effect, by automatically notifying the changed address to the registered address in the portable telephone terminal, the notification work associated with the address change can be omitted, and the mistake associated with the change work can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing one of the embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of initial setting of the mobile phone terminal of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing an operation of changing an address in this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 e-mail system 10 mail server 11 List of registered addresses 12 Email sending part 13 Email receiver 14 Address search section 20 mobile phone terminals 21 Address change condition setting file 22 List of registered addresses 23 Address candidate file 24 Email monitoring section 25 Address notification section 26 Address change section 27 Change notification mail creation section 28 Email Receiver 29 Mail sending section

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail system comprising a mobile phone terminal for receiving and sending e-mail and a mail server for relaying e-mail, wherein the mobile phone terminal detects unsolicited e-mail and changes its own address. However, the mail server guarantees the uniqueness of the address candidates notified from the mobile phone terminal, by including means for avoiding the reception of unsolicited emails and means for automatically notifying the registered destination of the changed address. An e-mail system that is equipped with a security measure that 2. The avoidance means registers an address change condition setting file for setting conditions for changing the address of the mobile phone terminal itself for receiving unsolicited email, and a normally used destination address and source address. Refer to the registered address list, the address candidate file for registering the address candidates for change, the mail receiving unit that receives mail from the mail server, and the received mail as to whether the received mail is junk mail. When the address change condition is satisfied, the mail monitoring unit that detects whether the address change condition is satisfied by referring to the address change condition setting file when the address change condition is satisfied Address candidates are read from the candidate file, and the mail server determines whether the uniqueness of the address candidates is guaranteed. An address notification unit for inquiring through the mail sending unit; an address changing unit for changing the working address to a new address when the uniqueness of the address candidates is guaranteed by the mail server; and the registered address list. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, further comprising: a change notification mail creating unit for making reference to notify the new address to the destination. 3. The mail server receives a mail from a mobile phone terminal, a registered address list for registering all destination addresses, a mail sending unit for sending a relay mail to a mobile phone terminal of a communication destination. A mail receiving unit; and an address searching unit that searches the registered address list for an inquiry about the uniqueness of the address from the mail receiving unit and registers an answer to the inquiry and a new address through the mail transmitting unit. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, characterized in that 4. The electronic mail system according to claim 2, wherein the address change condition is that the number of times of mail reception of a sender address not registered in the registered address list exceeds a predetermined number. 5. The electronic mail system according to claim 2, wherein the address change condition is that a predetermined time has elapsed after the address was set. 6. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein the uniqueness is that the same address as the address candidate is not registered in the registered address list.