JP2005223754A - E-mail transmission/reception system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow junk e-mails or the like to be efficiently excluded by easy setting and to allow only desired mails to be accurately received. <P>SOLUTION: In an E-mail transmission/reception system 10 having a transmission-side server 1 for transmitting an E-mail inputted through a transmitter terminal and a reception-side server 2 for receiving the E-mail through a communication network and outputting it to a receiver terminal, the transmission-side server 1 is provided with a transmission mail information register means 133 for setting transmission mail information based on attribute information of a user and the E-mail and a mail attribute adding means 134 for adding the transmission mail information to the E-mail, and the reception-side server 2 is provided with a reception condition register means 233 for setting a reception condition of the E-mail, a receivable mail determination means 234 for determining whether the E-mail can be received or not on the basis of the transmission mail information and the reception condition, and a mail attribute removal means 235 for removing the transmission mail information from the received E-mail. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a technology for automatically selecting and receiving electronic mail (hereinafter referred to as mail), and in particular, it allows the reception of mail according to the sender's attributes, such as nationality and gender of the mail, the content of the mail, and the purpose. The present invention relates to an e-mail transmission / reception system and method capable of selecting whether to do or not.

 Conventionally, in order not to receive unnecessary mails or unwanted mails (hereinafter referred to as spam mails), it is common practice to register the corresponding email address in advance and eliminate the email at that address. It has been broken. However, this method requires a mail address to be registered each time for a newly generated junk mail or the like, and the work is difficult.

  In addition, there is a method in which a specific word or the like is registered in advance and it is determined whether or not the word or the like is present in the contents of the mail. (For example, refer to Patent Documents 1 to 4).

  However, this method, of course, has to register every word / phrase related to spam mails, etc., but on the other hand, there is a risk of eliminating mails that the user wants to receive.

  Furthermore, as shown in Patent Document 5, a method of adding a predetermined pin code sent from a receiver at the time of transmission has also been proposed. However, as a receiver, it is troublesome to individually designate a partner to be transmitted in advance and transmit a predetermined pin code.

Patent Document 6 discloses an invention in which a mailing list is created using a user profile such as an address and age as a selection criterion, and mail is exchanged within a group. However, in the present invention, there is a problem that spam mails from group members cannot be excluded.
JP 2003-173314 A JP 2001-084192 A JP 2002-351996 A JP 2002-335288 A JP 2001-217861 A US Pat. No. 6,480,885

  The present invention has been made in order to cope with the above-described problems, and is an e-mail transmission / reception system that can efficiently eliminate junk e-mail and the like with simple settings and can accurately receive only e-mails to be received. And to provide a method.

An outline of the present invention for achieving the above object will be described below.
First, a mail recipient sets in advance a mail content to be rejected or a code for the mail content (hereinafter, reception condition). It should be noted that as a reception condition, a mail to be received may be set instead of a mail to be rejected.

  This reception condition may be set by entering the WEB site of the provider to which the user belongs after authentication with a password or the like, or may be set by software installed on an information terminal such as a personal computer. Also good.

  On the other hand, the mail sender also sets the contents of the mail transmitted in the same format as the mail receiver or a code corresponding to the mail contents (hereinafter referred to as transmission mail information). Then, such information is sent to the receiving provider's server or the partner's personal computer together with the outgoing mail.

  In the information server such as the receiving server or the receiver's personal computer, these sent mail information and receiving conditions are inquired, and those that can be received and those that cannot be received are separated. Recipients will be able to view only those that are not disabled. The function of selecting a mail to be received by using a code as the transmission mail information and the reception condition will be referred to as a code filter (or a mail address filter).

  For those who can use this code filter, the mail issuing provider is responsible and operates so that it can be limited to those who can confirm the identity of the mail owner in a certain way. Thereby, it becomes easy to specify a sender such as an unsolicited mail or a person who sent a mail with false sent mail information.

  Specifically, an e-mail transmission / reception system according to the present invention includes a transmitting server that transmits an e-mail input through a sender terminal, and a reception that receives the e-mail via a communication network and outputs the e-mail to a receiver terminal. An e-mail transmission / reception system having a side server, wherein the transmission side server includes transmission mail information registration means for setting transmission mail information based on user and e-mail attribute information, and the reception side server It is characterized by comprising reception condition registration means for setting a mail reception condition, and receivable mail determination means for determining whether or not to receive an electronic mail based on the transmission mail information and the reception condition.

  Here, user attribute information means information such as nationality, gender, business type, or individual or legal entity, and e-mail attribute information refers to the content, language type, purpose (for-profit, non-profit) For profit). However, there is no strict distinction between user attributes and e-mail attributes. At this time, there is a possibility that a plurality of types of e-mail attributes may exist, so it is preferable to set them by making a pattern for each user.

  Preferably, the transmission side server includes a mail attribute addition unit that adds the transmission mail information to an electronic mail, and the reception side server includes a mail attribute removal unit that removes the transmission mail information from the received electronic mail. It is good to prepare.

At this time, if the outgoing mail information is encoded and sent, the world can be shared. Further, if a code that is not displayed on the WEB browser or mail software is used, the mail attribute removing means is not necessary.
The sent mail information registering means and the mail attribute adding means can be provided as a dedicated program in the sender terminal in place of the sending server.

  The e-mail transmission / reception system according to the present invention receives an e-mail sent from a sending server that sends an e-mail via a communication network, converts the e-mail address, and transfers the e-mail to the receiving server. An e-mail transmission / reception system having a relay server that performs transmission e-mail information registration means for setting e-mail information based on user and e-mail attribute information, and reception for setting e-mail reception conditions It is characterized by comprising: condition registering means; and receivable mail determining means for determining whether or not an electronic mail can be transferred based on the transmitted mail information and the receiving conditions.

  That is, by transmitting only the e-mail that satisfies the condition by the relay server, it is not necessary to add the transmission mail information in the e-mail.

  Furthermore, an e-mail transmission / reception system according to the present invention includes a transmitting server that transmits an e-mail input through a sender terminal, and a receiving server that receives the e-mail via a communication network and outputs the e-mail to a receiver terminal. An e-mail transmission / reception system for providing a service for rejecting reception of unnecessary e-mails, comprising: a monitoring server that determines whether or not the e-mail satisfies a predetermined reception condition; The side server includes subscription information adding means for adding subscription information indicating whether or not the service is subscribed to in the email, and the receiving server includes the subscription information in the email when the subscription information exists. An inquiry is made to the monitoring server as to whether or not the e-mail satisfies a predetermined reception condition, and to the receiving terminal based on the notification from the monitoring server Receivable mail inquiry means for determining whether to output the electronic mail, the monitoring server includes transmission mail information registration means for setting outgoing mail information based on user and electronic mail attribute information, electronic mail A receiving condition registering means for setting a receiving condition of the mail; when receiving an inquiry from the receiving server, the receiving server determines whether or not an e-mail can be received based on the sent mail information and the receiving condition; And a receivable mail judging means for notifying to.

  Only the subscription information indicating that the person is using the code filter is added to the e-mail, and the inquiry is made to the monitoring server only when this information is included.

  On the other hand, if subscription information is not included in the e-mail, it is unconditionally excluded, or if subscription information is included, it is output unconditionally to the receiver terminal without making an inquiry to the monitoring server. You may do it. Furthermore, if subscription information is included, if the receiver can set in advance whether to make an inquiry to the monitoring server or to output to the receiver terminal unconditionally, flexibility is increased. Note that when making an inquiry, it is possible to reduce the inquiry load by changing the billing conditions for the recipient by setting such as increasing the service charge.

  The e-mail transmission / reception method according to the present invention is an e-mail transmission / reception method for determining whether or not the e-mail can be received based on transmission mail information based on user and e-mail attribute information included in the e-mail. The step of setting an e-mail receiving condition in the e-mail server, and determining whether or not the transmission mail information included in the e-mail satisfies the receiving condition. Outputting the contents of the mail to the recipient terminal.

  E-mail reception conditions tend to be complicated. For this reason, the receiving conditions are divided into principle conditions and exception conditions, for example, e-mails that match the e-mail information with the principle conditions are allowed (received), and e-mails that match the exception conditions are rejected (not received). In this manner, if the exceptional condition is determined before the principle condition, reception permission / inhibition can be determined by a simple method.

  According to the present invention, since received mail is selected based on user and mail attribute information, it is possible to receive mail that is desired to be received with simple settings, and to eliminate junk mail and the like.

  Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a transmitting server 1, a receiving server 2, and a sender terminal 4 and a receiver terminal 5 that communicate with these servers according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Here, the transmission / reception server 10 and the reception server 2 constitute an electronic mail transmission / reception system 10.

In FIG. 1, the transmission side server 1 is connected to a sender terminal 4 via a communication network 3, and the reception side server 2 is connected to a receiver terminal 5 via a communication network 3.
The transmission server 1 and the reception server 2 are managed and operated by an Internet service provider (hereinafter referred to as a provider).

  Further, the sender terminal 4 and the receiver terminal 5 are one or more user terminals that transmit and receive Internet mail using a service provided by the provider.

  The transmission side server 1 includes a transmission / reception unit 11 for transmitting / receiving data via the communication network 3, a central processing unit 13 for processing data received from the transmission / reception unit 11, and a storage unit 14 for storing data. It is configured. Further, the central processing unit 13 transmits / receives data to / from the transmission / reception unit 11 and a user information registration unit (function) 131 for registering user information input via the transmission / reception unit 11. Function) 132, sent mail information registering means (function) 133 for registering attribute information related to sent mail, mail attribute adding means (function) 134 for adding attribute information to the sent mail, mail that has been rejected and cannot be sent , A non-transmission mail registration means (function) 135 for registering information of non-transmission mail).

  In addition, the storage unit 14 includes a user information database (DB) 141 that stores information about the user, a transmission mail information storage database (DB) 142 that stores attribute information of the user or transmission mail, a transmission history, and mail that cannot be transmitted. A transmission history table 143 for storing information on

  The receiving server 2 includes a transmission / reception unit 21 for transmitting / receiving data via the communication network 3, a central processing unit 23 for processing data received from the transmission / reception unit 21, and a storage unit 24 for storing data. It is configured. Further, the central processing unit 23 is a transmission / reception processing means (function) 231 that exchanges data with the transmission / reception unit 21, and a user information registration unit that registers user information input via the transmission / reception unit 21 ( Function) 232, reception condition registration means (function) 233 for registering conditions relating to the received mail, receivable mail determination means (function) 234 for determining whether or not the mail is a reception target, and removal of attribute information in the received mail A mail attribute removing unit (function) 235 for performing reception, and a reception rejection mail registering unit (function) 236 for registering information of a mail rejected by the recipient (hereinafter referred to as reception rejection mail).

  The storage unit 24 also includes a user information database (DB) 241 for storing information about users, a received mail condition storage database (DB) 242 for storing information about mail reception conditions, and a reception refusal for storing information about reception refusal mails. It has a mail storage database (DB) 243 and a mail storage database (DB) 244 for temporarily storing received mail.

  On the other hand, the sender terminal 4 includes a transmission / reception unit 41 for transmitting / receiving data via the communication network 3, a central processing unit 43 for processing data received from the transmission / reception unit 41, and a storage unit for storing data. 44, an input unit 45 for inputting / outputting data and a display unit 46.

  The receiver terminal 5 includes a transmission / reception unit 51 for transmitting / receiving data via the communication network 3, a central processing unit 53 for processing data received from the transmission / reception unit 51, and a storage unit for storing data. 54, an input unit 55 for inputting / outputting data and a display unit 56.

The operation of the e-mail transmission / reception method in the above configuration will be described.
[1. Information registration stage]
<1-1. User (sender) information registration process>
First, the mail sender makes a user application by accessing the transmitting server 1 through the sender terminal 4. User information input from the input unit 45 of the sender terminal 4 is transmitted to the transmitting server 1 through the transmission / reception unit 41. The transmitted user information is subjected to reception processing by the transmission / reception unit 11 and transmission / reception processing means 131 of the transmission-side server 1 via the communication network 3. The received user information is registered in the user information DB 141 of the storage unit 14 by the user information registration unit 132.

FIG. 2 is a data configuration example of the user information DB 141.
In this figure, information such as a user ID (identification information) and its associated nationality, business type, address, affiliation (contract entity), name, gender, password, and service subscription flag (subscription information) are stored.

<1-2. Email sending condition registration process>
When the registration of the user information by the mail sender is completed, the transmission mail information registration means 133 is activated and the attribute information of the transmission mail is stored in the transmission mail information storage DB 142.
FIG. 3 is a data configuration example of the transmission mail information storage DB 142. In this figure, a plurality of transmission mail information patterns are stored for each user, and for each transmission mail information pattern, a transmission mail information pattern ID (identification number) and its associated gender, affiliation (contracting entity), title language, body language Information such as business type, purpose, and contents is stored. User information may be used for information such as gender and affiliation (contract entity) in this figure.

  The attribute information may be classified into basic items with little change and setting items to be set for each outgoing mail, and may be set on the home page by accessing the sending server 1 each time a mail is sent from the sender terminal 4. .

FIG. 4 is a mail attribute condition setting screen. In this figure, attribute information such as nationality, title language, body language, affiliation, industry, and gender is set as standard values (default) as basic items, and information such as purpose and contents is set for each mail as setting conditions. Be able to.
Since the basic items are set as standard values, the labor of setting all attribute information for each mail transmission is reduced. It is also possible to remove the set attribute information and send an email.

Next, details of the operation of the transmission mail information registration unit 133 at the time of mail transmission will be described with reference to FIG.
First, the user inputs a user ID and a password (S101). Next, it is searched whether or not the data storage area of the input user ID is created in the transmission mail information storage DB 142 (S102). As a result of the search, if there is no storage area in the transmission mail information storage DB 142 (S103), a storage area for the user's transmission mail information is created (S107). On the other hand, if the storage area already exists, a transmission mail information pattern ID that is effective for each transmission mail information is selected (S104). Then, the attribute information of the user is extracted from the user information DB and stored in the storage area (S105). Also, the purpose and contents (setting conditions) are input and stored in the storage area (S106).

  The transmission mail information (attribute information) registered by the transmission mail information registration unit 133 is encoded by the mail attribute addition unit 134 at the time of mail transmission and added to the head part of the transmission mail body. This encoding makes it possible to use this service globally.

  The sent mail information is, for example, as follows, and the mail sender's personality (nationality, gender, corporation, individual, etc.) and the nature of the mail content are stored in the mail recipient's personal computer or provider server Has a role to notify.

The following is an example of outgoing mail information.
(1) By language (4 digits): 2 digits each for title and content.
(2) Country (3 digits): Sender nationality (3) Gender (1 digit): Sender gender (Applicable only when the mail sender is “individual”)
(4) By subject (1 digit): Individual, corporation, circle, group (5) By purpose (1 digit) ... Sales / Advertising (Non-Profit) Sales / Advertising (Commercial), etc. (6) By Industry (2 digits): Religious, educational, agricultural, industrial, medical, etc. (7) By content (5 digits): Health food, landscaping goods, movie theater, aquarium, facility design, etc.

Example of (1) above. ・ A total of 4 digits for each email language, with the left 2 digits for the title language. The right two digits are the main content language.
01 English, 02 French, 03 German, 04 Italian, 05 Chinese,
06 Japanese, 07 Portuguese, 08 Arabic, etc.

Example (2) above-3 digits by nationality of sender.
001 France, 016 Germany, 120 Italy, 198 China, 216 Japan, 242 Korea, 102 Portugal, 198 Egypt, etc.

Example of (3) above: 1 digit 1 male, 2 female, 3 legal entity etc. depending on the gender of the sender.

Example (4) above: 1 digit by sender's subject, 1 person, 2 corporations, 3 limited companies, 4 other corporations, 5 organizations, groups, etc.

Examples of (5) above: 1 digit per business purpose 1 for business or advertising, 2 for business or non-profit for business or 3 private communication, 4 contact,
5 Meetings, etc.

Example of (6) above ・ 2 digits by industry type 01 Religious relations, 02 Educational relations, 03 Agriculture relations, 04 Industrial relations, 05 Medical relations,
06 Music related, etc.

Example of (7) above-5 digits by type of industry. For example, refer to the business category list in the phone book database.
02170 Health food, 42370 Landscaping household goods, 07130 Movie theater,
53793 Aquarium, 38390 Equipment design, etc.

FIG. 6 shows an example of encoded outgoing mail information.
For each item, the title is set from the beginning, the language is 2 digits, the nationality is 3 digits, the gender is 1 digit, the contracting entity is 1 digit, the purpose is 1 digit, the industry is 2 digits, and the content is 5 digits. The code 0606-216-1-1-3-02-07130 in this figure uses Japanese for both title and language, nationality is Japanese, gender is male, contract subject is individual, purpose is private communication, It means that the industry is education related, and the email content is cinema.

In addition, a code of 0000-000-0-0-0-00-00000 is attached to a mail that does not have a mail attribute. In the above description, each item is divided by the delimiter “−”, but the present invention is not limited to this as long as the item delimiter can be identified.
When mail is transmitted by the user, the transmission history is stored in the transmission history table 143.

  FIG. 7 is a data configuration example of the transmission history table 143. In this figure, for each user (sender), information such as a transmission mail information pattern ID (identification number), a transmission destination mail address, a transmission time, and the like are stored. Further, when the received mail is rejected by the recipient, a reception rejection flag is set by a notification from the receiving server.

  In the above, an example of setting and registering outgoing mail information (filter conditions) in the mail sender side server has been shown. However, the mail software of the sender terminal 4 has a function that automatically sends outgoing mail information to the mail at the time of transmission. (Dedicated program) may also be used. In this case, the transmission mail information itself is registered in the sender terminal. As described above, when the location where the outgoing mail information is registered is not the sender-side server but the sender terminal, there are advantages such as easy change of registration and a reduced risk of confidential leakage.

  The transmission mail information code is added to the body of the electronic mail as shown in FIG. The sent mail information code can be included in the title and other fields, not in the body of the email.

<1-3. User (recipient) information registration process>
The mail recipient makes a user application by accessing the receiving server 2 through the recipient terminal 5. User information input from the input unit 55 of the receiver terminal 5 is transmitted from the transmission / reception unit 51 to the receiving server 2. The transmitted user information is subjected to reception processing by the transmission / reception unit 21 and transmission / reception processing means 231 of the reception-side server 2 via the communication network 3. The received user information is registered in the user information DB 241 of the storage unit 24 by the user information registration means 232.

<1-4. Email reception condition registration process>
When the registration of the user information by the mail recipient is completed, the reception condition registration means 233 is activated and the mail reception condition is stored in the received mail condition storage DB 242.

FIG. 9 is a data configuration example of the received mail condition storage DB 242. In this figure, information such as the mail reception condition ID (identification information) and the associated title language, body language, purpose, contents, name, gender, affiliation (contractor), and business type is stored for each user. .
Furthermore, information such as an unconditional flag indicating that the item is received unconditionally, a reception permission item, and a reception permission flag indicating permission of reception of the reception permission item are stored for each of these items.

The mail recipient enters this mail reception condition setting from the home page of the provider who issued his / her mail address using authentication such as a password and performs it on the WEB.
The contents of the mail reception conditions are basically the same as the transmitted mail information, but the code number of each item is increased by one digit in order to set the mail reception conditions for each item. The contents are as follows, for example.
0 Unconditional reception, 1 Reception permission condition, 2 Reception rejection condition

Accordingly, quoting the above-described example of the transmitted mail information is as follows.
(1) By language (5 digits), (2) By country (4 digits), (3) Gender (2 digits), (4) By subject (2 digits), (5) By purpose (2 digits), ( 6) By industry (3 digits), (7) By content (6 digits)

  Using this code system, if unconditional reception is set for a certain item, or reception permission conditions or reception rejection conditions are set, the conditions are set first.

  FIG. 10 is a specific example of the mail reception condition code. The code has a 1-digit flag indicating the email reception condition at the beginning of each item, 2 digits for title and language designation, 4 digits for nationality, 2 digits for gender, 2 digits for contractor, 2 for purpose The digit, industry type is 3 digits, and the content is 6 digits.

  Regarding the mail receiving condition code “10606, 10101-0000-00-00-11, 15-000-000000” of the principle illustrated in this figure, from the head of the code delimited by “-”, 10606 represents the mail reception permission at the first digit (left end), and the next 06 represents the Japanese title, and the next 06 represents the Japanese content. In other words, it means receiving an email with the title and content written in Japanese.

  Similarly, 10101 indicates reception permission because the first digit is 1, and the next two digits “01” indicates the title in English, and the next two digits “01” indicates that the text is written in English. This means that you can receive e-mail. The next four digits separated by “-” designate nationality, but “0000” means that unconditional reception is performed regarding nationality. Subsequently, the gender of the mail sender and the contract subject are set as unconditional reception.

  The next purpose is “11”, the leading “1” means reception permission, and the next “1” means commercial purpose, meaning that commercial mail is received. . Similarly, the next “15” means that reception of a conference purpose mail is permitted. The next three-digit and six-digit codes separated by "-" mean that the sender's business type and contents are unconditionally received.

  That is, the series of mail reception condition codes described above means that the mail title and body are written in English or Japanese, and only the mail purpose is used for profit or conference.

The exception mail reception condition code “20101-0000-21-00-00-000-000000” illustrated here is to reject reception of mail whose title, body and content are English in the first five digits. The next four digits delimited by “-” specify nationality, but “0000” means that unconditional reception is performed. The next two digits "21" separated by "-" indicate the gender of the sender, but "2" indicates the rejection of the reception and "1" indicates the male, so the mail from the male It means to reject mail, that is, mail from a man whose title and contents are written in English is rejected.
In the above, the principle is a permission condition and the exception is a rejection condition. However, the exception may be a permission condition using the principle as a rejection condition.

  The mail reception condition code is stored in the receiver server 2 in a pair with the receiver mail address. Once those conditions have been set, the contents of future emails will be assumed to have the same conditions. If you receive mail with different content, you can respond by re-setting. The most recently set condition for the method will be effective as a future condition. You can also “remove” the setting itself. In that case, mail is received unconditionally. It should be noted that by setting unconditional reception, only the service subscriber's mail may be received.

  After the condition is set, the “sent mail information code” of the mail that has arrived at the receiving server is compared with the “mail receiving condition code”. Then, only those that meet the receiving conditions from the recipient are input to the recipient mailbox and can be opened by the recipient. The rejected mail is input to a predetermined mailbox that can be browsed by the receiver as necessary. In place of input to the mailbox, a predetermined message may be added back to the sender server, or may be discarded.

  The above is an example in which the mail reception conditions are registered with a code. However, the receiver terminal 5 may be accessed by the recipient terminal 5 and set on the homepage without using the code.

  FIG. 4 is a screen diagram when mail reception conditions are set on the mail attribute condition setting screen on the home page. In this figure, items are selected and input, but the contents of conditions may be directly input.

  In the above, an example of setting and registering reception conditions (filter conditions) in the receiving server has been shown, but the function of comparing the “sent mail information code” with the “mail reception condition code” at the time of reception It can also be applied to other mail software. In this case, the reception condition itself is registered in the recipient terminal. As described above, when the location for registering the reception condition is not the reception side server but the receiver terminal, there are advantages such as easy change of registration and reduction of the risk of confidential leakage.

  Also, depending on the time of reception, for example, during business hours, distribution of private mail whose purpose is private communication may be prohibited. At this time, if a private mail arrives during business hours, it is temporarily stored in the receiving server 2 and delivered to the recipient terminal 5 outside business hours.

The operation of the reception condition registration unit will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
First, a user ID and password input request is made (S201). It is searched whether the mail reception condition corresponding to the user ID has been registered in the received mail condition storage DB (S202). If the reception condition is not registered as a result of the search, a mail reception condition storage area for the user is created (S203, S209). If the reception condition has been registered, the mail reception condition is extracted and displayed on the recipient terminal (S204). If there is a setting / change item, input of the setting / change item is requested, and the item content is changed (S205, S206, S207). If all items have been changed, the process ends (S209). If there is a setting / change item, the process returns to step S205 to perform processing (S208).

[2. Mail sending and receiving stage]
<2-1. Receivable mail judgment processing>
The mail sent by the sending server 1 is received and processed by the sending / receiving unit 21 and sending / receiving processing means 231 of the receiving server 2 via the communication network 3, and the receiving mail determining means 234 matches the receiving condition of the receiving address. If it can be received, it is stored in the mail storage DB 244. When a mail without a mail attribute is sent to an account for which reception conditions are set, a notification that transmission mail information is required is sent back to the sending server 1.

Next, details of the operation of the receivable mail determination means 234 when the principle is reception permission and the exception is reception rejection will be described with reference to FIG.
First, a transmission destination address and a transmission mail information code are extracted from the received mail (S301), and it is determined whether or not code information exists in the received mail (S302). As a result of the determination, if there is no code information in the received mail, a notification that the transmission mail information code is required is transmitted to the transmission source address, and the process ends (S308).

  If there is code information in the received mail, the mail receiving condition relating to the destination address is extracted from the mail condition saving DB 242 (S303). Next, out of the mail reception conditions, first, it is determined whether or not the exception mail reception condition code (rejection condition) and the transmitted mail information code match (S304). If they match, the received mail is stored for the user's storage. Save in the mailbox (S305) and end. If they do not match, then in principle, the mail reception condition code (permission condition) is compared with the transmitted mail information code (S306). If they do not match, the received mail is stored in the user's storage mailbox and the process ends. (S305).

  On the other hand, in principle, if the mail reception condition code matches the transmission mail information code, the received mail is stored in the user's distribution mail box 244 and the process ends (S307). By the above processing, the mail that is determined not to be received and stored in the storage mailbox is stored in the mailbox for a certain period, and then automatically deleted without being delivered to the recipient. Note that the recipient may be able to view this mail before the deletion process. On the other hand, the mail that is determined to be received and stored in the distribution mailbox is transmitted to the recipient terminal 5 by the mail attribute removing means 235 from which the transmitted mail information code is removed.

As described above, the reception conditions for permission and rejection are set as exceptions in principle, and the complex reception conditions can be processed simply by processing the exception conditions first with respect to the principles.
The above is a description of the case where the principle is “reception permitted” and the exception is “rejection reception”. Next, FIG. 13 shows the details of the operation of the receivable mail determination unit 234 when the principle is reception rejection and the exception is reception permission. It explains using.

  First, a destination address and a mail transmission mail information code are extracted from the received mail (S401), and it is determined whether code information exists in the received mail (S402). As a result of the determination, if there is no code information in the received mail, a notification that the transmission mail information code is required is transmitted to the transmission source address, and the process ends (S408). If code information is present in the received mail, the mail receiving condition relating to the destination address is extracted from the mail condition saving DB 242 (S403).

  Then, it is determined whether or not the exception mail reception condition matches the transmitted mail information code (S404). As a result of the determination, if the exception mail reception condition matches the transmitted mail information code, the received mail is stored in the user's distribution mailbox (S405), and the process ends. On the other hand, if the exception mail reception condition does not match the transmission mail information code, it is determined in principle whether the mail reception condition matches the transmission mail information code (S406). If they match as a result of the determination, the received mail is stored in the user's storage mailbox (S407), and the process ends. If they do not match, the received mail is stored in the user's distribution mailbox (S405), and the process ends.

  Through the above processing, the mail that is determined not to be received and stored in the storage mailbox is automatically deleted after being stored in the mailbox for a certain period. At this time, the recipient may be allowed to browse during the period, or may be deleted immediately if browsing is unnecessary. On the other hand, the mail determined to be received and stored in the distribution mailbox is transmitted to the recipient terminal 5 by the mail attribute removing unit 235 removing the transmission mail information code in the electronic mail. As a method for removing the transmission mail information code, dedicated mail software may be used to suppress the display at the recipient terminal.

<2-2. Rejected email registration process>
The mail transmitted to the receiver terminal 5 by the receiving server 2 is received by the transmission / reception unit 51 of the receiver terminal 5. If the received mail is a mail from an undesired partner of the recipient or a mail from a suspicious person, the mail is returned to the receiving server 2. The returned mail is stored in the reception refusal mail storage DB 243 as a reception refusal mail by the reception refusal mail registration means 236.
At the same time, mails from the same sender stored in the mail storage DB 244 are searched and deleted.

Details of the operation of the reception refusal mail registration means will be described with reference to FIG.
First, the recipient's email address, sender email address, and email transmission time to the recipient are extracted from the email returned by the recipient (S501).
Next, it is searched whether there is a record in which the extracted sender email address and the email transmission time to the recipient coincide in the email transmission record addressed to the recipient in the email storage DB (S502).

  If there is no record as a result of the search, the process ends. If there is a record, the mail transmission source address (source) is stored as a reception rejection mail in the reception rejection mail storage DB (S503, S504). Next, it is searched whether or not mail from the same sender (sender) is stored in the recipient's mail storage DB, and if there is a mail sent from the same sender, the corresponding mail is deleted ( S505, S506, S507).

  If there is no outgoing mail from the same sender, the outgoing mail information code, sender mail address, destination mail address (recipient address), and outgoing time information are sent to the sending server as unsendable mail, and the process ends (S508). . When a reply is received from a different receiver to the receiving server a predetermined number of times or more, the corresponding mail information is transmitted from the receiving server 2 to the transmitting server 1. The reception refusal mail information transmitted from the reception server 2 is registered in the transmission history table 143 as a transmission prohibition mail by the transmission prohibition mail registration unit 135 of the transmission server 1. Specifically, the reception rejection flag of the transmission history table 143 is set.

  In addition, a warning mail is transmitted from the transmission disabled mail registration unit 135 to the sender of the mail registered as a transmission disabled mail. A user who has issued a warning for a predetermined number of times or more is excluded from the service, and the transmission history table 143 is referred to notify the server on the received mail, and the mail transmitted from the user is received on the reception server. If it exists, it is deleted. As described above, the junk mail has been delivered to all the recipients and suffered from the junk mail so far, but it is not necessary for another person to receive the junk mail by the reply of a certain number of recipients.

  In addition, a change in specific user information (for example, nationality, gender) is registered, the user information is changed more than a predetermined number of times, and a warning is issued in the same manner for a fake mail attribute information. If the warning is issued more than the number of times, it will be excluded from this service.

According to the present embodiment, the recipient can receive only the email to which the transmission email information desired by the recipient is added. So far, the junk e-mail has reached all the recipients and has been inconvenienced. There is an effect that it is not necessary for another person to receive a response by replying a number of recipients.
Further, since processing is performed based on the code information, detailed settings such as contents can be made as compared with the reception refusal and permission settings for each address. Furthermore, when there are many spam mails, it is possible to save time and effort compared to setting an address each time. In particular, if the identity is confirmed when subscribing to this service, the effect of preventing junk mail will be enhanced.

In the above explanation, the reception permission / rejection flag is set for each item. However, in principle, when judging in batch, the reception permission / rejection flag is set for the entire code. You may make it do. If the conditions are not complicated, in principle, it is possible to set a permission / rejection flag for each item in the reception condition code without dividing it into exceptions.
Furthermore, if the sent mail information is provided as an attached file instead of being added to the text or title, the addition / deletion process is simplified. In particular, if the transmitted mail information is set as the attached file name, it is not necessary to open the attached file, so that the processing load can be further reduced.

  Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The e-mail transmission / reception system of this embodiment has a configuration in which a relay server is provided between the transmission server and the reception server of the first embodiment.

  In the first embodiment, the user (sender) registers the mail transmission condition in the transmitting server, and the user (receiver) registers the mail receiving condition in the receiving server. In this embodiment, in the relay server 6, the sender registers the transmission mail information in the transmission mail information storage DB 641 using the transmission mail information registration unit 632, and the receiver stores the mail transfer condition storage using the transfer condition registration unit 635. Transfer conditions are registered in the DB 642. Then, the forwarded mail determination means 634 of the relay server determines whether the sender's outgoing mail information matches the recipient's forwarding conditions, and the mail is relayed only when they match.

Further, in this embodiment, it is not necessary to add a code to the mail, and an address conversion unit is required instead.
In FIG. 15, the relay (authentication) server 6 is connected to the transmitting server 1, the sender terminal 4, the receiving server 2, and the receiver terminal 5 via the communication network 3. The relay (authentication) server 6 includes a transmission / reception unit 61, a central processing unit 63, and a storage unit 64.
Further, the central processing unit 63 includes a transmission / reception processing unit 631, a transmission mail information registration unit 632, an address conversion unit 633, a transfer mail determination unit 634, and a transfer condition registration unit 635. The storage unit 64 includes a transmission mail information storage DB 641, a mail transfer condition storage DB 642, a transmission record DB 643, and a mediation address DB 644.

Others are the same as those in the first embodiment, and thus the same elements are denoted by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted.
First, the mail sender makes a user application by accessing the sender server 1 through the sender terminal 4. When the user application is completed, the relay server is accessed and the outgoing mail information is set.

The outgoing mail information input from the input unit 45 of the sender terminal 4 is registered in the outgoing mail information DB 641 by the outgoing mail information registration means 632. When the registration of the transmission mail information is completed, the relay server 6 notifies the mail sender of the mediation address.
On the other hand, the mail recipient makes a user application by accessing the receiving server 2 from the recipient terminal 5. When the user application is completed, the relay server 6 is accessed and mail transfer conditions are set. The mail transfer conditions input from the input unit 55 of the recipient terminal 5 are registered in the mail transfer condition storage DB 642 by the transfer condition registration unit 635. When the registration of the mail transfer condition is completed, the relay server 6 notifies the mail recipient of the mediation address. In the above description, the sender and the receiver are described separately. However, since the user is also the sender and the receiver, the user information is registered as common user information.

  Next, the intermediary address DB 644 will be described with reference to FIG. The mediation address DB 644 stores a user ID, a mail address of the user, and a mediation mail address associated with the user ID. In this embodiment, when the sender sends an email, a mediation address is set in the destination address field.

Hereinafter, the operation of the forwarding mail determination unit 634 of the relay server in the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
First, a source address and a destination mediation address are extracted from the received mail (S601, S602). The transmission mail information code related to the transmission source address is extracted from the transmission mail information storage DB 641 (S603). Next, the mail transfer condition relating to the destination mediation address is extracted from the mail transfer condition storage DB 642 (S604). Then, it is compared whether the transmitted mail information code matches the mail transfer condition (S605). If the transmitted mail information code matches the mail transfer condition, the address conversion means is activated (S606). Thereafter, the mail is transmitted to the receiving server 2, and the transmission record is stored in the transmission record DB 643 (S607). On the other hand, if the sent mail information code and the mail transfer condition do not match, the mail is returned to the sender server 1 together with the message that does not match the received condition, and the process ends (S608).

  Next, the operation of the address conversion means will be described with reference to FIG. First, the mediation mail address of the transmission destination is extracted from the transmission destination address field of the electronic mail (S701). The extracted mediation mail address of the transmission destination is converted into a real address with reference to the mediation address DB 644 (S702). Similarly, the real address of the transmission source is extracted (S703) and converted into the mediation address of the transmission source (S704). The converted destination real address and source intermediation address are stored in the mail destination address field and source address field, respectively (S705). FIG. 19 shows an example of data such as an address field of an e-mail before address conversion, and FIG. 20 shows an example of data after address conversion.

  Through the above processing, the address is converted, the mail is delivered to the receiving server 2, and delivered to the recipient terminal 5. Note that, as a WEB mail, the contents of the mail may be viewed from the recipient terminal 5 to the receiving server 2.

  The above-described processing enables the recipient to receive only the mail having the desired attribute. If an undesired mail is received, the mail is returned to the receiving server 2 (or notified by another means). To do. The reception-side server 2 stores the reception rejection mail in the reception rejection mail storage DB 243 as a reception rejection mail by the reception rejection mail registration means 236. At the same time, the reception refusal mail information is transmitted to the relay server 6 and stored in the mail transfer condition storage DB 643 by the transfer condition registration means 635.

  At this time, a notification of reception refusal is further sent from the relay server 6 to the transmitting server 1, and processing such as notification to the sender and deprivation of service subscription qualification is performed by the method described in the first embodiment. Also good.

  According to the present embodiment, a relay server is provided to determine whether or not the receiving condition is met and to transfer only the matching one. Therefore, the recipient is not added with the mail attribute in the mail body. Mail that matches the desired conditions can be received.

  Next, a third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the first embodiment, the user (sender) registers outgoing mail information (mail attribute) in the sending server, while the user (receiver) registers mail receiving conditions in the receiving server. In the electronic mail transmission / reception system according to the present embodiment, a separate monitoring server is provided, and mail attributes and reception conditions are registered and stored in this monitoring server. In addition, the receiving server determines whether the mail is subject to this service corresponding to the email account, and in the case of the subject mail, inquires the authentication server to determine whether delivery is possible. Is.

  In addition, the monitoring server keeps the transmission history of senders who subscribe to this service and monitors the frequency of changing email attributes. Even if the recipient determines that the email is suspicious, the receiving server Is configured to notify suspicious mail information to the monitoring server.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the present embodiment will be specifically described. FIG. 21 is a functional block diagram of the present embodiment. In this figure, a monitoring server 7 is connected to a transmitting server 1, a sender terminal 4, a receiving server 2, and a receiver terminal 5 via a communication network 3.
The monitoring server 7 includes a transmission / reception unit 71, a central processing unit 73, and a storage unit 74.

Further, the central processing unit 73 includes transmission / reception processing means 731, transmission mail information registration means 732, monitoring means 733, reception condition registration means 734, and receivable mail determination means 735. The storage unit 74 includes a transmission mail information storage DB 741, a mail reception condition storage DB 742, and a transmission record DB 743.
The receiving server 2 includes a transmission / reception unit 21, a central processing unit 23, and a storage unit 24.
Further, the central processing unit 23 includes a transmission / reception processing unit 231, a user information registration unit 232, a receivable mail inquiry unit 235, and a reception rejection mail registration unit 236. The storage unit 24 includes a user information DB 241, a reception rejection mail storage DB 243, and a mail storage DB 244.
Others are the same as those in the first embodiment, and thus the same elements are denoted by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted.

First, the sender makes a user application by accessing the transmitting server 1 through the sender terminal 4. When the user application is completed, the monitoring server 7 is accessed and the outgoing mail information is set.
The transmission mail information input from the input unit 45 of the sender terminal 4 is registered in the transmission mail information storage DB 741 by the transmission mail information registration means 732.

  On the other hand, the receiver makes a user application by accessing the receiving server 2 from the receiver terminal 5. When the user application is completed, the monitoring server 7 is accessed and mail receiving conditions are set. The mail reception condition input from the input unit 55 of the recipient terminal 5 is registered in the mail reception condition storage DB 742 by the reception condition registration unit 734.

  In the present embodiment, unlike the second embodiment, when the sender transmits an email, both the transmission destination address and the transmission source address are set as real addresses.

  When the mail transmitted from the sender is received by the receiving server 2, the receivable mail inquiry means 235 determines whether the recipient of the transmitted mail is a user of this service. As a result of the determination, if it is a user of this service, an inquiry is made to the address monitoring server 7 as to whether mail distribution is possible. In the monitoring server 7, the receivable mail determination unit 735 determines whether or not the mail can be received.

Next, the operation of the receivable mail inquiry unit 235 will be described with reference to FIG.
First, a transmission destination address and a transmission mail information code are extracted from the received mail (S801). The user information DB is searched for whether the extracted destination mail address is a service target mail address (S802).

  As a result of the search, if it is a service target person, an inquiry is made to the authentication server as to whether delivery is possible (S803, S804). If it is not a service target person, information such as a transmission source address and a transmission destination address is transmitted to the monitoring server, a mail is returned to the transmission source server, and the process ends (S808).

  If delivery is possible as a result of the inquiry to the authentication server, the mail is delivered to the recipient. At this time, a distribution end notification is sent to the monitoring server, and the history corresponding to the transmission record DB of the monitoring server becomes the distribution completion status (S807).

The processing procedure of the receivable mail determination unit 735 of the monitoring server 7 is the same as that in FIG.
On the other hand, when the receiver receives an undesired mail, the receiver returns the mail to the receiving server. The reception-side server stores the reception-rejected mail storage DB 243 as a reception-rejected mail by the reception-rejected mail registration unit 236. At the same time, the reception refusal mail information is transmitted to the monitoring server 7 by the reception refusal mail registration means 236 and is stored in the transmission mail information storage DB 741 by the mail condition registration means 732.

  According to the present embodiment, by providing the monitoring server, it is possible to receive only the mail desired by the recipient without imposing a load on the transmitting server and the receiving server.

It is a block diagram of the transmission terminal, transmission side server, reception terminal, and reception side server in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram of user information DB of FIG. It is a block diagram of transmission mail information storage DB of FIG. It is a screen figure which sets a mail attribute condition. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the transmission mail information registration means of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of data of a transmission mail condition code. It is a block diagram of a transmission mail information storage DB mail transmission history table. It is a screen figure of a transmission mail. It is a block diagram of received mail condition DB of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of data of the received mail condition code of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the receiving condition registration means of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the receivable mail determination means of FIG. (In principle, if the email reception conditions are permitted to be received and the exception email reception conditions are to be rejected) It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the receivable mail determination means of FIG. (In principle, if the email reception conditions are set to reject reception and the exception email reception conditions are set to reception allowed) It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the reception refusal mail registration means of FIG. It is a block diagram of the transmission terminal, transmission side server, reception terminal, reception side server, and relay (authentication) server in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram of the mediation address DB of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the forwarding mail determination means of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the address conversion means of FIG. It is a screen figure of the transmission mail before the address conversion in embodiment of FIG. It is a screen figure of the transmission mail after the address conversion in the embodiment of FIG. It is a block diagram of the transmission terminal in the 3rd Embodiment of this invention, a transmission side server, a reception terminal, and a reception side server. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the receivable mail inquiry means of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Transmission side server 2 Reception side server 3 Communication network 4 Sender terminal 5 Receiver terminal 6 Relay server (authentication)
7 Monitoring server 11 21 41 51 61 71 Transmission / reception unit 13 23 43 53 63 73 Central processing unit 14 24 44 54 64 74 Storage unit 45 55 Input unit 46 56 Display unit 131 231 631 731 Transmission / reception processing unit 132 232 User information registration Means 133 Transmission mail information registration means 134 Mail attribute addition means 135 Non-transmission mail registration means 141 241 User information DB
142 Sent mail information storage DB
143 Transmission history table 233 734 Reception condition registration means 234 Receivable mail determination means 235 Mail attribute removal means 236 Reception rejection mail registration means 242 Received mail condition storage DB
243 Receiving refusal mail storage DB
244 Mail storage DB
632 732 Transmission mail information registration means 633 Address conversion means 634 Transfer mail determination means 635 Transfer condition registration means 641 741 Transmission mail information storage DB
642 742 Mail reception condition storage DB
643 743 Transmission record DB
644 Broker Address DB
733 Monitoring means 735 Receivable mail registration means

Claims (6)

An e-mail transmission / reception system having a transmitting server that transmits an e-mail input through a sender terminal, and a receiving server that receives the e-mail via a communication network and outputs the e-mail to a receiver terminal,
The transmission server includes transmission mail information registration means for setting transmission mail information based on user and e-mail attribute information,
The receiving server includes a receiving condition registration means for setting an e-mail receiving condition;
Receivable mail determination means for determining whether or not to receive an e-mail based on the transmission mail information and the reception condition;
An e-mail transmission / reception system comprising: The transmission side server includes a mail attribute adding means for adding the transmission mail information to an electronic mail,
2. The e-mail transmission / reception system according to claim 1, wherein the receiving server includes e-mail attribute removing means for removing the transmission e-mail information from the received e-mail.   The electronic mail transmission / reception system according to claim 1, wherein the transmission mail information is a code. An e-mail transmission / reception system having a relay server that receives an e-mail sent from a sending server that sends an e-mail via a communication network, converts the e-mail address, and forwards the e-mail to the receiving server. ,
The relay server includes transmission mail information registration means for setting transmission mail information based on user and e-mail attribute information;
A reception condition registration means for setting an email reception condition;
Receivable mail determination means for determining whether or not to transfer an e-mail based on the transmission mail information and the reception condition;
An e-mail transmission / reception system comprising: A transmitting server that transmits an e-mail input through a sender terminal, a receiving server that receives the e-mail via a communication network and outputs the e-mail to a receiver terminal, and the e-mail satisfies a predetermined receiving condition. An e-mail transmission / reception system having a monitoring server for determining whether or not
The transmitting server includes subscription information adding means for adding subscription information in an e-mail,
When there is subscription information in the e-mail, the receiving server makes an inquiry to the monitoring server as to whether or not the e-mail satisfies a predetermined receiving condition, and based on the notification from the monitoring server Receivable mail inquiry means for determining whether to output the e-mail to the receiving terminal,
The monitoring server includes transmission mail information registration means for setting transmission mail information based on user and e-mail attribute information;
A reception condition registration means for setting an email reception condition;
Receivable mail determination means for determining whether or not an e-mail can be received based on the transmission mail information and the reception condition when inquired from the reception server, and notifying the reception server;
An e-mail transmission / reception system comprising: An e-mail transmission / reception method for determining whether or not the e-mail can be received based on transmission mail information based on user and e-mail attribute information included in the e-mail,
Setting e-mail receiving conditions on the e-mail server;
Determining whether or not the transmission mail information included in the email satisfies the reception condition, and if it satisfies the step, outputting the content of the email to the recipient terminal; and
An e-mail transmission / reception method comprising:

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