KR20020030704A - An E-mail service system with anti-spam mail using virtual E-mail addresses and method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A system and a method for blocking the spam mail using a virtual e-mail address are provided to prevent a user from receiving a spam mail and to protect the privacy relating to the e-mail address of user. CONSTITUTION: The system comprises a virtual e-mail address generator(10) generating a virtual e-mail address for the registered user's ID, a service controller controlling to transmit an e-mail to a real user in case of a valid address after deciding the validity of sender and receiver address of the sending/receiving e-mail, a user information database(30) storing the user information registering to the e-mail service using a virtual e-mail address, a virtual e-mail address information database(40) storing the information of virtual e-mail address of registered user, and an e-mail service part(50) to enable the registered user to send/receive an e-mail. The configuration of virtual e-mail address information database comprises a virtual user name, a real user name, a valid sender address, a valid receiver address and the other information, and assigns several virtual user names to one real user ID.

Description

An E-mail service system with anti-spam mail using virtual E-mail addresses and method therefor}

The present invention relates to a system for preventing spam mail using a virtual email address and a method thereof. In particular, a user sends an email to a counterpart using a virtual email address instead of his or her actual email address, The present invention relates to a spam mail prevention service system using a virtual email address and to a method for receiving only an email sent from a selected sender.

Due to the rapid spread of the Internet, the number of Internet users is gradually increasing, and various Internet services are also becoming common. In particular, the e-mail service is the most basic of the Internet services, which can quickly send a lot of information at a low cost, rapidly replacing the postal system and becoming the most convenient and universal means of exchanging information between individuals. have.

Early e-mails were mainly used for one-on-one communication or communication between individuals, but nowadays individual-group communication or communication is possible because it is possible to reliably deliver information to a specific or unspecified number at low cost. It is also used a lot. Representative examples of such 1: n email transmissions include mailing lists and advertising emails. First, in the case of a mailing list, users form a group by actively subscribing to a service, and form a form of exchanging e-mail within these groups. In addition, in the case of advertising e-mail, a third party acquires e-mail addresses of a plurality of users and delivers the contents intended regardless of the intention of the user. Moreover, more and more companies are now using legitimate or illegal forms of email, as these days the effectiveness of advertising with email is known to be cheaper and more effective than with other media, with anyone having more than one email address. Doing.

Among such advertising e-mails, spam mails are continuously and repeatedly transmitted even if the recipient does not want to send a large amount of indiscriminately advertised e-mail without the recipient's consent. As a result, most of the e-mails delivered to them are often unsolicited e-mails, and as the amount of these e-mails increases more and more, it is more difficult for the user to screen the e-mails that he / she needs. There is a problem that wastes a lot of time.

Early e-mail systems exacerbate this problem by making e-mails delivered to recipients as long as the recipients are accurate, regardless of who the sender is. In response, some attempted to warn or protest by sending an email back through the address of the sender who sent a large amount of spam. However, because the email sender can manipulate the sender's address of the email, sometimes a warning or protest email is delivered to an unrelated person.

Recently, a method of allowing or rejecting only e-mail from a specific sender has emerged, but a method of blocking e-mail from a specific sender is inefficient considering the number of e-mail users around the world. In addition, the sender of spam mail has been deliberately avoided by changing the sender's email address when sending an email. The method of only allowing e-mail from a specific sender may be useful for a user who has a small number of e-mail addresses used, but there is a problem in that a large number of users are not useful when a large list of senders to allow. In addition, as the sender's email address changes, it is inconvenient to constantly add, delete, and change this list.

Therefore, the original method to solve the above problems is to cover up their e-mail address from the third party who do not want and to disclose the e-mail address only to those who need. At this point, it may be safe to disclose your e-mail address to a trusted individual, but nowadays many Internet sites require your e-mail address for informational purposes. It is difficult. As a result, once exposed, his e-mail address information flows to a large number of unspecified masses, causing a lot of advertising e-mails to be sent to the user.

The present invention has been created to solve the above problems, each user to create and use a number of artificial virtual e-mail address whenever necessary to prevent the reception of spam mail and associated with their own e-mail address Its purpose is to help protect privacy.

In addition, the e-mail service method provided through the present invention provides each user with his or her own virtual e-mail address for an untrusted e-mail sender, each user having multiple virtual e-mail addresses. In addition, every time an e-mail is received, the sender for each virtual e-mail address is checked to match the sender already specified, and then the e-mail address information provided once by the third party is obtained by using the e-mail. It can prevent you from sending spam mails.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a system for preventing spam mail using a virtual email address according to the present invention;

2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a user information database according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram showing the configuration of a virtual email address information database according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

4 and 5 are a flow chart related to the anti-spam mail service method using a virtual e-mail address in accordance with the present invention.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

10: virtual email address generation unit 20: service control unit

30: user information database 40: virtual email address information database

50: E-mail Service Department

The anti-spam email service system using the virtual e-mail address of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises a virtual e-mail address generation unit for generating a virtual e-mail address for a user ID registered in the service, and a user who registers the service. A user information database for storing information about the user; a virtual e-mail address information database for storing information about the virtual e-mail address generated by the virtual e-mail address generator in response to the user ID; From the service control unit and the service control unit which compares the e-mail address with the information stored in the user information database and the virtual e-mail address information database to control the transmission of the e-mail to a real user when the e-mail address transmitted / received is a valid address. To send / receive authorized email to users Characterized by a portion configured e-mail service.

The anti-spam service method using the virtual e-mail address of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises the first step of inputting a variety of information input from the user to the user information database when the service subscription signal input from the user, A second step of generating a virtual e-mail address for the user ID input by the user and storing the virtual e-mail address in the virtual e-mail address information database; and sending the e-mail to the other party by using the generated virtual e-mail address. Step 3 and determination of steps 4 and 4 of determining whether the sender and receiver addresses of the received e-mail upon receipt of the e-mail from the other party are valid e-mail addresses associated with addresses registered in the virtual e-mail information database. Result If the e-mail address is valid, the e-mail is actually used as a virtual e-mail address. Characterized in that it includes a fifth step of transmitting to.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail an embodiment of the present invention.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an anti-spam mail service system using a virtual email address according to the present invention.

Referring to Figure 1, the system of the present invention is a virtual e-mail address generation unit 10 for generating a virtual e-mail address for the user ID registered in the service, and the e-mail sent / received from the e-mail service unit 50 The service control unit 20 determines whether the address is a valid sender and receiver address, and if the address is a valid address, controls the service control unit 20 to send an e-mail to a real user, and stores information about a user who registers an e-mail service using a virtual e-mail address. A user information database 30 to store information, a virtual e-mail address information database 40 storing information on a virtual e-mail address for a user registered in a service, and an e-mail for transmitting and receiving e-mail with a user who has registered a service. It is composed of a postal service unit 50.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration of the user information database 30 in the configuration of FIG. 1, which is composed of a user ID, a password, a real name and other information of the user, and the like.

3 shows the configuration of the virtual email address information database 40 in the configuration of FIG. 1, which is composed of a virtual user name, an actual user ID, a valid sender address, a valid recipient address, and other information. Multiple virtual usernames are assigned to a real user ID.

Referring to the configuration of Figures 1 to 3 will be described the operation of the present invention.

4 illustrates an operation process for transmitting an email using a virtual email address according to the present invention.

First, when a user subscribes to a service using a virtual e-mail address through the e-mail service unit 50, the user undergoes the same registration process as accessing an existing e-mail service. In order to obtain ID, which is a unique identifier in the service, simple personal information related to a user ID, a name, and the like, and an authentication password for exerting authority on a corresponding ID in the future are entered (step 102). If the domain name of the e-mail service to be used is called VirtualMailService.com and a user named 'Wait Sung' is issued an ID of 'saturn', an entry such as the first row of FIG. 2 is created in the user information database 30. The user information database 30 may be further extended in accordance with additional functions of an e-mail service such as a 'forwarding function'. Here, only the configuration of the database related to the essential functions of the present invention will be described.

The user then uses the virtual e-mail address using the registered ID after the service registration process. For example, if you register the ID 'saturn' with the email service han ***. Com, you will use the email address saturn@han***.com. However, the present invention does not use the e-mail address using the ID registered by the user, but generates a new e-mail address whenever necessary in the virtual e-mail address generation unit 10. Even if the ID 'saturn' is registered in the VirtualMailService.com as described above, in order to receive the service according to the present invention, the e-mail address of 'saturn@VirtualMailService.com' is not used. You will create a mailing address and use it.

When each user needs to inform his or her e-mail address after registering for an e-mail service using a virtual e-mail address, the virtual e-mail address generation unit 10 generates a virtual e-mail address according to the input user ID. (Step 103) In this case, since the domain name corresponding to the end of @ is already determined in the virtual e-mail address, the virtual user name in front of @ may be generated by the virtual e-mail address generation unit 10. Here, the virtual e-mail address generation unit 10 may generate a virtual user name in a free manner in a range that does not violate the international standard related to the e-mail address, and may be sequentially generated, such as '00000000' to 'FFFFFFFF'. In addition, the random number generator can be used to generate randomly, and one-way functions such as MD5 can be used.

As described above, a situation in which a user needs to inform his or her e-mail address may be generally classified as follows. 1) send a personal e-mail to a third party; 2) sign up for a mailing list; and 3) register for an Internet site, and the site requires its own e-mail address.

First, in the case of 1), if the person to whom the e-mail is to be sent is not a trusted person, the virtual e-mail address must be entered in the sender field of the e-mail. For example, if an e-mail is sent to a person with an e-mail address of 'unknown@unknown.com', the service controller 20 requests a virtual user name to be disclosed to a user of 'unknown@unknown.com'. do. Then, the virtual e-mail address generation unit 10 generates an arbitrary virtual user name such as 'P0000000' which allows only an e-mail address user of 'unknown@unknown.com' to send an e-mail. Subsequently, the service control unit 20 generates a virtual email address of 'P0000000@VirtualMailService.com' and inputs an ID, a valid email sender address, and a virtual user name (or virtual email address) as shown in FIG. 3. The information is recorded in the database 40 and then informed to the user. Next, the user enters 'P0000000@VirtualMailService.com', a virtual e-mail address obtained from the service control unit 20, in the sender field of the e-mail, enters 'unknown@unknown.com' in the recipient field, and then e-mails. The e-mail may be sent using the service unit 50 (step 104).

In addition, even when subscribing to the mailing list as shown in 2), the e-mail address provided to the mailing list may be used to send spam mails due to the intention or leakage of the mailing list operator. do. The e-mail distributed through the mailing list is characterized by the fact that the registered anonymous majority of the mailing list can be a valid mail sender and the address of the recipient address mailing list, thereby recording the contents of the virtual e-mail information database 40. This case is slightly different from the case of 1). For example, when a user subscribes to a mailing list called 'maillist @ maillist', when the virtual control address is requested to the service control unit 20, the service control unit 20 only receives e-mail whose destination is 'maillist @ maillist'. It recognizes that it is a valid e-mail and controls the virtual e-mail address generation unit 10 to generate an arbitrary virtual user name such as 'M0000000' to be received. Then, the service control unit 20 generates a virtual e-mail address 'M0000000@VirtualMailService.com' and inputs an ID, a valid e-mail recipient address, and a virtual user name (or a virtual e-mail address) as shown in FIG. 3. The information is recorded in the database 40 and then informed to the user. The user can subscribe to the mailing list through the virtual e-mail address sent to 'M0000000@VirtualMailService.com'.

In addition, as shown in 3), when an e-mail address is required for registration on an Internet site, such a site requires an e-mail address for marketing activities through e-mail. In most cases, it is possible for operators to share the e-mail addresses of individuals obtained through this method with multiple providers as needed to send numerous spam messages later. If you want to receive e-mails from registered Internet sites, you will need to obtain a new virtual e-mail address from the system as well. It's hard to predict how to fill it out. For example, when a user registers on the Internet site 'www.shoppingmail.com', the user requests a virtual e-mail address from the service control unit 20 and the virtual e-mail address generator 10 sends the sender's e-mail. Only the e-mail whose address ends with 'shoppingmail.com' is recognized as a valid e-mail, and the virtual e-mail address generation unit 10 controls to generate an arbitrary virtual user name such as 'S0000000' to be received. Then, the service control unit 20 generates a virtual e-mail address of 'S0000000@VirtualMailService.com' and displays the ID, a pattern of a valid e-mail sender address, and a virtual user name (or virtual e-mail address) as shown in FIG. 3. It records the postal address information database 40 and informs the user of this. The user simply registers on the Internet site via the sent virtual email address of 'S0000000@VirtualMailService.com'.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a process of confirming whether the e-mail is valid when the e-mail is received by the service control unit 20 according to the present invention.

If the user's virtual e-mail address is disclosed to the outside through the above-described operation process, the user expects to receive the e-mail only from the place where the virtual e-mail address information is delivered. Existing e-mail system not only receives a lot of spam mails, but also privacy because anyone who has obtained e-mail address information can send e-mail to the user successfully once his e-mail address is disclosed. The situation could take place until the infringement of. However, when the e-mail is sent using the virtual e-mail address as in the present invention, the e-mail can be effectively blocked through the operation of FIG. 5 as follows.

First, when an e-mail sent by an anonymous user arrives at an e-mail service system using a virtual e-mail address (step 201), the service control unit 20 checks to which e-mail address the e-mail is to be delivered. Step 202) This is distinct from what is written in the recipient address (TO: or CC :) field of the MAIL DATA, which is defined by the International Standard for Sending Email that does not appear in the contents of the email. It only appears on the protocol between the server and the receiving server (SMTP) ('RCPT TO:' entry). For example, if an email is received through the mailing list maillist@maillist.com, the recipient field in the email content is It is 'maillist@maillist.com', but it is delivered to each mailing list user separately, so the destination address on SMTP is the same as M0000000@VirtualMailService.com. appear. The service control unit 20 searches the virtual email information database 30 described in FIG. 3 for the recipient of the email to be delivered by the email sending server, which is found at this time, and if the virtual email address does not exist. The mail is rejected (step 203). For example, as shown in FIG. 3, three virtual email addresses of 'M0000000@VirtualMailService.com' and 'S0000000@VirtualMailService.com' such as 'P0000000@VirtualMailService.com' are currently displayed. If an email is to be sent to the address 'X0000000@VirtualMailService.com', the service control unit refuses to receive the email.

If the recipient address on the SMTP is a valid recipient address on the virtual email address service, the service control unit 20 reads information on the virtual email address from the virtual email address information database 40. This information includes 1) a valid sender address, 2) a valid recipient address, and 3) a real user ID. The sender address in the header of the contents of the received email is compared with the recipient address field. Here, if the 'valid sender address' information retrieved from the virtual email address information database 40 has a non-NULL value, it is compared with the email address written in the sender address field of the contents of the email (step 204). The valid sender address information is recorded in the form of a specific sender address or a regular expression of the sender address. Accordingly, the service control unit 20 compares whether the sender address on the e-mail matches this, and if there is a mismatch, the third party other than a valid sender attempts to transmit the e-mail and rejects the e-mail. (Step 205) Also, the 'valid recipient address' information retrieved from the virtual email address information database 40 is also similarly compared with the recipient address on the contents of the email (step 206) and rejects the reception of the email if it does not match. (Step 207) If all of these comparisons pass and there is no problem, the e-mail is considered valid e-mail and is delivered to the actual user of the virtual e-mail address (step 208).

As mentioned earlier, if the virtual email address'P0000000@VirtualMailService.com is only valid for senders unknown@unknown.com, a third party, e.g. third_party@third_party.com, may use this virtual email. Even if the address is found and sent to the corresponding virtual email address, unknown@unknown.com is a valid sender address for the virtual email address 'P0000000@VirtualMailService.com' recorded in the virtual email address information database 40. Inconsistent with, the email is not delivered to the actual user. In addition, in the case of a mailing list, the sender may be different, so the comparison is performed using a recipient address. For example, a third party may include an e-mail called 'M0000000@VirtualMailService.com' included in a mailing list called maillist@maillist.com. When sending an email with this address specified directly as a recipient using postal address information, the recipient address of this email, 'M0000000@VirtualMailService.com', is a valid recipient address defined on the virtual email information database, maillist @ maillist. Since it is inconsistent with .com, email is rejected. Also, if the recipient address is sent to another form of mailing list address, the e-mail reception is similarly rejected. For example, the email address 'M0000000@VirtualMailService.com' is not listed because the address saleslist@sales.com is inconsistent with maillist@maillist.com, which is a valid recipient address defined on the virtual email address information database 40. Receipt of mail is refused.

If the e-mail is delivered from the last registered Internet site, the e-mail recipient's address may use the virtual e-mail address you provided, or you may create your own mailing list to use this address. Will be checked. When a virtual e-mail address such as 'S0000000@VirtualMailService.com' is provided to an internet site as shown in FIG. 3, the service control unit expects the sender address in the e-mail content to include the domain name of the corresponding internet site. For example, if the sender address is sales@shoppingmall.com, this matches the pattern * .shoppingmall.com, so the email is received by the actual user. However, if another third party, for example, a sender address of sales@other_company.com, sends an email through that virtual email address, the sender address sales@other_company.com is a valid * .shoppingmall.com. Receipt of email to the actual user is rejected because it does not match the recipient address pattern.

If, in the past, you provided a virtual email address so that you could send it to yourself, and you no longer wish to receive the sender's email, you can send it to the sender without sending a request to stop sending it. By deleting only the relevant virtual e-mail address at 40, it is possible to prevent e-mail reception from the sender, thereby not affecting other e-mail reception at all.

As such, when a public e-mail address is disclosed using an e-mail service using a virtual e-mail address, most users of the e-mail use such as e-mail transmission between individuals, mailing lists, and e-mails from Internet sites are You can receive only the e-mail you want, block out spam from third parties, and protect your privacy from outside as well as e-mail address information.

As described above, the anti-spam service system and method using the virtual e-mail address of the present invention provides the following effects.

First, it is possible to send an e-mail or provide e-mail address information to an untrusted object through a virtual e-mail address without revealing its actual e-mail address to the outside.

Second, even if a third party acquires the virtual e-mail address information provided by the user, the third party can refuse to receive the e-mails transmitted by the third party.

Third, if it is necessary to receive e-mail from a specific sender allowed in the past, it can be rejected at any time without affecting other e-mail reception.

Fourth, the service user is freed from spam mail and receives only the necessary e-mails, thereby preventing waste of time searching for e-mails, and freely using various e-mails without worrying about privacy related to his e-mail address information. You can implement a service.

Claims (9)

A virtual email address generator for generating a virtual email address for the user ID registered in the service; A user information database that stores information about a user who has registered the service; A virtual email address information database for storing information on the virtual email address generated by the virtual email address generator in response to the user ID; By comparing the transmitted / received e-mail address with the information stored in the user information database and the virtual e-mail address information database, if the sent / received e-mail address is a valid address, controlling to transmit the e-mail to a real user. Service control unit; And The spam mail prevention service system using a virtual email address, characterized in that the e-mail service unit for transmitting / receiving the e-mail authorized from the service control unit to the user. The method of claim 1, wherein the user information database is Anti-spam email service system using a virtual e-mail address, characterized in that classified by the user ID, password, the user's real name and other information. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual email address information database is An anti-spam email service system using a virtual e-mail address, characterized by being classified into a virtual user name, real user ID, valid sender address, valid recipient address, and other information. A first step of inputting various information input from the user into the user information database when the service subscription signal is input from the user; Generating a virtual email address for the user ID input by the user and storing the virtual email address in a virtual email address information database; A third step of transmitting an email to a counterpart by using the generated virtual email address of the user; A fourth step of determining whether the sender and receiver addresses of the received e-mail when the e-mail is received from the counterpart are valid e-mail addresses associated with addresses registered in the virtual e-mail address information database; And And a fifth step of transmitting the corresponding e-mail to a real user of the virtual e-mail address when the determination result of the fourth step is a valid e-mail address. The method of claim 4, wherein the second step Anti-spam service method using a virtual e-mail address, characterized in that to generate a virtual e-mail address in a sequential manner, such as "FFFFFFFF" from '00000000'. The method of claim 4, wherein the second step A method for preventing spam mail using a virtual email address, characterized by generating a virtual email address in a non-sequential manner using a random number generator The method of claim 4, wherein the second step A method for preventing spam mail using a virtual email address, wherein the virtual email address is generated using a one-way function such as MD5. The method of claim 4, wherein the fourth step Determining whether an address of a received email exists in the virtual email address information database; Determining whether a sender address of the received email matches an address registered in the virtual email address information database; And And determining whether the recipient address of the received e-mail matches an address registered in the virtual e-mail address information database. The method of claim 4 or 8, wherein the fourth step A method for preventing spam mail using a virtual e-mail address, characterized in that it is determined primarily whether or not a mail is received by determining whether the recipient on the SMTP protocol of the received e-mail is valid through the virtual e-mail address information database.