JP2003348165A - Electronic mail delivery system, electronic mail delivery method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correct an inflexible system of uniformly abandoning the mails delivered mails at the first time from the transmission sources. <P>SOLUTION: When discriminating that permission information is not described in a received mail, a mail server 10 recognizes that the transmission source of the received mail is a transmitter who has transmitted the mail to the mail server 10 at the first time, the mail server 10 extracts transmission source information indicating the transmission source from the received mail. Thereafter, the mail server 10 generates a transmission source information mail including the extracted transmission source information and transmits the generated transmission source information mail to a mail client terminal 40 being a transmission destination. The server 10 refers to the transmitted transmission source information mail to generate a transmission permission mail which explains permission information which the transmission source should describe in the mails to be delivered in the case that the transmission destination permits following mail delivery from the transmission source, and how to describe the permission information. Then the server 10 delivers the generated transmission permission mail to the transmission destination. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail distribution system, an electronic mail distribution method, and a program for preventing distribution of unsolicited e-mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, exchange of e-mails has been generally performed, but unsolicited e-mails which a recipient does not want have been distributed. As techniques for preventing the distribution of unsolicited e-mail, JP-A-2000-244553 and JP-A-2001-217861 disclose a passcode (a password, a password, a pin code, etc.) of a mail recipient at the time of mail transmission. The mail system side compares the passcode with the passcode acquired and registered in advance from the recipient, and if they are the same,
An electronic mail distribution system that performs mail distribution processing is disclosed.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open
000-244553 and JP-A-2001-217
The e-mail distribution system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 861 collates a pass code of a mail transmitted on the mail system side with a pass code acquired and registered in advance from a receiver, and when the same is found, Has a problem in that it is a rigid system in which a mail sent for the first time is uniformly discarded because the mail is delivered. Therefore, in the above e-mail distribution system, even if there is an e-mail required for the recipient, the e-mail is overlooked.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail distribution system or the like in which a rigid system for uniformly discarding mail from a sender who has delivered mail for the first time is corrected.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic mail distribution system according to a first aspect of the present invention is provided in which permission information for permitting reception of a mail is described at a predetermined position in the received mail. An e-mail distribution system that includes permission information discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the permission information has been described, and only when the permission information discrimination means determines that the permission information is described. When it is determined that the permission information is not described in the received mail by the permission information determination means, extraction means for extracting transmission source information indicating a transmission source from the received mail, Source information mail generating means for generating a source information mail including the extracted source information, and the source generated by the source information mail generating means A source information mail transmitting means for transmitting a report mail to the transmission destination; and the transmission destination referring to the transmission source information mail transmitted by the transmission source information mail transmission means, the transmission destination is transmitted from the transmission source. The permission information described in the mail distributed by the transmission source, and transmission permission mail generating means for generating a transmission permission mail describing how to describe the permission information, when the distribution of the mail is permitted thereafter, Reply mail transmitting means for transmitting the transmission permission mail generated by the transmission permission mail generation means to the transmission source.

According to such a configuration, it is possible to correct a rigid system of uniformly discarding mail from a sender who has delivered mail for the first time.

[0007] The permission information may include a passcode.

[0008] The transmission permission mail generation means, upon receiving a reply mail to the mail from the transmission destination which referred to the transmission source information mail transmitted by the transmission source information mail transmission means, refers to the received reply mail. Then, the transmission permission mail may be generated.

Further, the electronic mail distribution method according to the second aspect of the present invention, as a result of determining whether or not permission information for permitting reception of a mail is described in a predetermined portion of the received mail, Only when it is determined that the permission information is described, it is an electronic mail distribution method of delivering the mail to the destination, and when it is determined that the permission information is not described in the received mail, the received mail is received. Sender information indicating a sender is extracted from the mail, a sender information mail including the extracted sender information is generated, the generated sender information mail is transmitted to the destination, and the transmitted sender is transmitted. The permission information described in the mail distributed by the transmission source when the transmission destination permits distribution of the mail from the transmission source thereafter from the transmission destination referred to the information mail; It generates a transmission permission email explaining how to predicate, and transmits the generated the transmission permission mail to the sender.

According to such a configuration, it is possible to correct a rigid system of uniformly discarding mail from a sender who has delivered mail for the first time.

[0011] When a reply mail to the mail is received from the destination referring to the transmitted source information mail, the transmission permission mail may be generated by referring to the received reply mail. .

The program according to a third aspect of the present invention determines whether or not permission information for permitting reception of a mail is described in a predetermined portion of the received mail. A program that delivers the mail to a destination only when it is determined that the mail is described,
If it is determined that the permission information is not described in the received mail, a procedure for extracting sender information indicating a sender from the received mail, generating a sender information mail including the extracted sender information A step of transmitting the generated source information mail to the destination, and a step of permitting the destination to distribute the mail from the source from the destination referring to the transmitted source information mail. A step of generating the permission information described in the mail distributed by the transmission source, a procedure of generating a transmission permission mail explaining how to describe the permission information, and a step of transmitting the generated transmission permission mail to the transmission source. Is executed by the computer.

[0013] According to such a configuration, it is possible to correct a rigid system in which mail from a sender who has delivered mail for the first time is uniformly discarded.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an electronic mail distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. <First Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic mail distribution system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. This e-mail distribution system uses a mail server (M
SV) 10 and a passcode management server (PMS) 20
, A mail spooler (MSP) 30, and a mail client (MCL) terminal 40.

The mail server 10 includes a mail transfer agent (MTA) 11 and performs, for example, the following processing according to the mail transfer agent 11. The mail transfer agent 11 is a mail client terminal 40 that does not wish to distribute unsolicited mail.
When an e-mail is sent to the user, it is determined whether or not a passcode (described later) of the called party is described at a predetermined position in the transmitted e-mail. , The mail is sent to the mail client terminal 4
Deliver to 0. Mail transfer agent 11
Receives the mail created by the mail client terminal 40, stores the mail in the mail spooler 30, and notifies the delivery destination that the mail has been delivered.

The passcode management server 20 includes a passcode management agent (PMA) 21 and a passcode database (PDB) 22. The passcode management agent 21 checks whether the passcode input from the mail transfer agent 11 is registered in the passcode database 22 and performs control such as notifying the mail transfer agent 11 of the result. The passcode database 22 stores passcode data including a passcode as shown in FIG. 2, which indicates whether or not the transmitted mail is junk mail. The passcode data is the destination (recipient) of the e-mail described at a predetermined location in the transmitted e-mail.
And data items including a passcode held for each mail address.

The mail spooler 30 is provided in an information processing device (not shown), and stores mail delivered from a transmission source and mail delivered to a transmission destination.

The mail client terminal 40 includes a mail utility agent (MUA) 41 and an application (AP) 42. The mail utility agent 41 is a so-called mailer, generates mail, and transmits the generated mail to the mail server 10. The application 42 is an application program for deleting or updating the contents of the passcode data registered in the passcode database 22.

Next, the operation of the electronic mail distribution system of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. When the mail server 10 receives a mail (step S1), the mail transfer agent 11 writes a pass code of the transmission destination in <> in a predetermined portion of the received mail, for example, in the title portion of the header portion. It is determined whether or not there is (step S2).

The mail transfer agent 11
If it is determined that the passcode is not described in the title part (step S2; N), the process proceeds to step S11. On the other hand, the mail transfer agent 11
If it is determined that the passcode is described in the title part (step S2; Y), the passcode is read, and the read passcode is output to the passcode management server 20 (step S3). An instruction to notify whether or not the passcode is registered in the passcode database 22 is output to the passcode management server 20 (step S4).

When the passcode management server 20 receives the above instruction, the passcode management agent 21 searches the passcode database 22 to determine whether the passcode is registered in the passcode database 22 (step). S5). Passcode management agent 21
When it is determined that the passcode is registered in the passcode database 22 (step S5; Y), a notification to the effect that the passcode is registered is output to the mail transfer agent 11 (step S6). On the other hand, if it is determined that the passcode is not registered in the passcode database 22 (step S5; N), a notice to the effect that the passcode is not registered is output to the mail transfer agent 11 (step S7).

After that, when the above-mentioned notice is input from the passcode management agent 21, the mail transfer agent 11 determines the reply to the notice (step S).
8). That is, the mail transfer agent 11
Upon receiving notification from the passcode management agent 21 that the passcode is registered in the passcode database 22 (step S8; notification of registration), the mail received earlier is sent to the mail spooler 30. In addition to storing (distributing), the fact that the mail has been delivered is notified to the mail client terminal 40, which is the delivery destination of this mail (step S9), and the process ends.

On the other hand, the mail transfer agent 1
When receiving a notification that the passcode is not registered in the passcode database 22 (step S8; notification that the passcode is not registered), the passcode is described in the e-mail. An error mail indicating that the error mail has not been generated is generated, the generated error mail is stored in the mail spooler 30, and the mail is transmitted to the mail spooler 30. Thereafter, the mail transfer agent 11 notifies the mail client terminal 40, which is the destination of the mail, that the transmitted mail and error mail have been delivered (step 10), and ends the processing.

In step S2, when the mail transfer agent 11 determines that the pass code is not described in the title portion in the transmitted mail (step S2; N), the mail transfer agent 11 determines the source of the received mail. It recognizes the sender as the sender who sent it to us for the first time, reads the header part as the information of the sender, and generates a mail (hereinafter referred to as a sender information mail) shown in FIG. 5 that describes the contents of the read header part. Thereafter, the mail transfer agent 11 transmits the generated sender information mail to the mail spooler 30, and notifies the mail client terminal 40, which is the destination of the mail, of a notification indicating that the sender information mail has been delivered. (Step S1
1).

The source information mail shown in FIG. 5 describes the header of the transmitted mail as described above.
In the main body of the e-mail, "This e-mail is the e-mail that has been delivered for the first time without a passcode described" is described.

When the mail client terminal 40 receives the above notification, the mail utility agent 41
Reads the sender information mail from the mail spooler 30 (step S12). Thereafter, when a reply mail is delivered in response to the source information mail received by the user, the mail utility agent 41 uses the contents of the reply mail displayed on the display unit (not shown) by the user's operation to display the reply mail. The reply mail shown in FIG. 6A is generated, and the generated reply mail is transmitted to the mail server 10 (step S13).

Upon receiving the reply mail from the mail client terminal 40, the mail utility agent 41 of the mail client terminal 40 sends the reply mail to the mail transfer agent 11 (step S13).

The mail transfer agent 11
When the reply mail is received from the mail client terminal 40, the mail address of the sender (replyer) described in the header of the reply mail is read, and the pass code is transmitted so as to transmit the pass data corresponding to the read mail address. Output an instruction to the management server 20 (step S
14).

When the passcode management server 20 receives the above instruction, the passcode management agent 21 reads the path data of the specified content from the passcode database 22 and outputs the read passcode to the mail transfer agent 11 ( Step S15).

The mail transfer agent 11
Upon receipt of the passcode, as shown in FIG. 6 (b), a transmission permission mail in which a request to write the passcode is described below the body of the reply mail when the mail is transmitted thereafter. Is generated and transmitted to the mail spooler 30 (step S16), and the fact that the transmission-permitted mail has been delivered to the reply destination is notified, and the process ends.

According to the electronic mail distribution system of this embodiment, the mail can be selectively received by checking for the presence or absence of the passcode described in the mail. Also, according to this e-mail distribution system, if the source of the distributed e-mail is the first time,
When the mail is delivered from the sender, the determination as to whether to discard the mail as unsolicited mail is made by referring to the sender information mail generated by referring to the header of the sent mail. Therefore, it is not necessary to examine the details of the body of the spam mail, and the above determination can be made quickly. Also, according to this e-mail distribution system, if the source of the distributed e-mail is the first time,
When receiving the mail delivered from the transmission source, a transmission permission mail is transmitted to the transmission source so as to transmit it by describing our passcode in the subject (Subject) in the title portion. Therefore, it is possible to correct a rigid system in which mail from a sender who has delivered mail for the first time is uniformly discarded. Further, according to this e-mail distribution system, a provider of a service for preventing the distribution of unsolicited e-mail requires only the address of the e-mail recipient and the passcode corresponding to this address as data required for the management. Management cost can be reduced.

<Second Embodiment> In the electronic mail distribution system according to the first embodiment, the mail spooler 30 stores the transmission-permitted mail in the same manner as other mails. A mail spooler may be provided separately. With such a configuration, it is possible to browse the transmission permission mail from the Internet, connect to the mail spooler management server via another provider (a provider whose usage fee is not metered),
The reply permission can be output by referring to the mail spooler. As a result, the burden of the usage fee of the user of the mail specification can be further reduced.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to correct a rigid system for uniformly discarding mail from a sender who has delivered mail for the first time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic mail distribution system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a passcode database in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the electronic mail distribution system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the electronic mail distribution system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a source information mail.

FIG. 6A illustrates an example of a reply mail. (B) is a diagram showing an example of a transmission permission mail.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Mail server (MSV) 11 Mail transfer agent (MTA) 12 Service User File 20 Passcode Management Server (PMS) 21 Passcode Management Agent (PMA) 22 Passcode Database (PDB) 30 Mail spooler (MSP) 40 Mail client (MCL) terminal 41 Mail Utility Agent (MUA) 42 Application (AP)

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: permission information discriminating means for discriminating whether permission information for permitting reception of the mail is described in a predetermined portion of the received mail, wherein said permission information is described by said permission information discriminating means. An electronic mail distribution system that delivers the mail to the destination only when it is determined that the permission information is described, and when it is determined that the permission information is not described in the mail received by the permission information determination unit, Extracting means for extracting source information indicating a source from the received mail; source information mail generating means for generating a source information mail including the source information extracted by the extracting means; Source information mail transmitting means for transmitting the source information mail generated by the source information mail generating means to the transmission destination; From the destination referring to the source information mail transmitted by the step, when the destination permits the distribution of the mail from the source thereafter,
The permission information described in the mail distributed by the transmission source, transmission permission mail generation means for generating a transmission permission mail explaining how to describe the permission information, and the transmission generated by the transmission permission mail generation means An e-mail distribution system, comprising: a reply e-mail transmission unit that transmits an permission e-mail to the transmission source. 2. The electronic mail delivery system according to claim 1, wherein said permission information includes a passcode. 3. The transmission permission mail generating means, upon receiving a reply mail to the mail from the transmission destination referring to the transmission source information mail transmitted by the transmission source information mail transmission means, receiving the reply The electronic mail distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the transmission permission mail is generated by referring to the mail. 4. A method for determining whether permission information for permitting reception of a mail is described in a predetermined portion of the received mail, and determining that the permission information is described, determines whether the permission information is described. Is an e-mail distribution method for distributing the e-mail to the destination, and when it is determined that the permission information is not described in the received e-mail, the transmission source information indicating the transmission source is extracted from the received e-mail, Generating a source information mail including the source information, transmitting the generated source information mail to the destination, and setting the destination to the destination by referring to the transmitted source information mail. When the distribution of the mail from the transmission source is permitted thereafter, the permission information to be described in the mail distributed by the transmission source and the transmission permission mail that describes how to describe the permission information are generated. It said transmission permission mail transmitted to the sender, e-mail delivery and wherein the a. 5. When a reply mail to the mail is received from the destination referring to the transmitted source information mail, the transmission permission mail is generated by referring to the received reply mail. The e-mail distribution method according to claim 4, wherein: 6. A method for determining whether permission information for permitting reception of a mail is described at a predetermined position in the received mail, and determining that the permission information is described, determines whether the permission information is described. Is a program for delivering the permission information to the transmission destination, and when it is determined that the permission information is not described in the received mail, a procedure for extracting transmission source information indicating a transmission source from the received mail, A step of generating a source information mail including source information; a step of transmitting the generated source information mail to the destination; and a step in which the destination is referred to by the destination referring to the transmitted source information mail. Generates the permission information described in the mail distributed by the transmission source and a transmission permission mail that describes how to describe the permission information when distribution of the mail from the transmission source is permitted thereafter. And a step of transmitting the generated transmission permission mail to the transmission source.