System and method to prevent spoofed communication through out-of-band verification

摘要

The disclosed subject matter addresses the problem of spoofing by directly and transparently communicating with the apparent sender of the potentially spoofed incoming message or with the communications network handing the communication of the potentially spoofed incoming message. The address of the recipient device of the potentially spoofed incoming message is compared with addresses of communication sent from the apparent sender. As a result of this comparison, it may be determined whether the phone call or message was sent from the apparent source or was spoofed. The times associated with messages sent from the indicated sender and times associated with the incoming message may also be used to determine the authenticity of the apparent sender. The recipient is of the incoming message is notified of a spoofed message.

主权项

1. In a communication network wherein an incoming message intended for a recipient device includes a source identifier indicating the incoming message's sender, and wherein the source identifier is subject to possible message spoofing so as to appear to originate from a sender other than the true sender, a method of determining the authenticity of the source identifier of the sender comprising:
obtaining at least one destination identifier associated with one or more outgoing messages sent from a communication device associated with the source identifier extracted from the incoming message; comparing the at least one destination identifier and a recipient identifier associated with the recipient device; determining if the source identifier is authentic based upon the comparison; and notifying the recipient device of the determination; wherein the step of obtaining the at least one destination identifier associated with one or more outgoing messages sent from the communication device further comprises: receiving an outgoing message, generated at the recipient device, at the validation server; the outgoing message including a source identifier extracted from the incoming message received at the recipient device, and, sending from the validation server a query to the communication device associated with the source identifier and receiving a response from the communication device, wherein the response includes the at least one destination identifier.