METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EMPLOYING AUTOMATIC REPLY SYSTEMS TO DETECT E-MAIL SCAMMER IP ADDRESSES

A method and apparatus for employing automatic reply systems to detect e-mail scammer IP addresses whereby a decoy system to receive illegitimate e-mails, also known as a “honeypot” is established. E-mails sent to the honeypot decoy e-mail addresses are initially scanned and preliminarily identified as scam e-mails and the fact that the scammer must make contact with the intended user/victim is exploited by analyzing the scam e-mail to identify one or more e-mail addresses in either the header or the body of the preliminarily identified scam e-mail. The one or more identified e-mail addresses are then extracted and fabricated reply e-mails are generated that include one or more mechanisms for ascertaining the IP address of the scammer. The fabricated reply e-mails are then sent to the one or more identified e-mail addresses and when the scammer takes the necessary action, the IP address and browser information associated with scammer is obtained.