As the usage of electronic mail (e-mail) and cellular text messages continues to increase, so does the volume of unsolicited commercial communications (or
Spam) being sent to e-mail and text message users. The volume of spam has long been viewed as a damning threat to the utility of e-mail and text messaging as effective communication media, prompting many proposed solutions to combat the
Reception of spam. Among these solutions are systems that accept communications only from pre-approved senders and/or formats, or filters that search the text of incoming communications for keywords generally indicative of spam.

Imagery (or links to images) for the purposes of filtering or categorizing the communication. As used herein, the term spam refers to any unsolicited electronic communications, including advertisements and communications designed for phishing (e. G., designed to elicit personal information by posing as a legitimate institution such as a bank or internet service provider), among others. The proposed methods can also be used for monitoring of outbound e-mails by corporations to detect communications including proprietary or company confidential material (such as screenshots of source code).