Abstract: In one embodiment of the present invention, a method is disclosed for the automatic classification of a text contained in an incoming electronic information. At least one qualitative characteristic of at least one word of the text to be classified is determined and the frequency of occurrence of the qualitative characteristic in the text to be classified is also determined. The text to be classified is converted into a sequence of alphanumerical characters, the sequence of alphanumerical characters is dismantled in at least one specified way to form so-called character shingles, and the frequency of occurrence of the character shingle in the text to be classified is determined. A vector is formed from the qualitative characteristic and the associated frequency as well as from the character shingle and the associated frequency.