Methods and apparatus to detect and block unwanted fax calls

• US 20070116213A1
• Filed: 10/13/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tiliks, Dianna, Heinmiller, Wayne, Gruchala, Carol
• Application Number:
  US11/250,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20070116213A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/100.10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/57 Arrangements for indicating or recording the number of the calling subscriber at the called subscriber's set at the operator set in a manual exchange H04M5/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32005 Automation of particular receiver jobs, e.g. rejecting unwanted calls requesting a communication from a transmitter H04N1/32771; with picture signal storage for forwarding messages H04N1/32358
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3201 Rejecting unwanted calls

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are disclosed to detect and block fax calls. An example method disclosed herein detects a fax call from a calling number; blocks the fax call if the calling number is associated with a caller to be blocked identified in a database and the fax call is sent to a subscriber; and attempts to identify a presence of a war-dialing technique.

Claims

1. A method to block fax calls comprising:

detecting a fax call associated with a calling number;

blocking the fax call if the calling number is associated with a caller to be blocked identified in a database; and

attempting to identify a presence of a war-dialing technique.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising blocking the fax call if the presence of a war-dialing technique is identified and the fax call is sent to a subscriber, and permitting the fax call if the presence of a war-dialing technique is identified and the fax call is sent to a non-subscriber.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein attempting to identify the presence of the war-dialing technique comprises evaluating destination numbers called from the calling number for at least one predetermined pattern characteristic of war-dialing.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the at least one predetermined pattern comprises at least one of:

(a) a plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers dialed simultaneously and/or, (b) a plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers dialed sequentially.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 wherein adjacent numbers in the plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers are each separated by a multiple.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein detecting the fax call comprises monitoring for fax tones with at least one of an IP/SN device and a fax-tone detector.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising querying a subscriber list for calling numbers to be identified by a subscriber.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 wherein the calling numbers identified by the subscriber are designated to be blocked or designated to not be blocked.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising executing at least one user defined fax call routing rule, the fax call routing rule comprising at least one of allowing fax calls for an identified calling number, blocking fax calls for an identified calling number, and blocking fax calls exceeding one or more predetermined calling thresholds.

10. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising automatically sending a return fax to the calling number if the fax call is blocked.

11. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein if the presence of a war-dialing technique is detected, the calling number is identified in the database as associated with the caller to be blocked.

12. An article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

detect fax calls associated with a calling number;

block the fax call if the calling number is associated with a caller to be blocked identified in a database; and

attempt to identify a presence of war-dialing technique.

13. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 12 wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to block the fax call if the presence of a war-dialing technique is identified and the fax call is sent to a subscriber, and to permit the fax call if the presence of a war-dialing technique is identified and the fax call is sent to a non-subscriber.

14. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 12 wherein the machine readable instructions attempt to identify the presence of the war-dialing technique by evaluating destination numbers called from the calling number for at least one predetermined pattern characteristic of war-dialing.

15. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 14 wherein the at least one predetermined pattern comprises:

(a) a plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers dialed simultaneously and/or, (b) a plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers dialed sequentially.

16. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 12 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to automatically send a return fax to the calling number if the fax is blocked.

17. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 12 wherein if the presence of a war-dialing technique is identified, the machine readable instructions cause the machine to identify the calling number in the database as associated with the caller to be blocked.

18. An apparatus to block fax calls comprising:

a pattern-trap to identify originating phone numbers exhibiting a calling pattern indicative of fax-marketing;

a fax-originator database to store identities of callers to be blocked; and

a fax-originator detector in communication with the fax-originator database to determine if a fax call should be blocked.

19. An apparatus as defined in claim 18 further comprising a fax-tone detector to detect fax calls.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 18 further comprising a customer blocking service interface to facilitate subscriber configuration of fax call blocking.

21. An apparatus as defined in claim 18 wherein the calling pattern comprises at least one of:

(a) a plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers dialed simultaneously and/or, (b) a plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers dialed sequentially.

22. An apparatus as defined in claim 21 wherein the numerically consecutive destination numbers are separated by a multiple.

23. An apparatus as defined in claim 18 wherein the fax-originator database comprises a fax caller record.

24. An apparatus as defined in claim 18 further comprising a fax-back module to fax a return fax message to the callers to be blocked associated with a blocked call.

25. A method to identify callers to be blocked comprising:

identifying a plurality of fax calls from an originating number;

evaluating the calls to determine if they fit a war-dialing pattern; and

identifying the originating number as being associated with the caller to be blocked if the calls fit the war-dialing pattern.

26. A method as defined in claim 25 wherein the war-dialing pattern comprises at least one of:

(a) a plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers dialed simultaneously and/or, (b) a plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers dialed sequentially.

27. A method as defined in claim 26 wherein adjacent numbers in the plurality of numerically consecutive destination numbers are each separated by a multiple.

28. A method as defined in claim 25 wherein the war-dialing pattern comprises placing a predetermined number of fax calls in a predetermined time period.

29. A method as defined in claim 25 wherein the war-dialing pattern comprises placing a predetermined number of fax calls to sequential numbers.

30. A method as defined in claim 25 wherein identifying the originating number as being associated with the caller to be blocked comprises adding the originating numbers to a fax-originator database.