Call handling method for credit and fraud management
First Claim
1. A method for identifying whether a telephone call to be billed to a billing number in a telecommunications network is potentially fraudulent, comprising the steps of:
- (a) searching for said billing number in a network access interruption database;
(b) selectively enrolling said billing number in said network access interruption database if said billing number was not found in said searching step;
(c) accumulating a cost, if any, of prior calls charged to said billing number;
(d) measuring the cost of said call;
(e) adding said cost of said call to said cost of prior calls to form an accumulated cost;
(f) comparing said accumulated cost with a predetermined cost threshold limit; and
(g) identifying said call as potentially fraudulent when said accumulated cost exceeds said predetermined threshold limit.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Prior to completing a telephone call, a database is accessed within a telecommunications network to determine whether the call should be completed. The billing number to which the call is to be charged is compared to a customer record assigned to the billing number and stored in the database. The customer record is checked against a treatment category code which combines geographic call restrictions and thresholding. A call may be identified as potentially fraudulent and blocked if the customer record associated with the billing number indicates that the account is in arrears. In addition, at predetermined intervals during the progress of the call and at the end of each allowed call to be charged to that billing number, the time and/or cost of each call is estimated and added to the total stored in a user-defined threshold counter in the database. When the total stored in the counter exceeds a predetermined threshold limit, a potentially fraudulent call is identified. In this manner, call authorization is performed on a per call basis to prevent fraudulent telephone calls.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method for identifying whether a telephone call to be billed to a billing number in a telecommunications network is potentially fraudulent, comprising the steps of:
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(a) searching for said billing number in a network access interruption database; (b) selectively enrolling said billing number in said network access interruption database if said billing number was not found in said searching step; (c) accumulating a cost, if any, of prior calls charged to said billing number; (d) measuring the cost of said call; (e) adding said cost of said call to said cost of prior calls to form an accumulated cost; (f) comparing said accumulated cost with a predetermined cost threshold limit; and (g) identifying said call as potentially fraudulent when said accumulated cost exceeds said predetermined threshold limit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A system for identifying a telephone call within a telecommunications network as potentially fraudulent, comprising:
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(a) a switch for receiving said call in said network; (b) a processor for identifying the call as potentially fraudulent; (c) means for connecting said switch to said processor to enable said processor and switch to communicate with each other, said switch transmitting a query including a billing number associated with said call to said processor; (d) a network access interruption database connected to said processor, said network access interruption database comprising a table of customer records, each customer record being associated with a different billing number and each customer record comprising a user-defined call treatment category; said processor searching for said billing number in said network access interruption database; said processor selectively enrolling said billing number in said network access interruption database if said billing number was not found in said searching step; (e) a threshold counter stored in said network access interruption database for each customer record, said threshold counter capable of storing the total estimated cost of one or more types of calls charged to the billing number associated with the customer record while the call is in progress, wherein said one or more types of calls to be stored in said threshold counter being defined by said call treatment category; and (f) a predetermined threshold limit stored in said network access interruption database for each threshold counter, said threshold limit being defined by said call treatment category and said call being identified as potentially fraudulent when said total estimated cost stored in said threshold counter exceeds said predetermined threshold limit.
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31. An apparatus for use in conjunction with a telecommunications network to identify a telephone call as potentially fraudulent, comprising:
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(a) a processor in communication with a switch within said network, said processor adapted to receive a billing number associated with said call from said switch and further adapted to instruct said switch whether or not to complete said call; (b) a network access interruption database connected to said processor, said network access interruption database comprising a table of customer records, each customer record being associated with a different billing number and each customer record comprising a user-defined call treatment category; said processor searching for said billing number in said network access interruption database; said processor selectively enrolling said billing number in said network access interruption database if said billing number was not found in said searching step; (c) a threshold counter stored in said network access interruption database for each customer record, said threshold counter adapted to store the total estimated cost of one or more types of calls charged to the billing number associated with the customer record while the call is in progress, wherein said one or more types of calls to be stored in said threshold counter being defined by said call treatment category; and (f) a predetermined threshold limit stored in said network access interruption database for each threshold counter, said threshold limit being defined by said call treatment category and said call being identified as potentially fraudulent when said total estimated cost stored in said threshold counter exceeds said predetermined threshold limit.
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Specification