Method for detecting fraudulent use of a communications system
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for detecting fraud in wireless communications system comprising:
- establishing one or more call events in a wireless call sequence based on potential call activities of subscriber stations;
assigning codes corresponding to each of the subscriber stations, in response to occurrences of said call events, such that each subscriber station has a distinguishable code from all other subscriber stations even if at least two of the subscriber stations share a common subscriber identity;
maintaining a database of subscriber identities supplemented by the codes such that a unique combination of the code and the subscriber identity uniquely identifies each subscriber station;
identifying identical or common subscriber identities with corresponding different codes in the database, any common subscriber identities with different codes being indicative of potentially fraudulent activity on the communications system.
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Abstract
A method for detecting fraudulent use of a communications system detects and prevents fraud by assigning codes or randomly generated codes for communication access between a subscriber station and a fixed end and updating the codes upon the occurrence of one or more key events associated with subscriber activity in the communications system. The method permits detection and monitoring of fraudulent activity by permitting a legitimate subscriber station and an illegitimate subscriber station to have two different codes or dynamic codes after the legitimate subscriber station'"'"'s identity has been misappropriated.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method for detecting fraud in wireless communications system comprising:
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establishing one or more call events in a wireless call sequence based on potential call activities of subscriber stations;
assigning codes corresponding to each of the subscriber stations, in response to occurrences of said call events, such that each subscriber station has a distinguishable code from all other subscriber stations even if at least two of the subscriber stations share a common subscriber identity;
maintaining a database of subscriber identities supplemented by the codes such that a unique combination of the code and the subscriber identity uniquely identifies each subscriber station;
identifying identical or common subscriber identities with corresponding different codes in the database, any common subscriber identities with different codes being indicative of potentially fraudulent activity on the communications system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
screening for common subscriber identities by seeking mismatches between subscriber-resident ones of the codes and corresponding database-resident ones of the codes as an indication of common subscriber identities for a subscriber identity associated with the mismatch.
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5. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of allowing access of the communications system to common subscriber identities, including a legitimate subscriber identity and an illegitimate subscriber identity, until a first unique combination associated with the legitimate subscriber identity or a second unique combination associated with the illegitimate subscriber identity is identified.
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6. The method according to claim 5 further comprising the steps of:
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synchronizing a code, assigned to a legitimate one of the subscriber stations with a corresponding code for storage in the database, during a verified call placed on the communication system by the legitimate subscriber identity; and
setting a flag in the database to block calls from the illegitimate subscriber identity for a predetermined period of time following the synchronizing step.
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7. A method for detecting fraud in wireless communications system comprising:
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establishing one or more call events in a wireless call sequence based on potential call activities of subscriber stations;
assigning random codes corresponding to each of the subscriber stations, in response to occurrences of said call events, such that each subscriber station has a distinguishable code from all other subscriber stations even if at least two of the subscriber stations share a common subscriber identity;
maintaining a database of subscriber identities supplemented by the random codes such that a unique combination of the random code and the subscriber identity uniquely identifies each subscriber station;
identifying identical or common subscriber identities with corresponding different random codes in the database, any common subscriber identities with different random codes being indicative of potentially fraudulent activity on the communications system. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
screening for common subscriber identities by seeking mismatches between subscriber-resident ones of the random codes and corresponding database-resident ones of the random codes as an indication of common subscriber identities for a subscriber identity associated with the mismatch.
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11. The method according to claim 7 further comprising the step of allowing access of the communications system to common subscriber identities, including a legitimate subscriber identity and an illegitimate subscriber identity, until a first unique combination associated with the legitimate subscriber identity or a second unique combination associated with the illegitimate subscriber identity is identified.
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12. The method according to claim 11 further comprising the steps of:
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synchronizing a random code, assigned to a legitimate one of the subscriber stations with a corresponding random code for storage in the database, during a verified call placed on the communication system by the legitimate subscriber identity; and
setting a flag in the database to block calls from the illegitimate subscriber identity for a predetermined period of time following the synchronizing step.
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13. The method according to claim 12 further comprising the step of:
resetting said flag to permit the subsequent tracking of any other misappropriation of the legitimate subscriber identity.
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14. The method according to claim 11 further comprising the step of:
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storing a phone number in the database associated with the legitimate subscriber identity; and
identifying the legitimate subscriber identity by detecting the legitimate subscriber'"'"'s calling of the phone number stored in the database.
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15. The method according to claim 11 further comprising the steps of:
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storing historic call pattern data in the database associated with the legitimate subscriber identity; and
identifying the legitimate subscriber'"'"'s identity by detecting the legitimate subscribers calling of a series of phone numbers representing the historic call pattern.
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16. The method according to claim 7 wherein the identifying step comprises:
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comparing the random codes previously assigned to subscriber stations to corresponding random codes stored in the database to determine whether or not the random codes stored in each subscriber station match the corresponding random code stored in the database for a single call sequence; and
setting a flag, associated with one or more subscriber identities, for each random code that does not match as indicating the potential of fraudulent activity.
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17. The method according to claim 16 further comprising the step of:
denying access to one or more subscriber identities having the flag.
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18. The method according to claim 7 wherein the identifying step comprises:
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searching the database to find common subscriber identities with associated random codes that do not match one another;
separating each of the common subscriber identities into one or more unauthorized subscriber identities and one authorized subscriber identities by tracking call activities of the common subscriber identities found.
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19. A method for preventing fraud in wireless communications system comprising:
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establishing a first database of call events in a wireless call sequence based on potential call activity of a subscriber station;
assigning a random code to a subscriber station in response to a first occurrence of one of said established call events such that the subscriber station and the fixed end share a common code assignment for the subscriber station;
maintaining a second database of random code assignments associated with subscriber station identities;
updating the random code in the subscriber station having the assigned random code at a second occurrence of one of said established call events during the wireless call sequence; and
monitoring a grant of access of the subscriber station identities to the communications system based upon a simultaneous comparison of subscriber-resident random codes and database-resident random codes after one of said first and second occurrence, where the subscriber-resident random codes have synchronized states with respect to the database-resident codes in the absence of fraudulent activity, and where a subscriber-resident random code has at least one unsynchronized state with respect to a database-resident code in the presence of potentially fraudulent activity. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method for detecting fraud in wireless communications system comprising:
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establishing one or more call events in a wireless call sequence based on potential call activities of subscriber stations;
assigning random codes to each of the subscriber stations, in response to occurrences of said call events, such that each subscriber station has a distinguishable code from all other subscriber stations even if at least two of the subscriber stations share a common subscriber identity;
maintaining a database of subscriber identities supplemented by the random codes such that a unique combination of the random code and the subscriber identity uniquely identifies each subscriber station;
generating a suspect list of subscriber identities by determining if subscriber-resident ones of the assigned random codes match corresponding database-resident ones of the assigned random codes, and adding subscriber identities to the suspect list if the subscriber-resident ones and the database-resident ones do not match.
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Specification