Technology for combating mobile phone criminal activity

• US 9,264,532 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2013
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Camargo, Fernando A.
• Primary Examiner(s): ZHU, RICHARD Z
• Application Number:
  US13/756,465
• Publication Number:
  US 20140214423A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,111 Days
• Field of Search: 704/231, 704/239, 704/246, 704/248
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/30 for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information circuit switched telephony call monitoring H04M3/2281
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/41 using speaker recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656

Abstract

Technology for crime control includes receiving a voucher identifier for a mobile phone credit voucher purchased under duress by a victim and generating a request for a legal order directing a telecommunication service provider to obtain certain information about use of the voucher. Approval for the legal order is received and the legal order and the voucher identifier are transmitted by a law enforcement agency computer system via a network to a computer system of the telecommunication service provider. A phone number associated with a mobile phone to which a credit associated with the voucher identifier was applied and a recording of a telephone call to or from the phone number are received via the network from the telecommunication service provider computer system and the law enforcement agency computer system performs an automated analysis of the call by a voice recognition process.

Claims

1. A method for crime control comprising:

receiving an incident report for a crime victim notifying a law enforcement agency that the crime victim is under duress to obtain a mobile phone credit voucher due to actions of a criminal suspect;

tagging words received in the incident report that the crime victim remembers were used by the criminal suspect who coerced the victim to purchase the mobile phone credit voucher;

providing for the crime victim a voucher identifier for the mobile phone credit voucher, wherein the mobile phone credit voucher is configured for charging up a mobile phone with calling time and wherein the phone number for the mobile phone is unknown to the crime victim and the law enforcement agency;

generating a request for a legal order directing a telecommunication service provider to obtain information about use of the mobile phone credit voucher;

receiving approval for the legal order and transmitting the legal order and the voucher identifier, by a law enforcement agency computer system via a network, to a computer system of the telecommunication service provider;

receiving, via the network from the telecommunication service provider computer system, a phone number associated with the mobile phone to which a credit associated with the voucher identifier was applied and a recording of a telephone call to or from the phone number; and

performing an automated analysis of the telephone call by a voice recognition process of the law enforcement agency computer system comprising;

retrieving the received words by respective tags;

comparing the received words with the recording of the telephone call to identify at least specific words indicating that the telephone call includes information useful for apprehending a person who coerced the victim to purchase the identified credit voucher; and

identifying connections between the incident report from the crime victim and the recording of the telephone call.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising:

presenting an alert by the law enforcement agency computer system responsive to the automated analysis.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein presenting the alert includes presenting the alert responsive to the automated analysis identifying at least predetermined key words used by the criminal suspect relating to an earlier call reported by the victim.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein presenting the alert includes identifying a plurality of calls from the mobile phone for the account to which the credit associated with the voucher identifier was applied.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving from the telecommunication service provider an International Mobile Station Equipment Identity number of the mobile phone to which the credit associated with the voucher identifier was applied.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising:

communicating to other telecommunication service providers authorization to disable the mobile phone having the identified International Mobile Station Equipment Identity number.

7. A system comprising:

at least one computing processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage media connected to the at least one computing processor, wherein the computer-readable storage media has stored thereon a program for controlling the at least one computing processor to perform crime control actions, and wherein the at least one computing processor is operative with the program to execute the program to;

receive an incident report for a crime victim notifying a law enforcement agency that the crime victim is under duress to obtain a mobile phone credit voucher due to actions of a criminal suspect;

tag words received in the incident report that the crime victim remembers were used by the criminal suspect who coerced the victim to purchase the mobile phone credit voucher;

provide for the crime victim a voucher identifier for the mobile phone credit voucher, wherein the mobile phone credit voucher is configured for charging up a mobile phone with calling time and wherein the phone number for the mobile phone is unknown to the crime victim and the law enforcement;

generate a request for a legal order directing a telecommunication service provider to obtain information about use of the mobile phone credit voucher;

receive approval for the legal order and transmit the legal order and the voucher identifier, by a law enforcement agency computer system via a network, to a computer system of the telecommunication service provider;

receive, via the network from the telecommunication service provider computer system, a phone number associated with the mobile phone to which a credit associated with the voucher identifier was applied and a recording of a telephone call to or from the phone number; and

perform an automated analysis of the telephone call by a voice recognition process of the law enforcement agency computer system comprising;

retrieving the received words by respective tags;

comparing the received words with the recording of the telephone call to identify at least specific words indicating that the telephone call includes information useful for apprehending a person who coerced the victim to purchase the identified credit voucher; and

identifying connections between the incident report from the crime victim and the recording of the telephone call.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one computing processor is operative with the program to execute the program to present an alert by the law enforcement agency computer system responsive to the automated analysis.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein presenting the alert includes presenting the alert responsive to the automated analysis identifying at least predetermined key words used by the criminal suspect relating to an earlier call reported by the victim.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein presenting the alert includes identifying a plurality of calls from the mobile phone for the account to which the credit associated with the voucher identifier was applied.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the at least one computing processor is operative with the program to execute the program to receive from the telecommunication service provider an International Mobile Station Equipment Identity number of the mobile phone to which the credit associated with the voucher identifier was applied.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one computing processor is operative with the program to execute the program to communicate to other telecommunication service providers authorization to disable the mobile phone having the identified International Mobile Station Equipment Identity number.

13. A computer program product for crime control, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium; and

computer-readable program code embodied in the computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable program code is configured to cause at least one computing processor to;

receive an incident report for a crime victim notifying a law enforcement agency that the crime victim is under duress to obtain a mobile phone credit voucher due to actions of a criminal suspect;

tag words received in the incident report that the crime victim remembers were used by the criminal suspect who coerced the victim to purchase the mobile phone credit voucher;

provide for the crime victim a voucher identifier for the mobile phone credit voucher, wherein the mobile phone credit voucher is configured for charging up a mobile phone with calling time and wherein the phone number for the mobile phone is unknown to the crime victim and the law enforcement agency;

generate a request for a legal order directing a telecommunication service provider to obtain certain information about use of the mobile phone credit voucher;

receive approval for the legal order and transmitting the legal order and the voucher identifier, by a law enforcement agency computer system via a network to a computer system of the telecommunication service provider;

receive, via the network from the telecommunication service provider computer system, a phone number associated with the mobile phone to which a credit associated with the voucher identifier was applied and a recording of a telephone call to or from the phone number; and

perform an automated analysis of the telephone call by a voice recognition process of the law enforcement agency computer system comprising;

retrieving the received words by respective tags;

comparing the received words with the recording of the telephone call to identify at least specific words indicating that the telephone call includes information useful for apprehending a person who coerced the victim to purchase the identified credit voucher; and

identifying connections between the incident report from the crime victim and the recording of the telephone call.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer-readable program code is configured to cause at least one computing processor to present an alert by the law enforcement agency computer system responsive to the automated analysis.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein presenting the alert includes presenting the alert responsive to the automated analysis identifying at least predetermined key words used by the criminal suspect relating to an earlier call reported by the victim.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein presenting the alert includes identifying a plurality of calls from the mobile phone for the account to which the credit associated with the voucher identifier was applied.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the computer-readable program code is configured to cause at least one computing processor to execute the program to receive from the telecommunication service provider an International Mobile, Station Equipment Identity number of the mobile phone to which the credit associated with the voucher identifier was applied.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the computer-readable program code is configured to cause at least one computing processor to communicate to other telecommunication service providers authorization to disable the mobile phone having the identified International Mobile Station Equipment Identity number.