Country to domestic call intercept process (CIP)

Details Country to domestic call intercept process (CIP) Country to domestic call intercept process (CIP)

1999-12-17

2002-05-28

Nguyen, Duc (Department: 2643)

Telephonic communications

With check operated control

Fraud or interference prevention

C379S112030, C379S144020, C379S145000, C379S133000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06396915

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications, and, particularly, to a call-intercept system and method implemented for long distance telephone systems that verifies call identities in order to prevent fraudulent calling card usage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The telecommunication industry has estimated fraud losses are costing telecommunication service providers five (5) billion dollars per year. Particularly, telecommunication fraud losses are attributed to lost, stolen, or compromised portable calling card products, e.g., in highly populated areas. Calling card products may be compromised in various ways, for example, via social engineering, “shoulder surfing”, etc., whereby a perpetrator obtains a physical calling card or calling card number belonging to another. The final result for the perpetrator is to obtain a calling card product in order to place a call to desired location or termination, whether domestic or international.
Residential customers of large telecommunication service providers, e.g., MCI WorldCom, are typically the prey for these types of fraud, and, industry studies have determined that the fraud losses will only increase in the future.
While service providers may place controls within their networks to limit or block outbound international calls, i.e., from a specific domestic origination in the United States to a specific international country termination, fraud still persists in the form of compromised calling card calls that originate from a specific country and terminate at domestic locations. This is done by circumventing the blocks placed on outbound internationals with an international inbound call to a domestic number in the United States.
It would be highly desirable to provide a system for intercepting first time callers terminating a call to a predefined domestic location from a specific international origination in order to verify the identity of the caller and control fraudulent calling card usage.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a call intercept process (CIP) that functions to intercept callers placing compromised calling card calls for a first time from international locations to predefined high-fraud domestic (U.S.) terminations, in order to verify the identity of the caller. In operation, a perpetrator who has obtained a calling card product, will have only the physical calling card or the calling card number itself. When the perpetrator attempts to terminate a calling card call to a predefined domestic termination, the calling card call will default to an operator, who will ask for the name and account information as it appears on the calling card owner's billing account. The operator will fail the call if the perpetrator disconnects the call or is unable to provide correct name and address billing information as it appears on the account.
Thus, the system of the invention provides the ability to intercept and verify account information with first time calling card callers placing calling card calls from an international origination to a specific domestic termination. If the caller fails or hangs up, the card is placed in a “locked status” mode and will be intercepted regardless of the termination location until such time the caller passes an account verification requirement. Once the caller passes, the CIP process places the card in a database and the card is over-ridden from customer interruption with intercept on future calls.
Advantageously, passed and failed call intercept calls may then generate alarms for monitoring by a fraud control system. The fraud control system will review the alarms to determine if actions are warranted to block the calling card.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5345595 (1994-09-01), Johnson et al.
patent: 5463681 (1995-10-01), Vaios et al.
patent: 5566234 (1996-10-01), Reed et al.
patent: 5602906 (1997-02-01), Phelps
patent: 5638431 (1997-06-01), Everett et al.
patent: 5768354 (1998-06-01), Lange et al.
patent: 5805686 (1998-09-01), Moller et al.
patent: 5809125 (1998-09-01), Gammino
patent: 5867566 (1999-02-01), Hogan et al.
patent: 5875236 (1999-02-01), Jankowitz et al.
patent: 5907602 (1999-05-01), Peel et al.
patent: 5970405 (1999-10-01), Kaplan et al.
patent: 5988497 (1999-11-01), Wallace
patent: 6163604 (2000-12-01), Baulier et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Country to domestic call intercept process (CIP) does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Country to domestic call intercept process (CIP), we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Country to domestic call intercept process (CIP) will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2850713