International origination to domestic termination call blocking

Details International origination to domestic termination call blocking International origination to domestic termination call blocking

2001-05-17

2003-04-29

Tieu, Binh (Department: 2643)

Telephonic communications

With usage measurement

Call charge metering or monitoring

C379S114040, C379S145000, C379S127020, C379S189000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06556669

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND
1. Technological Field
The present application relates generally to fraud control in telecommunications systems and, in particular, to preventing fraud in calls from an international origin point to a domestic terminating point in a long distance telecommunications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The telecommunications industry has experienced significant changes in the way that customers are billed for their telephone calls. From the once simple method of billing the originating caller, many methods have been developed, allowing greater flexibility for the telecommunications customer. A predominant method for making telephone calls away from home or the office is by utilizing the telephone calling card to charge the call. This method has grown to include multinational travelers, who bring their calling cards with them to international destinations.
Calling card customers may use any telephone facility, including public facilities, to make a call that will be charged to their account. When calling domestically, the process of making calls using a calling card typically includes dialing an “800” number, waiting for an audio prompt, and then entering an account number and a Personal Identification Number (PIN) into a telephone key pad device. The “800” (and now “888”) number phone calls are one type of a category of phone calls called “special service” calls. These special service calls, which include “700”, “800/888”, and “900” number calls, allow contemporary telecommunications networks to provide many services beyond direct distance dialing. It is the long distance carriers that provide this special service call processing, which allows for toll-free calls, calling card calls, special rate calls, etc. When dialing from an international location, instead of the “800” number, there is typically an access code for the particular country from which one is dialing. However, the procedure followed is similar in all special service calls.
Following the example of a calling card call, once the account, number and PIN have been entered, the calling card customer can make one or more calls from whatever location the customer is dialing in from. These calls are subsequently charged to the customer's calling card account. Calling cards can also be used to avoid having to pay additional surcharges when making calls from certain public facilities such as hotels and telephone booths.
As with many new technologies, the ease and flexibility of the use of calling cards has led to abuse, and has consequently brought about new types of fraud. Calling card fraud costs businesses (and consumers) millions of dollars annually. Current security mechanisms, while effective, are not fail-safe, and protection mechanisms for consumers and businesses require improvement to stem these fraud-related losses.
There is a virtual underground industry in stolen calling cards and authorization codes. The multitude of ways that calling cards and authorization numbers find their way into unscrupulous hands need not be discussed here, but suffice it to say there is no end to the ingenuity of the criminal mind. One example of calling card fraud is the technique of “surfing” banks of public telephones, such as are at airports. Criminals “surf” by looking over the shoulders of legitimate card users as they key in the account number and PIN. Then they sell or distribute these numbers and rampant fraud results. In some cases, a single account may incur charges in excess of $100,000 in a single weekend. Calling card fraud and other forms of fraudulent use present pervasive problems for telephone carriers, particularly long distance carriers.
One method of fraud control is to simply remove calling card numbers against which it is suspected that fraudulent calls are being charged. In order to recognize fraudulent calls, a “billing number”—a billing product and an account number, such as a calling card, pre-paid phone card, etc.—is monitored over time. For example, where the number of domestic calls placed within a certain amount of time using the same billing number exceeds a certain threshold, an alert is generated. International calls may have a lower threshold so that fewer calls within the time period generate an alert. In addition, the threshold may be further adjusted for calls to countries where a high percentage of fraudulent calls are directed.
Another method of fraud control is to identify particular origin points that are linked to suspicious activity and to block certain calls from those particular origin points. For example, a large number of long duration calls to China may be generated from an exchange in Manhattan. This would generate a threshold alert, which is typically sent to a fraud analyst. A fraud analyst would be stationed at a fraud control console
100
, as shown in FIG.
1
A. The fraud analyst analyzes the alert and the history of that exchange in order to determine whether or not to block that exchange from calling China. If the fraud analyst decides that there is fraudulent activity, he sets up a block on that exchange which will prevent subsequent calls to China or other international destinations that the fraud analyst selects.
However, this method is of no help with calls that originate from international locations and terminate domestically. Unlike the situation described above, the fraud analyst has no means to analyze and track international origin points with any specificity. For example, when a call originates at telephone
111
in China as shown in FIG.
1
A and enters the long distance telecommunications network (or Inter-Exchange Carrier, IXC)
130
at IXC switch
131
, the only information that the IXC network knows about the origin of that call is its country code (CC). Thus, a fraud analyst, or any program monitoring for threshold alerts, is not able to recognize if a call originates from a telephone exchange that is known to generate a large amount of fraudulent traffic. All that is known is that the call originated in China.
The present invention concerns this type of international special service call and, in particular, a method and system of blocking fraudulent special service calls that originate internationally and terminate domestically. In order to fully understand the threat posed by such calls, an example of this type of fraudulent special service call is described with reference to
FIGS. 1A-1C
and
2
. In this example, a hacker in China makes a fraudulent call to a domestic (U.S.A.) Private Branch Exchange (PBX)
180
, where the hacker steals the dialtone in order to make outgoing calls. Of course, “800” number calls are the preferred method of entrance into PBXs, because even the call hacking into the system is free. If possible, the international hacker uses an international “800” number to break into the PBX. The outgoing calls are charged to the PBX owner regardless of the origination of the call. The losses from both the original international call and the following PBX outgoing calls are typically shouldered by the long distance telecommunications company in order to keep customer goodwill.
Starting with
FIG. 1A
, the hacker, using telephone
111
in China, dials in the appropriate access code to reach the IXC network
130
. The call enters through IXC switch
131
and is routed to bridge switch
135
through IXC switch
132
. The purpose of the bridge switch
135
is to receive, calls from the IXC network and bridge them to the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
140
and, ultimately, into the Intelligent Services Network platform (ISN)
150
. Because special service calls require special call processing, they are typically routed to a call processing platform, such as the ISN platform
150
. There are a number of ISNs within the IXC, but, for the purpose of understanding the present invention, one ISN will suffice.
An exemplary and simplified diagram of the ISN platform
150
will now be described with reference to FIG.
2
. The ACD
140
is under the direct control of the Application Processor APP
156
, which is a general purpose c

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