Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis – Voice activation or recognition
Reexamination Certificate
1994-09-16
2001-12-04
Weaver, Scott L. (Department: 2645)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
Voice activation or recognition
C379S114140
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327345
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to telephony and more particularly to prevention of fraudulent telephone calls.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In an attempt to provide easy access to telephone services (and of course profits attached thereto), attempts have been made by the telephone companies to ease the way in which a caller can gain access to the telephone network. Conventionally, this is done by a caller inputting, by means of the telephone key pad, a series of numbers reflected on a credit or authorization card issued to him. This tends to be quite cumbersome insofar as the number string tends to be long.
A more recent advance in technology is the marriage of voice recognition and verification to telephony. Such technology is described, for example, in Hunt et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,022, whereby a caller only needs to utter an identification number to make a call. However, as is with all voice recognition systems, there are many instances in which calls made by legitimate callers are rejected, while calls made by fraudulent callers are completed. This high rate of error is oftentimes due to factors inherent in the telephone network such as, for example, static over the telephone line, extraneous noises, the caller happens to have a cold on that day, etc.
Needless to say, the refusal to connect legitimate calls and connection of fraudulent calls are financially unacceptable. And attempts have been made to overcome these deficiencies.
One of the more recent attempts is to route a caller whose authenticity cannot be verified to an operator who then would ask the caller a number of personal questions. If the caller is able to provide the correct answers, the call is completed. If not, the caller is refused service. One disadvantage of this system is that a significant amount of time needs to be expanded by the caller, as he is being asked various questions by the operator. For legitimate callers, this can become a nuisance.
A need therefore arises for a system, and/or a method therefor, of increasing the probability that fraudulent calls are rejected, while at the same time lessening the burden that is placed on the caller to prove that he indeed is the authorized caller.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention takes into consideration attributes that are built into the telephone network system for creating a margin of error window that enables the system to determine, with a much higher degree of accuracy, of whether a call is legitimate. In particular, when a caller places a call, the system would prompt the caller to speak an utterance, such as for example an identification number, to be recognized by the voice recognition device of the system. A prestored voice print corresponding to the utterance of the authentic caller is retrieved from a database to be matched with the voice of the caller. If a match is made, the call is completed to the call destination. On the other hand, if the prestored voice print and the utterance do not match, various risk factors associated with the call are taken into consideration for determining whether to complete the call. Some of these factors include, but not limited to, the call origination number, the place where the call is made, the time of the day, day of the week, the call destination, how many times the caller has made a call to the call destination, whether the day is a holiday, etc.
If after having taken into consideration the different risk factors and the call is still deemed to be marginal, the caller is routed either to some automated query system or an operator who would ask the caller a number of personal questions. If the answers provided by the caller do not match those provided during the enrollment of the authentic caller, the call is refused to be completed. On the other hand, if the operator, or the query system, determines that the caller is legitimate, the call is completed.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a system, and a method therefor, to enhance detection of fraudulent calls.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a system, and method therefor, of preventing fraudulent calls without, at the same time, antagonizing legitimate callers.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a fraudulent call detection system that eliminates to a great extent any active or knowing participation by the caller in the detection of fraudulent calls.
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MCI Communications Corporation
Weaver Scott L.
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