Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call charge metering or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-23
2003-07-08
Tieu, Binh (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call charge metering or monitoring
C379S145000, C379S194000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06590967
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to preventing fraudulent access to a telecommunications system. In particular, the invention relates to identifying fraudulent calls directed at a particular telephone number (a “terminating automatic number indicator” or “terminating ANI”) and blocking subsequent calls to that number.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fraud costs the telecommunications industry billions of dollars per year. There are many techniques used to perpetrate fraud. The fraud can be as simple as using a stolen credit card to charge a long distance call, or it can involve sophisticated looping techniques, such as repeatedly calling a private PBX system, finding the correct sequence to access an outside line (by trial and error or other hacking techniques) and then placing a costly long distance call through the PBX system. The telecommunications industry is involved in an intensive and ongoing effort to identify different types of fraud and then to develop and implement ways of preventing such fraud.
Fraud is more costly to certain telecommunications companies than others. For example, where a fraudulent call is directed at a company that owns the underlying telecommunications infrastructure, the cost of the call is less than the cost to an independent company that incurs access charges to the owner(s) of the infrastructure supporting the call, even if the call is fraudulent. In either case, however, the cost to the industry is significant.
Particular methods of fraud control and systems for implementing them are known in the industry. Fraud control may be divided conceptually into identifying a call that is likely to be fraudulent and responding after a call is identified as likely to be fraudulent.
Methods of identifying calls that are likely to be fraudulent vary from the simple to the sophisticated and are generally directed at a particular type of fraudulent activity. For example, a call is likely to be fraudulent if it is made using a calling card that has been reported stolen by the owner. A more sophisticated method of identifying fraudulent calls is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,354, entitled “Fraud Evaluation and Reporting System and Method Thereof”, which is owned by the assignee of the present invention. Fraudulent activity is identified in the '354 patent by monitoring the activity of a billing number, such as a calling card number or a credit card number. If certain patterns of calling are detected, an alert is generated. The alert can be analyzed and a decision may be made to block subsequent calls made using the billing number.
The '354 patent is directed at calls that require “special service”, that is, which are placed through an operator or an automatic operation support system. Such calls generally require the caller to access an intelligent services network (ISN) of a telecommunications company through a particular number, such as an 800 access number, and then manually supply the billing number, such as by pressing numbers on a payphone, swiping the magnetic strip on a card or speaking with an operator.
The '354 patent and like techniques focus on preventing fraudulent calls perpetrated using the same billing number. Those involved in fraudulent activity, however, may use a number of different billing numbers (often stolen) in order to conceal their activity.
In such cases, where the billing number cannot be used to effectively block the fraud, the fraud must be prevented by another means, such as blocking the desired terminating ANI. There are therefore techniques of fraud detection and prevention that focus on calling patterns to a terminating ANI. A particular terminating ANI is often the focus of fraudulent activity. For example, an offender may make multiple calls to a general number of a PBX system in an attempt to hack into the system to obtain information or place a subsequent call. In addition, lengthy fraudulent calls are commonly made to a terminating ANI in a foreign country. The single call may be used to support successive conversations between persons at the originating ANI (located, for example, in New York City or Los Angeles) and their relatives located at the terminating ANI in the foreign country.
Detecting fraudulent calls directed at a terminating ANI may be accomplished by creating a called number record for each special service call, retrieving prior called number records for the terminating ANI when it is dialed, and generating a fraud alert if the called number records fall within a pre-programmed pattern suspected of being fraudulent.
For example, an alert may be generated if ten special service calls are placed to a terminating ANI within one hour. After such an alert is generated, the calling records may be transferred to a fraud analyst, who is trained to evaluate whether further action is required. For example, the fraud analyst may see that the terminating ANI is a paging service and that the calls are originating from a wide geographical range of originating numbers (“originating automatic number indicator” or “originating ANI”). The analyst may conclude that this is normal calling activity and take no further action. (The analyst may alternatively initiate an upward adjustment of the alarm level for that particular terminating ANI.) On the other hand, if the calls are being made to a business in the middle of the night, the analyst may conclude that someone is trying to hack into the business's PBX system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,686, entitled “Telephone Fraud Detection System” and owned by the Assignee of the present invention, is directed at preventing fraudulent calling through private PBX systems. The '686 patent describes analyzing call detail records to and from a PBX in order to generate fraud alerts and, if appropriate, to block additional suspect calls through the PBX. Among other things, the '686 patent describes analyzing calling patterns to a called number (terminating ANI), in particular, the 800 number of a PBX.
As noted, once a fraud alert is generated for a terminating ANI, the response may be to block or otherwise intercept subsequent calls to that number. The determination may be made immediately after an alert is generated, or may be made after further analysis, such as analysis of calling records to the terminating ANI by a fraud operator.
FIG. 1
depicts components of a basic known system used to block calls to a terminating ANI where it has been determined that fraudulent calls are being placed to the terminating ANI. The system shown in
FIG. 1
is part of a larger ISN platform. Fraud control center
18
has processor(s) and software that monitor calls placed to terminating ANIs over time. Fraud control center
18
includes analysis software that generates alerts of possible fraud based on the calling patterns to terminating ANIs, which may consider factors such as the location and type of originating ANI, the location and type of terminating ANI, the billing product used for the call, the frequency of calls to the terminating ANI, etc.
When possible fraud directed at a terminating ANI is detected, the software at the fraud control center
18
generates an alert. The data may be sent to a fraud analyst, who, after analyzing the data, may determine that a caller (or callers) are trying to fraudulently access the terminating ANI and set a fraud flag in the system. Alternatively, the software may set a fraud flag without any further inquiry. As shown in
FIG. 1
, fraud control center
18
interfaces with screening database
14
. Terminating ANIs that have been flagged for fraudulent activity are stored in screening database
14
. The storing of the terminating ANI in the screening database
14
may be considered setting the fraud flag.
The storage of data in the database
14
, as well as the retrieval, comparison and other manipulation of data related to the database
14
described further below, is performed by one or more processors (or computers) and software (not shown) related with the database. For convenience, this
Marchand Dean C.
Springer Arthur Lance
Tieu Binh
WorldCom, Inc.
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