Patent ID: 6741688
Filing Date: 2004-05-25
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
An electronic method for handling telephone calls comprising:storing in a memory one or more telephone number templates, each template being as wide as a telephone number is long, each template including a mask identifying one or more telephone number positions within a telephone number field for comparison purposes, each mask capable of identifying one or more telephone number positions within a telephone number field whether such positions are at the beginning, in the middle or at the end thereof, each template further including a target identifying one or more telephone number tokens within a telephone number field for comparison purposes; monitoring a telephone line for a call placed thereon; identifying at least one of the origin and the destination telephone number and storing one or more tokens of such identified telephone number in a memory; comparing the stored tokens of the identified telephone number with the corresponding target tokens within the identified positions of at least one of the one or more stored templates; and processing the call based upon the result of said comparing.