Patent ID: 9014359
Filing Date: 2015-04-21
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving call information, the call information specifying attributes of phone calls made from multiple phone numbers to target phone numbers in a phone network, the call information indicating frequencies of the phone calls made from the multiple phone numbers to the subscribers in the phone network; analyzing the call information to detect occurrence of unwanted call activity originating from the multiple phone numbers; based on the analyzing, and the frequencies of the phone calls made, producing a list of phone numbers from which at least one entity originates unwanted calls in the phone network; wherein analyzing the call information to detect occurrence of unwanted call activity includes producing a respective persistence metric for a corresponding phone number of the multiple phone numbers based on a degree to which the corresponding phone number is used to contact subscribers in the phone network, the respective persistence metric measuring an amount of phone calls per unit of time from the corresponding phone number to the subscribers in the phone network; and wherein producing the list includes classifying the respective phone number as being used for unwanted call activity in the phone network in response to detecting that a magnitude of the respective persistence metric for the corresponding phone number is above a threshold persistence value.