Abstract:
An automated method for determining the validity of an incoming phone call including receiving an incoming phone call, activating a controller in response to receipt of the incoming phone call, wherein the controller generates a multi-digit code in response to the receipt of the incoming call, outputs an audible version of the multi-digit code to a caller for the incoming call, requests the caller to input the multi-digit code, compares the multi-digit code with a caller input, determines the call is invalid in response to a mismatch between the multi-digit code and the caller input, and terminates the phone call.

Description:
FIELD 
       [0001]    The present application relates to telecommunications as well as Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) systems. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    Phone fraud is a billion dollar a year business and includes phone subscriber attempting to defraud the telephony carriers, telephony carriers attempting to defraud a subscriber, or a third party attempting to defraud either or both of them. 
         [0003]    Often these fraudulent schemes involve the use of autodialers, which are electronic devices or software that automatically dial telephone numbers. Conventionally, once the call has been answered, the autodialer either plays a recorded message or connects the call to a live person. Thus, it is conventionally known for autodialers to play a pre-recorded message, which is often called “voice broadcasting”, or “robocalling.” It is also conventionally known for some voice broadcasting messages to ask the person system who answers to press a button on their phone keypad. One example of this type of technique used to reach out to people is opinion polls in which recipients are asked to press one digit if they support one side of an issue, or another digit if they support the other side. This type of call is often called “outbound interactive voice response.” 
         [0004]    One lucrative and illegal fraudulent activity involves the use of autodialers and outbound interactive voice response techniques to steal from 1-800 number owners. In the United States, telephone carriers are paid a fee for connecting a call spanning their carrier network to a subscriber served by their network, with the charges billed to the called number or subscriber if the called number is a 1-800 or toll free number. Thus, in the case of calls being made to a 1-800 number, a fraudulent party working in connection with a telephone carrier potentially could auto-dial 1-800 numbers to generate fees paid to the telephone carder. 
         [0005]    This may be done using auto dialers, which are electronic devices or software that automatically dial telephone numbers and, once the call has been answered, the autodialer plays a recorded message to maintain the call so as to generate “minutes” and associated fees billed to the 1-800 number owner and paid to the telephone carrier. 
         [0006]    In order to thwart such fraudulent activities, the inventors have utilized conventionally available technology with their Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems that requires a caller calling a 1-800 number to press a button on their phone keypad; this enables the IVR system to confirm that there is a live person, rather than an autodialer, on the voice call. 
         [0007]    However, fraudsters using these autodialers have now determined that this confirmation scheme can be duped by programming the autodialer to emit one or more DTMF codes that would be emitted by a caller pressing one or more buttons on their keypad. In this way, the fraudsters are able to approximate or impersonate a live caller to the IVR system, thereby maximizing the period of time the call continues and increasing the fees charged to the 1-800 number owner. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0008]    Accordingly, various disclosed embodiments provide a system, methods, and computer program products for thwarting the use of such autodialers or robo-dialers to fraudulently generate fees. 
         [0009]    In accordance with at least one embodiment, the system, methods and computer program products require that a caller to a 1-800 number or other fee generating number (and an associated IVR system) enter a specified multi-digit number or a series of numbers communicated to the caller verbally during the voice call. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0010]      FIG. 1  is an illustrative diagram provided to explain one methodology provided by the disclosed embodiments. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0011]    To address the above-described new trick performed by fraudsters, disclosed embodiments require that a caller to a 1-800 number and an associated IVR system enter a specified multi-digit number or a series of numbers communicated to the caller verbally during the voice call. In one implementation, it is a multi-digit number, for example 739, which requires that the 7 digit be input before the 3 digit and before the 9 digit. Likewise, in another implementation, the query to input the number may be for a single digit, e.g., 5 digit, but may be followed with another query for a different digit, e.g., 4 digit. Of course, the selected number may even be a two digit number between, for example, 10 and 99. 
         [0012]    In either implementation, the specific digits selected could be generated randomly, pseudo-randomly or from a secure data pool. However, regardless of the implementation, the IVR system is able to more effectively determine whether a live person is on the call by requiring the caller to respond to various audio instructions that cannot be understood (or are significantly more difficult to be understood by a computer running software utilized by the autodialer. 
         [0013]    It should be further understood that an increased level of complexity may be introduced by asking the caller to press buttons on the keypad that correspond to a particular word spelled out using the numbers on the keypad. More specifically, because the digit 2 corresponds to the letters A, B, and C and the digit 8 corresponds to the letters T, U, and V, then the digits to spell “cat” would be 2-2-8. This complexity is particularly interesting considering that certain spoken sounds of letters differ depending on their context. For example, the sound beginning the word “circus” sounds more like the sound beginning the word “sat” than the sound that begins the word “cat.” Would be fraudsters attempting to thwart this additional, required level of cognition may be thwarted from attempting the fraudulent activity because of the amount of work required to program software to handle this analysis. 
         [0014]      FIG. 1  is an illustrative diagram provided to explain one methodology provided by the disclosed embodiments. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the methodology begins at  100  and, when an incoming call over a communication network (e.g., PSTN, Voice Over IP, etc.) is received at a 1-800 number at  105 , control proceeds to  110 , at which a multi-digit (e.g., three digit) code is generated. Control then proceeds to  115 , at which an instruction to enter the multi-digit code is output to the caller verbally. Control then proceeds to  120 , at which entered tones corresponding to the digits are received and analyzed. If, at  125 , there is a match between the instructed code and the entered code, the call is identified as a valid call at  130  and processed by the IVR system at  135 , e.g., the call is transferred to a IVR call menu, transferred to a call center or call center operator, etc. If there is not a match at  125  between the instructed code and the entered code, the call is identified as an invalid call at  140  and ended at  145 . Additionally, the calling number may be listed in a directory of calls that should not be accepted by the 1-800 number. 
         [0015]    It should be understood that some or all of the methodology explained above may be performed on, utilizing or with access to one or more servers, processors and associated memory. Unless specifically stated otherwise, and as may be apparent from the above description, it should be appreciated that throughout the specification descriptions utilizing terms such as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,” or the like, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or computing system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities within the computing system&#39;s registers and/or memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computing system&#39;s memories, registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices. 
         [0016]    In a similar manner, the term “processor” may refer to any device or portion of a device that processes electronic data from registers and/or memory to transform that electronic data into other electronic data that may be stored in registers and/or memory. A “computing platform” may comprise one or more processors. 
         [0017]    References to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “example embodiment,” “various embodiments,” etc., may indicate that the embodiment(s) of the invention so described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but not every embodiment necessarily includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Further, repeated use of the phrase “in one embodiment,” or “in an exemplary embodiment,” do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, although they may. 
         [0018]    It should be understood that the disclosed embodiments may also be used to thwart other fraudulent schemes. For example, using the technique of Wangiri, autodialers have been used to make many short-duration calls, mainly to mobile devices, leaving a missed call number which is either premium rate or contains advertising messages. Presently disclosed embodiments could be built into call management or call forwarding software to prevent or deter such schemes. 
         [0019]    Thus, it should be understood that the disclosed embodiments have utility in combating fraudulent practices for numbers other than toll free and other fee generating numbers. For example, by requesting and receiving a caller to enter a plurality of digits in a particular order provides two separate points of utility. First, it assists in verifying that the call has not been initiated by robo-dialer. Second, it assists in making a determination that the caller was actually attempting to call the number that was dialed. For example, if a caller were trying to call a friend&#39;s mobile phone number but misdialed, the caller would be more likely to end the call when the system requested entry of a plurality of digits because the caller recognized that they misdialed sooner. Thus, disclosed embodiments may also be utilized to filter incoming calls for misdialed numbers in a more effective manner. This improves the ability to ensure that incoming calls, e.g., calls coming into an IVR system are legitimate and more likely to generate “clean leads.” Moreover, this functionality further protects against traffic pumping, also known as access stimulation, which is a controversial practice by which some local exchange telephone carriers in rural areas of the United States inflate the volume of incoming calls to their networks, and profit from the greatly increased intercarrier compensation fees to which they are entitled by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. 
         [0020]    It should be understood that the presently disclosed embodiments may be used not only to protect against robocalling to 1-800 numbers but can also be used to protect against such calls made to local telephone numbers. 
         [0021]    While various exemplary embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments.