Patent ID: 7599474

Claim:
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, will cause the computer to perform a method of screening a caller prior to establishing a telephone connection between the caller and a callee, the method comprising: receiving an indication from the callee of one or more callers that are authorized to be directly connected to the callee upon calling the callee; receiving a telephone call from a caller; prompting the caller to speak the name of the callee; receiving a voice sample from the caller; determining the callee from analysis of the voice sample, wherein the callee is a person and wherein the telephone call is directed to a telephone terminal for the callee for the purpose of speaking to the callee; identifying the caller by analyzing the voice sample of the caller received when the caller speaks the name of the callee; screening the telephone call based on an identity of the caller and based on a predefined authorization established by the callee stored in a digital call assistant; and routing the telephone call to a message recording system if the voice sample is a statistical allowable match to a previous voice sample and the caller is not authorized by the callee to directly connect to the callee.