Patent ID: 8879696

Claim:
A method of monitoring calls, the method comprising: comparing, at a first network element, a called number of a received call to a directory number stored in a list of directory numbers to determine whether a remote call monitoring service should be applied to the received call; forwarding the received call to a second network element when the remote call monitoring service is to be applied to the received call; and forwarding the received call to the voice mail system when the remote call monitoring service should not be applied to the received call; wherein forwarding the received call to the second network element comprises: determining whether a calling party's identification for the calling party is on an always monitor list provided by the subscriber, forwarding the received call to the voice mail system when the calling party's identification is not on the always monitor list, and causing the second network element to set up a three-way communication between the calling party, the voice mail system, and the subscriber so that the subscriber may monitor the received call when the calling party's identification is on the always monitor list; wherein the always monitor list includes a list of calling party identifications associated with a plurality of calling parties, and wherein the received call is forwarded to the remote call monitoring service when it is from any of the calling party identifications listed in the always monitor list.