Patent ID: 7295660

Claim:
A method for enabling a called party to screen a traditional telephony call for a telemarketing solicitation made by a calling party, the method comprising: receiving, over a telephone network, the traditional telephony call from the calling party at a messaging service platform; using the messaging service platform to perform telemarketer-screening operations including: using a telemarketer blacklist descriptive of one or more telemarketers in deciding to process the traditional telephony call as a telemarketing telephony call when the calling party appears in the telemarketer blacklist, and using an associated whitelist descriptive of one or more known and approved associates of the called party in deciding to receive the traditional telephony call when the calling party appears in the associated whitelist; and when the traditional telephony call is not processed using the telemarketer blacklist or the associated whitelist: soliciting an audio message from the calling party as audio data; transmitting audio data from the messaging service platform to a computer of the called party while the calling party remains connected, and enabling the called party to react to the traditional telephony call in response to the audio message by presenting call processing options enabling the called party to select from a list that may include at least one of the following call processing options: enabling the traditional telephony call to be processed as a nontelemarketing telephony call, enabling the traditional telephony call to be processed as a telemarketing telephony call and adding information descriptive of the calling party to the telemarketer blacklist, and enabling the calling party to be added to the associated whitelist.