Patent ID: 7136458

Claim:
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, wherein the indication includes an instruction to collect voice samples; 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 without asking the caller to self identify, wherein the identifying comprises: obtaining a prior voice recording of the caller's voice; and analyzing the voice sample by using the prior voice recording; and 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.