Patent ID: 8311190

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for verifying incoming telephone calls to a telephone services subscriber, the method comprising: receiving an incoming telephone call from a caller; determining whether the incoming telephone call originates from a pre-approved telephone number, a denied telephone number, or an unrecognized number; in response to determining that the incoming telephone call originates from a pre-approved telephone number, connecting the telephone call to the telephone services subscriber; in response to determining that the incoming telephone call originates from a denied telephone number, disconnecting the telephone call; in response to determining that the incoming telephone call originates from an unrecognized telephone number, performing the following steps: determining a time variable, the time variable including one or more of a current date, a day-of-week, and a time-of-day; selecting one or more challenge questions from a pre-defined schedule, the schedule including challenge questions for different time variables; subjecting the caller to the selected one or more challenge questions; receiving at least one challenge response to one or more of the selected challenge questions; in response to receiving the at least one challenge response, determining whether the at least one challenge response was an expected correct response; and in response to determining that the at least one challenge response was correct, taking an action with respect to the incoming telephone call.