Management of toll-free number misuse and fraud detection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9930189-B2
Application number	US-201514984604-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 30, 2015
Priority date	Nov 1, 2014
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing a rating system that allow for customers to create a database of toll-free numbers that are abused by malicious consumers which may be cloud-based and allow for service providers to dip prior to completing or accepting calls.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method comprising:
storing a taxonomy of abuse events that may occur regarding the usage of a toll-free telecommunications number;
storing a rule regarding an action to take upon receipt of a reported abuse event, wherein the rule specifies a routing rule defining how a call that is associated with the abuse event is to be routed over a toll-free telecommunications system without blocking the call;
receiving a report of abuse of a toll-free telecommunications number;
identifying at least one abuse event within the stored taxonomy and routing rule that is related to content of the abuse report; and
automatically routing a call that is the subject of the abuse report according to the routing rule associated with the abuse event to complete the call.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the report of abuse derives from a call center.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the report of abuse derives from a telecommunications carrier.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the report of abuse derives from a business entity.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the routing rule is integrated within a call routing template.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the call routing template is shared with an entity other than that generating the report of abuse.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the routing of the call is manual instead of automatic.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the report of abuse includes data relating to a responsible organization.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the report of abuse includes data relating to a time of the abuse event.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the report of abuse includes data relating to an originating number.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the report of abuse includes data relating to a geographic location of an originating number.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the report of abuse includes data relating to a geographic location of a terminating number.

13. A method comprising:
receiving a report of abuse of a toll-free telecommunications number;
identifying an absence of an abuse event definition within a stored taxonomy that is related to the type of abuse reported;
storing a new definition of the abuse event within the taxonomy;
creating a routing rule defining how a call that is associated with the abuse event is to be routed over a toll-free telecommunications system and without blocking the call.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the routing rule specifies an alternate terminating number to which to route an incoming call.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein another routing rule prevents further call routing over a corresponding toll-free telecommunications number.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the stored definition is further associated with third party industry data.

17. A method comprising:
storing a taxonomy of abuse events that may occur regarding the usage of a toll-free telecommunications number;
associating each of the abuse events in the taxonomy with a corresponding toll-free telecommunications number rating action;
receiving a report of abuse of a toll-free telecommunications number;
identifying at least one abuse event within the stored taxonomy and corresponding rating action that is related to content of the abuse report;
automatically computing a rating for the toll-free telecommunications number based on the rating action; and
reporting the rating to an entity interested in obtaining a toll-free communications number.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the rating is associated with a call routing rule.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the call routing rule is shared with a service provider.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein the rating is used as metadata to tag the toll-free telecommunications number.

21. The method of claim 13 , further comprising the steps of:
receiving a call matching the abuse event within the stored taxonomy and routing rule that is related to content of the report of abuse; and
automatically routing the call according to the routing rule associated with the abuse event to complete the call.

22. The method of claim 17 , when the rating is a nonbinary rating.

Assignees

• Somos Inc

Inventors

• Chauhan Sanjeev

Classifications

• H04M15/8061 Primary

  Selecting least cost route depending on origin or type of service · CPC title

• H04M3/42161

  via computer interface · CPC title

• H04M3/5175

  Call or contact centers supervision arrangements · CPC title

• H04Q3/0091

  Congestion or overload control · CPC title

• G06F16/24573

  using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata · CPC title