US 10,979,561 B1Granted

PIN or secret-code based caller-id validation system

AssigneeStephanie Carole Berlin

InventorStephanie Carole Berlin

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Abstract

A telephony call connection process is provided which assumes that 100% of received calls have spoofed sources or contain otherwise untrustworthy caller-id (CID) information, and requires each caller to provide a prearranged personal identification number “PIN” (or secret code) associated with their caller-id (CID) in order to complete a connection. Additional mechanisms are provided to create and exchange the PIN (or secret code) in an environment in which the caller must first establish the ownership of the caller-id (CID) provided. The process described herein minimizes the risk of false positives and virtually eliminates the need for manual “screening” as is often required of the callee in similar systems. Furthermore, the process described herein is capable of operating entirely on the callee's equipment providing the same level of effectiveness entirely devoid of participation from any other switch or node in the call path or on the network.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A method call session comprising a management system servicing the called party (callee), capable of validating pre-authorizing the routing and termination from the calling party (caller) of a telephone call, network-based telephone call, software-based telephone call, or call session comprising:

(1) a network provided caller-id or telephone number of the calling party (caller);
(2) a mechanism whereby the original called party (callee), or an agent thereof, can establish a connection back to the original calling party (caller) as means of ascertaining that the network provided caller-id or telephone number is in fact under the current control of the original calling party (caller);
(3) a callback-queue indicator service capable of storing only unique caller-id's for calls failing to connect under certain conditions and only where inclusion into said queue is determined by calling party (caller);
and offering the called party (callee) the ability to view and manage caller-id's stored therein;
(4) a personal identification number (PIN) or secret code, belonging to calling party (caller), or an authorized agent thereof;
(5) another mechanism whereby the calling party (caller), or an agent thereof, can communicate their PIN or secret code to the called party (callee), or an agent thereof;
(6) a sub-system capable of validating a caller-provided (PIN) or secret code associated with the caller-id for the called party (callee), or an agent thereof;
whereby said system establishes its characteristically simple bidirectional, and verifiable means of validating and authorizing said call session.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/699,528Filed 29 Nov 2019
Granted: 13 Apr 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

H04M 3/42068
Making use of the calling party identifier: where the identifier is used to access a profile
H04M 1/665
Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set: by checking the validity of a code
H04M 3/42059
Calling party identification service: making use of the calling party identifier
H04M 3/4365
Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it: based on…