# US 2019/0174000 A1 · Methods and apparatus for detection and mitigation of robocalls > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2019/0174000 A1 - Document ID: US20190174000A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 15/834,960 - Filed: 2017-12-07 - Published: 2019-06-06 - Earliest claimed: 2017-12-06 - Assignees: Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc. - Applicants: Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc. - Inventors: Shaun Jaikarran Bharrat; Tie Ju Chen; Sridhar Kuppanna; Tolga Asveren - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20190174000A1 ## CPC - H04M 3/4365: {based on information specified by the calling party, e.g. priority or subject} - G06N 7/01: Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks - H04M 3/2218: {Call detail recording} - H04M 3/42059: {Making use of the calling party identifier} - H04M 3/42221: {Conversation recording systems (at the subscriber's set H04M1/656)} - H04M 3/541: {based on information specified by the calling party} - H04M 2203/556: Statistical analysis and interpretation - H04M 2203/558: Databases - H04M: TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION (circuits for controlling other apparatus via a telephone cable and not involving telephone switching apparatus G08) - G06N: COMPUTING ARRANGEMENTS BASED ON SPECIFIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS ## Abstract The present invention relates to methods, systems and apparatus for identifying and acting upon suspect robocalls. An exemplary method embodiment includes the steps of processing call records of a customer to identify calls which are possibly from a robocaller, based on at least one of i) a call characteristic or ii) a call pattern; storing calling party source identification information of the identified calls in a suspect robocall database; processing an incoming call, said processing including comparing calling party source identification information of an incoming call to the calling party source identification information in the suspect robocall database; and completing the incoming call in a standard manner if the incoming call is not in the suspect robocall database; and handling the call as a suspect robocall if the incoming calling party source identification information is in the suspect robocall database. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of processing calls to a customer, the method comprising: processing call records of said customer to identify calls which are possibly from a robocaller, based on at least one of i) a call characteristic or ii) a call pattern, said call pattern including at least one of an error rate, call rate, call diversity or start-to-start time between adjacent calls from a call source, each identified call having a calling party number; storing calling party source identification information of the identified calls in a suspect robocall database; processing an incoming call, said processing including comparing calling party source identification information of an incoming call to the calling party source identification information in the suspect robocall database; and completing the incoming call in a standard manner if the incoming calling party source identification information is not in the suspect robocall database; and handling the incoming call as a suspect robocall if the incoming calling party source identification information is in the suspect robocall database. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein said calling party source identification information includes one or more of the following: a calling party number, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) agent string, an Internet Protocol address, a source Internet Protocol (IP) address, contact header information in a call initiation request, content of first VIA header in a call initiation request. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein completing the incoming call in a standard manner includes completing the incoming call to a device corresponding to a called party number included in the incoming call without any indication that the incoming call is a possible robocall. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein handling the call as a suspect robocall includes at least one of: i) completing the incoming call to a device corresponding to a called party number included in the incoming call with an indication that the incoming call is a suspect robocall; ii) redirecting the incoming call to a validation service; iii) assigning the incoming call a lower incoming call priority than a non-suspect robocall when placing the incoming call in a call handling queue; iv) delivering the incoming call to voice mail or v) dropping or blocking the incoming call. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The method of claim 4, further comprising: storing with individual calling party source identification information entries of the identified calls in the suspect robocall database a probability that the individual calling party source identification information entry corresponds to an actual robocall; and wherein processing the incoming call further includes determining, based on the stored probability associated with the calling party source identification information of a suspect incoming call, a call handling rule. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, wherein handling the call as a suspect robocall includes determining what action to take based on the probability that the incoming call is a robocall. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further including: processing a plurality of additional incoming calls to identify suspect robocalls based on the incoming calls calling party source identification information; said processing including comparing calling party source identification information of said incoming calls to the calling party source identification information in the suspect robocall database, said processing of said incoming calls being independent of said processing call records of said customer to identify calls which are possibly from a robocaller. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein said customer is an enterprise customer; and wherein said step of processing call records of said customer is performed on a periodic basis for calls to said enterprise customer. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein said suspect robocall database includes fewer records than a labeling database of reported possible robocalls used to identify characteristics of robocalls. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The method of claim 9 wherein said processing call records of said customer to identify calls which are from a robocaller includes identifying calls which are from a robocaller which are not included in said labeling database. ### Claim 11 (depends on 9) The method of claim 9, further comprising: generating a call classification model to be used to identify possible robocalls, said step of generating a call classification model including: accessing a set of call detail records (CDRs) of the customer for a period of time; comparing calling party numbers in the accessed call records to the calling party numbers in at least one database of reported possible robocallers to identify calls which are from known or likely robocallers, said identified calls being a set of previously received suspect robocalls; generating, from the call detail records of the set of previously received suspect robocalls, call pattern information indicative of a suspect robocall. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11 wherein said call classification model is generated using a machine learning algorithm. ### Claim 13 A system of processing calls to a customer, the system comprising: a suspect robocall detector device including: a first processor configured to control the suspect call detector device to process call records of said customer to identify calls which are possibly from a robocaller, based on at least one of i) a call characteristic or ii) a call pattern, said call pattern including at least one of an error rate, call rate, call diversity or start-to-start time between adjacent calls from a call source, each identified call having a calling party number, and a first memory; a suspect robocall database for storing calling party source identification information of the identified calls which are possibly from a robocaller; a call processing device including: a second processor configured to operate the call processing device to: process an incoming call, said process an incoming call including comparing calling party source identification information of an incoming call to the calling party source identification information in the suspect robocall database; and complete the incoming call in a standard manner if the incoming call is not in the suspect robocall database; and handle the incoming call as a suspect robocall if the incoming calling party source identification information is in the suspect robocall database. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13 wherein said calling party source identification information includes one or more of the following: a calling party number, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) agent string, an Internet Protocol address, a source Internet Protocol (IP) address, contact header information in a call initiation request, content of first VIA header in a call initiation request. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein complete the incoming call in a standard manner includes completing the incoming call to a device corresponding to the called party number included in the incoming call without any indication that the incoming call is a possible robocall. ### Claim 16 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1, wherein handle the call as a suspect robocall includes at least one of: i) completing the incoming call to a device corresponding to the called party number included in the incoming call with an indication that the incoming call is a suspect robocall; ii) redirecting the incoming call to a validation service; iii) assigning the incoming call a lower incoming call priority than a non-suspect robocall when placing the incoming call in a call handling queue; iv) delivering the incoming call to voice mail or v) dropping or blocking the incoming call. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The system of claim 16, wherein said first processor of said robocall detector device is further configured to control said suspect robocall detector device to store with individual calling party source identification information entries of the identified calls in the suspect robocall database a probability that the individual calling party source identification entry corresponds to an actual robocall; and wherein processing the incoming call further includes determining, based on the stored probability associated with the calling party source identification information of a suspect incoming call, a call handling rule. ### Claim 18 The system of system embodiment 1, wherein said customer is an enterprise customer; and wherein said first processor is further configured to control the operation of the suspect robocall detector so that said processing of call records of said customer is performed on a periodic basis for calls to said enterprise customer. ### Claim 19 The system of system embodiment 1, wherein said suspect robocall database includes fewer records than a labeling database of reported possible robocalls used to identify characteristics of robocalls. ### Claim 20 The system of system embodiment 19 wherein said suspect robocall detector first processor is further configured to control said suspect robocall detector to: generate a call classification model to be used to identify possible robocalls, said generate a call classification model including: accessing a set of call detail records (CDRs) of the enterprise for a period of time; comparing calling party numbers in the accessed call records to the calling party numbers in at least one database of reported robocallers to identify calls which are from known or likely robocallers, said identified calls being a set of previously received suspect robocalls; generating from the call detail records of the set of previously received suspect robocalls, call pattern information indicative of a suspect robocall.