# US 8,238,532 B1 · Method of and system for discovering and reporting trustworthiness and credibility of calling party number information > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 8,238,532 B1 - Document ID: US8238532B1 - Status: Granted - Kind: B1 - Application number: 12/783,405 - Filed: 2010-05-19 - Granted: 2012-08-07 - Earliest claimed: 2009-05-19 - Assignees: TrustID, Inc. - Inventors: Patrick M. Cox; Richard J. Greene; Joseph H. Bockelman; Shreyas Saitawdekar - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US8238532B1 ## CPC - H04M 15/06: Recording class or number of calling {, i.e. A-party} or called party {, i.e. B-party} - H04M 15/47: {Fraud detection or prevention means} - H04M 15/83: {Notification aspects} - H04M 15/8351: {before establishing a communication} - H04M 17/02: Coin-freed or check-freed systems {, e.g. mobile- or card-operated phones, public telephones or booths} - H04M: TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION (circuits for controlling other apparatus via a telephone cable and not involving telephone switching apparatus G08) ## Abstract A method of and system for discovering and reporting the trustworthiness and credibility of calling party number information, such as Automatic Number Identification (ANI) or Calling Number Identification (Caller ID) information, or for inbound telephone calls. The disclosed method entails the use of real time telephone network status and signaling, network data, locally stored data, and predictive analytics. Practice of the disclosed method is neither detectable by nor intrusive to the calling party, and the method can be implemented into existing enterprise, telecommunications, and information service infrastructures. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of determining a source origin confidence metric of a calling party number or billing number associated with an incoming call from a telephonic device, comprising: receiving the calling party number or billing number; after receiving the calling party number or billing number and before the incoming call is answered, gathering operational status information associated with the calling party number or billing number, wherein gathering operational status information includes placing an outgoing call to the calling party number or billing number and receiving call progress messages associated with the outgoing call; and determining the source origin confidence metric for the calling party number or billing number. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving characteristics of the incoming call. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, wherein characteristics of the incoming call include one or more of time of day, trunk number, ANI II digits, dialed number information, an identifier of an originating switch, SIP Header information, SIP routing information, transaction number, call frequency indicator, SS7 data or a unique call identifier. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the format of the calling party number or billing number is valid. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The method of claim 4, further comprising upon determining that the format of the calling party number or billing number is invalid, generating a message that indicates the calling party number or billing number is invalid. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining a number of calls within a given timeframe that have been originated from the calling party number or billing number. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, further comprising determining whether the number of calls within a given timeframe that have been originated from the calling party number or billing number exceeds a threshold. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, further comprising upon determining that the threshold has been exceeded, generating a message that indicates the calling party number or billing number is invalid. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a carrier associated with the calling party number or billing number. ### Claim 10 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, further comprising determining whether an NPA-NXX of the calling party number or billing number or whether the calling party number or billing number is associated with the originating switch. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10, further comprising upon determining that the NPA-NXX of the calling party number or billing number or that the calling party number or billing number is not associated with the originating switch, generating a message that indicates the calling party number or billing number is invalid. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining a line status for the calling party number or billing number. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The method of claim 12, further comprising when the line status for the calling party or billing number is determined to be answered, detecting audio energy to determine an answer condition. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, further comprising upon determining the answer condition to be a human answer, generating a message that indicates the calling party number or billing number is invalid. ### Claim 15 (depends on 12) The method of claim 12, further comprising upon determining the answer condition to be ringing with no answer, generating a message that indicates the calling party number or billing number is invalid. ### Claim 16 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a call pattern for the outbound call. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, wherein the call pattern includes data on timing between call progress messages. ### Claim 18 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, wherein the outbound call pattern includes one or more of network conditions, line-status, call progress information, call progress messages, answer conditions, and timing of call progress messages. ### Claim 19 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, wherein determining the source origin confidence metric of the calling party number or billing number is based on a comparison of the outbound call pattern to stored call patterns, characteristics, or both. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The method of claim 19, further comprising: identifying stored call patterns, characteristics, or both to be compared to the outbound call pattern based on one or more of line type, carrier, geo-location, or signaling patterns of the calling party number or the billing number. ### Claim 21 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the source origin confidence metric is a probability that the calling party number or the billing number is valid. ### Claim 22 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the source origin confidence metric indicates either the calling party number or the billing number is valid or invalid. ### Claim 23 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the source origin confidence metric indicates a calling party number or billing number validity indicator, wherein the validity indicators comprise a static set of predetermined indicators. ### Claim 24 (depends on 23) The method of claim 23, wherein the set of predetermined indicators are red, green or yellow. ### Claim 25 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: adjusting the source origin confidence metric based on personal risk factors of an entity associated with the calling party number or billing number. ### Claim 26 (depends on 25) The method of claim 25, wherein the personal risk factors include one or more of fraud score, risk score, credit score, marketing score, affinity score, expansion score, or warning indicators for bankruptcy, or whether a person associated with the calling party number or billing number is deceased. ### Claim 27 (depends on 25) The method of claim 25, further comprising: retrieving consortium information from an external database. ### Claim 28 (depends on 27) The method of claim 27, wherein the external database includes data such as calling velocity to multiple locations within a specified time period for the calling party number or billing number, or known fraudulent calling party numbers or billing numbers. ### Claim 29 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, further comprising updating a stored call patterns database based on the outbound call pattern. ### Claim 30 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing the source origin confidence metric to an entity receiving the incoming call. ### Claim 31 (depends on 30) The method of claim 30, wherein the source origin confidence matrix is provided to the entity receiving the incoming call in real-time or in batch mode. ### Claim 32 A system for performing forensic analysis on calling party number information associated with an incoming call from a telephonic device, before the incoming call is answered, comprising: an interface for receiving calling party number information associated with the incoming call; a memory configured to store a plurality of expected call patterns; and one or more processors configured to: gather operational status information associated with the calling party number information, and assign a source origin confidence metric to the calling party number using the operational status information and an expected call pattern in the plurality of expected call patterns. ### Claim 33 (depends on 32) The system of claim 32, wherein the interface is further configured to receive characteristics associated with the incoming call. ### Claim 34 (depends on 33) The system of claim 33, wherein the characteristics of the incoming call include one or more of trunk number, identifier of an originating switch, or transaction number. ### Claim 35 (depends on 32) The system of claim 32, wherein the processor is further configured to derive characteristics of the incoming call. ### Claim 36 (depends on 35) The system of claim 35, wherein the derived characteristics of the incoming call include one or more of carrier, geo-location of the call, or line type of the telephone device originating the incoming call. ### Claim 37 (depends on 36) The system of claim 36, wherein the processor is further configured to select the expected call pattern based on the derived characteristics of the incoming call. ### Claim 38 (depends on 32) The system of claim 32, wherein the calling party information includes the calling party number or billing number. ### Claim 39 (depends on 38) The system of claim 38 further comprising: a device for initiating an outbound call to the calling party number or billing number. ### Claim 40 (depends on 39) The system of claim 39 further comprising: a module for monitoring a set of call progress messages associated with the outbound call to the calling party. ### Claim 41 (depends on 40) The system of claim 40, wherein the processor is further configured to generate a call progress pattern based on the set of monitored call progress messages. ### Claim 42 (depends on 41) The system of claim 41, wherein the call progress pattern includes data on timing between call progress messages in the set of monitored call progress messages. ### Claim 43 (depends on 40) The system of claim 40, wherein the processor is further configured to compare the call progress pattern to the expected call pattern to determine the source origin confidence metric for the calling party number or the billing number. ### Claim 44 (depends on 32) The system of claim 32, wherein the operational status information includes a line status for the calling party number or billing number. ### Claim 45 (depends on 44) The system of claim 44, further comprising: an audio energy detector configured to determine an answer condition associated with the line status. ### Claim 46 (depends on 38) The system of claim 38, wherein the source origin confidence metric is a probability that the calling party number or billing number is valid. ### Claim 47 (depends on 38) The system of claim 38, wherein the source origin confidence metric indicates either the calling party number or billing number is valid or invalid. ### Claim 48 (depends on 38) The system of claim 38, wherein the source origin confidence metric indicates a calling party number or billing number validity indicator, wherein the validity indicators comprise a static set of predetermined indicators. ### Claim 49 (depends on 48) The system of claim 48, wherein the set of predetermined source origin confidence metric indicators include red, green or yellow. ### Claim 50 (depends on 38) The system of claim 38, wherein the processor is further configured to adjust the source origin confidence metric based on personal risk factors of an entity associated with the calling party number or billing number. ### Claim 51 (depends on 50) The system of claim 50, wherein the personal risk factors include one or more of fraud score, risk score, credit score, marketing score, affinity score, expansion score, or warning indicators for bankruptcy, or whether a person associated with the calling party number is deceased. ### Claim 52 (depends on 32) The system of claim 32, further comprising one or more storage devices configured to store expected call patterns.