Apparatus and accompanying methods for preventing toll fraud through use

Abstract

An apparatus and accompanying methods for preventing telephone toll fraud that relies on the use of centralized voice verification to authenticate a party claiming a particular identity and requesting service, i.e. access to a telephone network. A voice verification intelligent peripheral (VVIP) (300) is interposed between, e.g., a tandem switch (40) and a voice service node (VSN) (250) both used to provide alternate automated billing service (AABS). The VVIP intercepts all call processing messages that occur between these two components and, at a pre-defined point during the processing of an AABS call, holds a call processing message, specifically a successful line information database (LIDB) query response message, until a voice verification of a caller is complete. While the message is held, the VVIP prompts the caller, who is claiming to be a subscriber, to speak a pre-defined password, obtains a voice template of the resulting speech and attempts to match this template against a template previously stored, within the VVIP, for the subscriber, during a prior enrollment process and for the same password. If the templates match and hence the identity claimed by the caller is confirmed, the VVIP simply passes the message, then being held, onward to its destination, such as the VSN, to then allow the normal processing for this call to proceed and eventually result in the call being extended through public switching network to a dialed destination number.