The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 23, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 21, 1995
Charles M Jankowitz, Old Bridge, NJ (US);
Valentine C Matula, Granville, OH (US);
Gary A Munson, Little Silver, NJ (US);
Fang Wu, Middletown, NJ (US);
AT&T Corp, Middletown, NJ (US);
Abstract
Prior to completing a telephone call, a database is accessed within a telecommunications network to determine whether the call should be completed. The billing number to which the call is to be charged is compared to a customer record assigned to the billing number and stored in the database. The customer record is checked against a treatment category code which combines geographic call restrictions and thresholding. A call may be identified as potentially fraudulent and blocked if the customer record associated with the billing number indicates that the account is in arrears. In addition, at predetermined intervals during the progress of the call and at the end of each allowed call to be charged to that billing number, the time and/or cost of each call is estimated and added to the total stored in a user-defined threshold counter in the database. When the total stored in the counter exceeds a predetermined threshold limit, a potentially fraudulent call is identified. In this manner, call authorization is performed on a per call basis to prevent fraudulent telephone calls.