EP-4740439-A1 - A SYSTEM AND A METHOD OF USING SEQUENTIAL NUMBERING TO DETECT A FRAUDULENT TELEPHONE CALL WITHIN A TELEPHONE SYSTEM

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method of verifying the authenticity of telephone calls from a caller to a recipient, the telephone calls having a caller's telephone number and recipient's telephone number, respectively, and an accessible field within the caller ID system for receiving content. The method includes the steps of first identifying the recipient for a call to be made by the caller. A current sequence marker for the recipient is then generated. The current sequence marker represents the next sequence identifier in a sequence of telephone calls between the caller and the recipient. The current sequence marker is then inserted into the accessible field of the caller ID information for the telephone call and the call is then placed to the recipient. Potentially fraudulent telephone calls are flagged for the recipient to help prevent telephone-based phishing and other phone fraud attempts. The content of the caller ID information within the accessible field may be visible to the recipient upon receiving a telephone call or other alert messages or warnings such as a text message, a differentiated right tone, colored lights, flashing lights, an audio signal, an audio message, or other means may be presented to the call recipient to warn them before the telephone call is answered.

Inventors

• WILLIAM, Pearce

Assignees

• Phishflagger Inc.

Dates

Publication Date

20260513

Application Date

20240705

Claims (20)

1. 1. A method of verifying the authenticity of telephone calls sent from a caller’s telephone to a recipient, both caller and recipient each having a phone number, and access to a caller ID system with an accessible field for receiving content, the content of the user-accessible field being visible to the recipient upon receiving a phone call, the method comprising the steps of: • identifying the recipient for a phone call to be made by the caller; • generating a current sequence marker for the recipient, the current sequence marker representing the next sequence identifier in a sequence of telephone calls between the caller and the recipient; • inserting the current sequence marker into the accessible field of the caller ID information and including that in the caller ID information presented to the phone call recipient by the caller ID system or the caller ID system interoperating with the telephone device and the telephone system.
2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the current sequence marker is generated from a phone call history representing a record of telephone calls previously made from the caller to the recipient.
3. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the current sequence marker comprises one or more characters selected from the group of sequential characters comprising letters, numbers, words from a sequential list of words, symbols from a sequential list of symbols, icons from a sequential list of icons and images from a sequential list of images.
4. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephone call history is contained in a database coupled to a caller’s telephone system.
5. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the database and caller ID application are configured to programmatically generate the current sequence marker and insert it into an accessible field before transporting the call and the caller ID information.
6. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the caller’s telephone system queries a telephone call history to generate the current sequence marker, the telephone call history representing a record of telephone calls previously sent from the caller to the recipient, the caller then inserts the current sequence marker into the accessible field of the caller ID information before transporting the voice call to the recipient.
7. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the telephone call history includes a last sequence marker for a last phone call made and sent to the recipient, the telephone system generates the current sequence marker by incrementing the last sequence marker by 1.
8. 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the accessible field into which the current sequence marker is inserted into the caller ID information for a phone call.
9. 9. The method of claim 7 further comprises the steps of the recipient receiving the phone call made by the caller, the current sequence marker being identified from the caller ID information, the current sequence marker then being compared to an expected sequence marker predicted from the last sequence marker, the telephone call being flagged as suspicious if the current sequence marker identified from the call’s caller ID information does not match the expected sequence marker.
10. 10. The method of claim 1 wherein the current sequence marker is a human- readable alphanumeric sequence of characters.
11. 11. The method of claim 1 further comprises caller and recipient databases coupled to the caller and recipient’s called ID databases containing fields for the telephone numbers of callers and recipients, the last sequence identifier used in a sequence of telephone calls, the current next sequence identifier to be used for the next call in the sequence of telephone calls, the caller ID databases being further configured to automatically update the current sequence identifier in the sender’s caller ID database to reflect the making of the phone call when the telephone call is made by the caller, and to automatically update the predicted sequence identifier in the recipient’s caller ID database in the event the sequence identifier extracted from the caller ID information for the phone call received matches the predicted sequence identifier fetched from the recipient’s caller ID database.
12. 12. The method of claim 1 wherein the caller is within the same telephone system as the recipient.
13. 13. A method of verifying the authenticity of telephone calls sent from a caller’s telephone to a recipient, both caller and recipient each having a phone number, and access to a caller ID system with an accessible field for receiving content, the content of the user-accessible field being visible to the recipient upon receiving a phone call, the method comprising the steps of: • identifying the receiver for a phone call to be made by the caller; * generating a current sequence marker for the recipient, the current sequence marker representing the next sequence identifier in a sequence of telephone calls between the caller and the recipient; « inserting the current sequence marker into the accessible field of the caller ID information and including that in the caller ID information presented to the phone call recipient by the caller ID system or the caller ID system interoperating with the telephone device and the telephone system and then placing the phone call; * identifying the caller ID information of the caller when the call is received by the recipient; * identifying the current sequence identifier from the caller ID information for the call; * generating a predicted sequence identifier for the caller; * comparing the current sequence identifier identified phone call’s caller ID information to the predicted sequence identifier, and * flagging the voice call as suspicious in the event the sequence identifier identified from the caller ID information for the call does not match the predicted sequence identifier, by displaying warning messages in text presented to the call recipient and displayed on the phone hardware, in real-time as the phone call is received, or by presenting the call recipient with an audio message, before the call is answered to warns the recipient that the call about to be answered may not be verifiable and may be suspicious or fraudulent, or by using other alert indicators such as a differentiated or unique ring tone, a flashing light on the telephone, colored lights on the phone, an audio signal from the phone, or other warning messages.
14. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the accessible field into which the current sequence identifier is inserted is configured such that the recipient can view the current sequence identifier simply by reading the field without having to answer the phone call when it is received, the recipient's telephone or the recipient’s telephone coupled with the recipient’s telephone system or caller ID system, the telephone is configured to flag the voice call as suspicious if the current sequence marker identified from the caller ID information for the telephone call does not match the expected sequence marker.
15. 15. The method of claim 13, wherein the real-time warning messages include an audio message inserted by the receiving telecom that plays a warning message for the user after the phone is answered but before the call is connected, or the audio message could be superimposed on the existing connection after the call is answered.
16. 16. The method of claim 13, wherein a recipient's caller ID system flags telephone calls as suspicious in the event the sequence identifier identified from the caller ID information for the telephone call does not match the predicted sequence identifier, the recipient having a different telephone system than the email caller.
17. 17. The method of claim 13, wherein a recipient's caller ID system flags telephone calls as suspicious in the event the sequence identifier identified from the caller ID information for the telephone call does not match the predicted sequence identifier, and the caller ID system, caller ID database, and the recipient’s telephone system retaining a record of potentially fraudulent or phishing voice calls, or other calls where the sequence identifiers do not match, thereby enabling telecom providers, other caller ID systems, enhanced caller ID systems, regulators, and other telephone systems to help analyze behaviors and patterns in caller ID spoofing and validate telephone call histories of potentially fraudulent callers. User-reported fraudulent telephone calls may also be retained in the record of voice calls.
18. 18. The method of claim 13, wherein a recipient's caller ID system flags telephone calls as suspicious in the event there is incomplete caller ID information for the telephone or there is no caller ID information for a telephone call, or there is problematic caller ID information from calls passing between incompatible telephone systems or jurisdictions, or where caller ID information is blocked and flagging the telephone call as not verifiable and potentially fraudulent.
19. 19. A caller ID system for tracking a plurality of telephone calls from a caller to a recipient, the telephone calls each having a phone number and access to an accessible field, the caller ID system comprises: * a caller’s telephone operatively coupled to a caller ID database, the system configured to send caller ID information with telephone calls to the recipient, the caller ID database configured to store contact information for the recipient including the recipient's telephone number and a sequence identifier, the sequence identifier representing a last predicted value in a previously agreed- upon sequence of telephone calls between the caller and recipient, the caller ID database and the caller ID system configured to insert the sequence identifier for the recipient in the accessible field the caller ID information sent with every phone call to each recipient, the caller ID database is further configured to update the sequence identifier for the recipient in the caller ID database when each phone call is sent to the recipient; * a recipient telephone operatively coupled to a recipient’s caller ID database, the recipient caller ID application configured to receive said plurality of telephone calls from the caller, the recipient database configured to store contact information for the caller including the caller's telephone number and the sequence identifier, the recipient called ID system configured to parse the caller ID information to extract the sequence identifier from the accessible field of the caller ID information sent from the caller to generate an extracted sequence identifier, the recipient caller ID system and recipient database being further configured to fetch the sequence identifier for the caller from the database and compare the extracted sequence identifier to the fetched sequence identifier and flag the voice call as suspicious if the extracted sequence identifier does not match the fetched sequence identifier; ® parsing the caller ID information for the phone call to extract the current sequence identifier; * identifying the caller of the telephone call in a recipient database and fetching a predicted sequence identifier from the recipient database for the caller; ® comparing the current sequence identifier extracted from the caller ID information from the phone call to the predicted sequence identifier fetched from the recipient database, and * Flagging the voice call as suspicious in the event the sequence identifier extracted from the caller ID information does not match the predicted sequence identifier fetched from the recipient database.
20. 20. A caller ID system for receiving telephone calls sent from a caller in a telephone system to a recipient within a telephone system, the telephone calls each having a caller's telephone number, a recipient's telephone number, and one or more accessible fields, the caller ID system comprising: * the recipient telephone operatively coupled to a recipient database of telephone contacts, the recipient database configured to store contact information for the recipient including the caller's telephone number and a sequence identifier, the sequence identifier representing a last predicted value in a previously agreed-upon sequence of telephone calls between the caller and recipient, the recipient database and the recipient telephone configured to inspect the incoming voice call and identify the sequence identifier for the caller in the accessible field of the caller ID information for each call made to the recipient, the recipient database being further configured to update the sequence identifier for the caller in the recipient database when each call is made to the recipient; * a recipient telephone operatively coupled to a recipient database, the recipient called ID application configured to receive said plurality of telephone calls from callers, the recipient database configured to store contact information for the recipient including the caller's telephone number and the sequence identifier, the recipient caller ID application and recipient database configured to parse the caller ID information for the telephone call to extract the sequence identifier from the accessible field of the caller ID sent from the caller to generate an extracted sequence identifier, the recipient caller ID application and recipient database being further configured to compare the extracted sequence identifier to the predicted sequence identifier in the recipient database and then either flag the telephone call as suspicious if the extracted sequence identifier does not match the predicted sequence identifier or, if this is the first sequence identifier ever received in a phone call from the caller, to update the sequence identifier in the database so future telephone calls can be validated using sequential numbering and the other components and processes of the present invention; • parsing the accessible field of the caller ID information for the phone call to extract the current sequence identifier from the call; • comparing the current sequence identifier extracted from the caller ID information to the predicted sequence identifier fetched from the recipient database, and either flagging the telephone call as suspicious in the event the sequence identifier extracted from the caller ID information does not match the predicted sequence identifier fetched from the recipient database or, if this is the first sequence identifier ever received from the caller, to update the sequence identifier in the recipient database so future telephone calls can be validated using sequential numbering and the other components and processes of the present invention; and * in the event a sequence identifier cannot be parsed or extracted from the caller ID information for a telephone call, flagging that telephone call as not conforming to the method of using sequential caller IDnumbering, and thus as not verifiable or possibly suspicious.

Description

A SYSTEM AND A METHOD OF USING SEQUENTIAL NUMBERING TO DETECT A FRAUDULENT TELEPHONE CALL WITHIN A TELEPHONE SYSTEM FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to telecommunication. More particularly, the present invention pertains to methods for verifying the authenticity of telephone calls by tracking and confirming the sequential history of calls between parties, utilizing sequence markers in caller ID information to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the communication. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] People rely on telephone system communications and caller ID display systems for many important purposes, including ensuring that loved ones are safe and secure. In the modern world, fraudsters use Al and other technologies such as ‘robocalls’ to create fake voices of people to engage in ransom and other illegal activities using the telephone system. [0003] In a typical ransom attack using ‘deep fake’ voices, a ransomer ‘spoofs’ the telephone number, for example, of a child in a family. This may be accomplished in any of several ways, but the result isa family member, such as a parent or grandparent, receives a telephone call from the ransomer that appears to be coming from the child’s phone. The ransomer demanding a ransom say they are holding the child. To prove the same a deep faked, Al-generated, or AI- assisted artificial voice that sounds to the listener as that of their child in distress is played. The ransomer instructs the family member to withdraw cash from a bank and deposit it at a specified location for pickup, with the promise the child would be released unharmed. Such fake calls with fake voice are more distressing and convincing to the family member as the telephone’s caller identification (ID) display system shows that the call is originating from the child’s phone, even when it is originating from a different telephone number. These types of ransom attacks can be devastating to victims. [0004] Typically, a telephone system provides the caller ID over the telephone line’s communication signal to the telephone hardware, which detects and displays the caller ID (usually a phone number or name of a contact, or ‘unknown caller’ in some cases when the number is not known) on the telephone hardware to a user. The telephone system may be under the direct control of the telephone service provider for the originating caller or may include interoperation with the receiving telephone system of the person receiving the telephone call and seeing the fraudulent caller ID displayed. [0005] Further, these types of telephone calls usually originate from a fraudster’s telephone, operating within a telephone system, and are routed to the victim’s phone by the sending and receiving carriers using standards or proprietary methods for transporting telephone calls, as per rules set within the telephone systems involved in placing and receiving the calls. [0006] Telephone systems may be PSTN/POTS, cellular, digital, VOIP, a proprietary system, or some combination thereof. The caller ID may be provided to the person receiving a voice call after the receiving carrier queries a CNAM database to determine the name associated with a phone number, or through other means of providing a caller ID. Before the call is connected, the recipient’s telephone network decodes the caller’s number and delivers it to the recipient’s phone. This may be done using a specific signaling protocol, such as the Bellcore GR-30-CORE in North America, or the ETSI FSK signaling in Europe, or other protocols. In either case, the effect is the same: the provision of caller ID display within the telephone system so the voice call recipient can know the identity of the person placing the call. [0007] Attempts to impersonate or masquerade as legitimate spoofed phone numbers can evade the conventional filters and identifiers within the telephone system’s caller ID functionality and have the potential to arrive without detection on the telephone displays of targeted phone call recipients. [0008] Therefore, there is an unmet need to identify fraudulent telephone calls and help telephone users not be deceived by phone calls that appear to be legitimate but are ransom attempts or other fraudulent calls originating from bad actors with nefarious intents and purposes, such as calls with a forged caller ID spoofed to appear from another caller or other telephone-based fraud attempt techniques. OBJECTIVE OF THE INVENTION [0009] An objective of the present invention is to provide a method and a system that provides a reliable means to authenticate the caller's identity by verifying the authenticity of telephone calls between a caller and a recipient to ensure the integrity of the communication by confirming the sequential history of calls. [0010] Another objective of the present invention is to provide text displays or audio alerts, or both, to phone call recipients when non-verifiable caller ID information is received to help pr