Automatic reporting of unwanted or unlawful telephonic communication
The present invention is directed to methods for a called party to report unwanted telephone calls to jurisdictional authorities. These calls may be unwanted, unlawful, or other calls. In the methods of the present invention, the called party dials a code comprised of a series of digits, which triggers the switching node associated with the called party to generate a series of messages, at least one of which encompasses the originating telephone number of the unwanted call. At least one of the messages is directed to the proper reporting authority such that the called party reports the unwanted event. Called parties can take further actions, such as including additional messaging or blocking subsequent calls from the calling party number. The reporting authority can take further action as well, such as matching the called party number with subscriber or geographic information.
1. A system for capturing call information comprising:
a telephone set, smart phone, or other communications phone or device capable of delivering subscriber signaling codes and content messages;
a stored program control switching element with a subscriber signaling code detector and a register, said switching element in the PSTN (public switched telephone network) and capable of preparing and delivering network signaling messages; and
a customer node for receiving and decoding network signaling messages and content messages, wherein each said network signaling message includes data extracted from said register;
wherein said stored program control switching element is programmed to accept particular customer signaling codes and in response to a customer signaling code is programmed to prepare and deliver a network signaling message directed to a customer node, said customer node having been identified to said stored program control switching element in a response to a query sent to a network accessible database and accessible via the PSTN, and said stored program control switching element is programmed to accept particular customer signaling codes following the conclusion of a call; and each of said network signaling message and said content message includes an indicator such that said customer node has the ability to associate said network signaling message and said content message.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein said data in said register is a phone number.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein said customer node includes processing and storage capability, and includes the ability to store data from a plurality of signaling messages.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein said customer node receives voice messages and is programmed to associate a voice message with a signaling message.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein said customer node receives data messages and is programmed to associate a data message with signaling message.
6. A method for reporting a call received by a telephonic device to a reporting authority, said received call originating with a calling party and terminating with a called party, comprising the steps of:
upon ending said call received by said telephonic device, using said telephonic device to send a Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) sequence to a stored program control switching node, receipt of said sequence by said switching node resulting in said switching node requesting at least one network address for a reporting authority and directing a notification signaling message including the telephone number of said calling party obtained from a register at or accessible by said switching node, and the telephone number of the called party, to said reporting authority, and
using said telephonic device to send a content message to said reporting authority using a data network,
wherein said DTMF sequence indicates a characteristic of the call received, said stored program control switching node is in the PSTN (public switched telephone network) and has the ability to construct and deliver signaling messages, and said notification signaling message and said content message each includes an indicator such that said reporting authority has the ability to associate said notification signaling message and said content message and said telephonic device has the ability to deliver a content message.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said telephonic device is a smart phone.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein said content message includes audio, video, or text.
9. The method of claim 6 wherein said notification signaling message includes the time and date of the call.
10. The method of claim 6 wherein said notification signaling message is delivered through a SS7 network.
11. The method of claim 6 wherein said notification signaling message is delivered through a mobile communications network.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein said mobile communications network is a cellular network.
13. The method of claim 6 wherein said notification signaling message is delivered using a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) network.
14. The method of claim 6 further comprising sending notification to the calling party based on a received complaint exceeding a complaint threshold.
15. The method of claim 6 further comprising delivering a voice message, prepared by said called party to said network address, wherein said voice message is associated with said notification signaling message.
16. The method of claim 6 wherein said content message is a short message service (SMS) message.
17. The method of claim 16 wherein said SMS message is delivered using the Internet.
18. The method of claim 6 further comprising blocking future received calls from said calling party to said called party.
19. The method of claim 6 further adding the telephone number of said calling party to a database, wherein said database includes calling party numbers which are blocked due to received complaints exceeding a complaint threshold.