A call challenger can receive a user input from a called party identity to opt-in to a call challenge service, and a second user input of a keyword. When the call challenger receives a call directed to a user equipment of the called party identity, the call challenger can prompt the calling party to provide an audible response. In response to a receipt of the audible response, the call challenger can convert the audible response to a text. The call challenger can compare the text with the keyword to determine if there is a sufficient match. In response to the determining the output of the comparing does not satisfy a threshold match score, the call challenger can prevent the call from connecting with the user equipment.

Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for communications network security for handling proxy voice calls that employ a voicebot. According to one aspect disclosed herein, a call handling system can intercept, from a communications network, a call request that is directed to a called target device. The call handling system can determine that the call request was generated by a voicebot on behalf of a user equipment. The call handling system can suspend the call request from being routed to the called target device. The call handling system can generate a voicebot confirmation request that identifies the voicebot and the user equipment. The call handling system can provide the voicebot confirmation request to the called target. The call request can be suspended while the voicebot confirmation request is provided to the called target device.

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method of receiving, by a processing system including a processor, a call for a subscriber; determining, by the processing system, that the call is from an interactive voice response (IVR) system; determining whether the IVR system is providing a query that requires a response; and responsive to a first determination that the IVR system requires the response, providing the response. Other embodiments are disclosed.

A system and method for maintaining a grey list for controlling incoming calls from numbers on a telephone network. Information associated with previous calls received by the telephone is stored in the form of a grey list. The stored information includes an indication of whether each of the previously received calls passed a previous challenge. Based on the stored information, when an incoming call is received, a determination is made whether the incoming call corresponds to a call that passed a previous challenge. The incoming call connected to the telephone if the stored information indicates that the incoming call previously passed a challenge. An action is taken if the stored information does not indicate that the incoming call previously passed the challenge. The action may include blocking the call, allowing the call or providing a current challenge to the call.

Embodiments described herein provide for automatically classifying the types of devices that place calls to a call center. A call center system can detect whether an incoming call originated from voice assistant device using trained classification models received from a call analysis service. Embodiments described herein provide for methods and systems in which a computer executes machine learning algorithms that programmatically train (or otherwise generate) global or tailored classification models based on the various types of features of an audio signal and call data. A classification model is deployed to one or more call centers, where the model is used by call center computers executing classification processes for determining whether incoming telephone calls originated from a voice assistant device, such as Amazon Alexa® and Google Home®, or another type of device (e.g., cellular/mobile phone, landline phone, VoIP).

An innovative method is implemented to determine a robocall and blocks the incoming communication deemed to be a robocall. The method leverages blockchain's shared storage, memory, and ability to transact all information across a network and independently verified and stored on the immutable blockchain. The method takes advantage high-speed cellular network to process each communication with high-speed. Further, the method integrates blockchain encryption, swarm intelligence (SI), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms, a telecommunication expert knowledge graph (TEKG), and real-time parsing of records to block robocalls and reduce connection delays. All modules can evolve and update themselves with each use of the present invention through various SI, AI, and ML technologies. Additionally, the method includes a localized call-filtering feature based on state and federal laws to ensure the blocking of calls that are prohibited by either federal or state governments thereby facilitating recovery of damages.

A system for determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call includes an automated telephone calling device for placing a telephone call to a location having a telephone number at which a target person is listed, upon the telephone call being answered, initiating a prerecorded greeting which asks for the target person and receiving a spoken response from an answering person and a speech recognition device for performing a speech recognition analysis on the spoken response to determine a status of the spoken response. If the speech recognition device determines that the answering person is the target person, the speech recognition device initiates a speech recognition application with the target person.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for implementing a telephone call screener are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving a telephone call. The actions further include determining characteristics of the telephone call. The actions further include, based on the characteristics of the telephone call, determining a level of screening to apply to the telephone call. The actions further include determining screening data based on screening the telephone call according to the level of screening. The actions further include providing, for output, the screening data.

Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for using real-time speech analytics to navigate a call that has reached a machine or service. In various embodiments, a call leg is established from a call handler handling the call to a speech analytics system configured to analyze the call to detect keywords. As the speech analytics system monitors the call, the speech analytics system sends an event to the call handler upon detecting a keyword. In turn, the call handler carries out some action based on the event that is configured to advance the progress of the call. Accordingly, if the call handler determines a live party has been reached on the call as result of the action, the call handler connects the call with a second live party to converse with the live party reached on the call.

Systems and processes for integrating a digital assistant with telephony are provided. For example, an incoming call may be received, from a caller, at an electronic device. A communication session may be established between the caller and the digital assistant of the electronic device. In accordance with a determination that the identification of the caller is unknown, determination is made whether the caller corresponds to an automated calling system. In accordance with a determination that the identification of the caller is known, a response is provided by the digital assistant to the caller. An output including information corresponding to the communication is provided at the electronic device.