The present invention relates to communications methods and apparatus for determining whether a received call originated from an artificial intelligence system and the call handling procedures to be used on the received call based on whether or not the call was determined to have been originated from an artificial intelligence system. An exemplary method embodiment includes the steps of: receiving a first call; determining whether said first call originated from an artificial intelligence system; and when said first call is determined to have originated from an artificial intelligence system performing one or more artificial intelligence call handling operations.

Disclosed embodiments provide improved communication between a caller and multiple parties. A caller performs a call spray operation on a group of contacts using an electronic communication device such as a mobile telephone. The call spray operation attempts to contact an electronic device associated with each contact in the group of contacts. If one of the contacts answers and is deemed to be a live user, then the remaining contacts that did not answer each receive a message on their associated electronic device indicating which of the contacts answered the caller with a live user. In this way, a group of people can be conveniently contacted and kept up to date with the status of the communication with the caller.

The present invention relates to communications methods and apparatus for determining whether a received call originated from an artificial intelligence system and the call handling procedures to be used on the received call based on whether or not the call was determined to have been originated from an artificial intelligence system. An exemplary method embodiment includes the steps of: receiving a first call; determining whether said first call originated from an artificial intelligence system; and when said first call is determined to have originated from an artificial intelligence system performing one or more artificial intelligence call handling operations.

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.

A user-customized call filtering system and method for vetting and filtering incoming calls from unwanted callers including robocallers. The system and method includes a user-customized call filter software application hosted on a cloud-based system that communicates with a native call filter application stored on end-user devices including smart phones, over a wired or wireless communication network. The native call filter application includes a host of pages that are selected by and presented to, end-users to customize a blacklist and whitelist with telephone numbers associated with incoming calls that are unwanted and terminated, granted immediate access to end-users, or granted access to end-users based on predefined schedule filters that are defined by geographic location of originating callers, geographic location of end-users, and/or on a particular date, day, and/or time. The system and method includes a dynamic query engine that generates and presents queries to callers associated with unknown and unverified incoming calls to solicit human responses for determining whether such callers are human or likely robocallers.

Calls initiated from disconnected phone numbers and calls initiated to disconnected phone numbers can be indicative of robocalls. Disconnected phone numbers and phone numbers that have initiated calls to disconnected phone numbers are identified and assigned a robocall score that indicates a likelihood that a call initiated from that number is a robocall. Calls that are received from originating numbers with high robocall scores may be acoustically profiled for further confirmation of robocall detection using an acoustic profiler. An acoustic profiler identifies suspicious and potentially fraudulent phone calls by virtue of their audio characteristics.

A method and system for automatically blocking robocalls. A set of incoming call data is captured from the incoming call. The set of incoming call data, including captured audio data, is checked with plural different tests to determine if the robocall includes a voice call component. The plural different tests provide additional levels of detection for robocalls. The method and system automatically identify and process robocalls and help prevent call spoofing and neighbor spoofing by robocalls.

Embodiments may provide techniques to screen for, detect, and prevent connection of robocalls. For example, in an embodiment, a method, implemented in a computer system comprising a processor, memory accessible by the processor, and computer program instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor, may comprise receiving, at a telecommunications switch, a request to initiate a call from an originating party, selecting, at the telecommunications switch, from a list of terminating carrier networks, a media server, routing, at the telecommunications switch, the request to initiate the call to the media server, forwarding, from the media server, a media prompt requesting the originating party to enter a response to the media prompt, and when the originating party does not enter a correct response to the media prompt, forwarding, from the media server, an indication that the call is forbidden.

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.

A method, a communication device, and a computer program product for identifying a live phone call. The method includes receiving, at a first communication device, an activation of a verification mode for a phone call. The method includes receiving, from a second communication device on the phone call, first audio data associated with the phone call. The method further includes determining, via a processor of the first communication device, if the first audio data contains machine originated audio, and in response to determining that the first audio data does not contain machine originated audio , generating and outputting an alert that the phone call is live.