Methods are disclosed for reducing occurrences of nuisance calls. A called
party identifies a call as an undesired (or "nuisance") call after answering, screening
or reviewing recorded messages of calls. In one embodiment, the called party receives
or screens a call and informs a terminating office that it desires to block future
calls from the calling party. The terminating office determines the directory number
of the calling party and causes the directory number to be added to a blocking
database. In another embodiment, a called party reviews one or more prior messages
recorded by a messaging system (e.g., answering machine or voicemail system) and
flags a message (e.g., message #2) as originating from an undesired caller. The
messaging system determines the directory number of the undesired caller and instructs
a service provider to add the directory number to a blocking database. Thereafter,
in either or both embodiments, the blocking database is consulted upon receiving
an incoming call and, if the call is from a directory number in the blocking database,
the call is ended or routed to an announcement without ringing the called party phone.