14. A system comprising: a telephone number database storing a plurality of telephone numbers, each having a plurality of digits; and a computing device configured to access the telephone number database, identify and designate as patterned telephone numbers those of the telephone numbers that have digits that occur in any of numeric patterns defined by a first reference list, identify and designate as patterned telephone numbers those of the telephone numbers that have digits that occur in any of alphanumeric patterns defined by a second reference list, each of the alphanumeric patterns including alphabetic letters or mixed alphabetic letters and numbers, and designate any remaining telephone numbers as normal numbers in the telephone number database, wherein the computing device is configured to assign a weight to each patterned telephone number based on the number of alphabetic or alphanumeric patterns identified such that a greater weight is assigned to patterned telephone numbers that have digits that occur both in any of the numeric patterns and in any of the alphanumeric patterns than to patterned telephone numbers that have digits that occur in only one of any of the numeric patterns or any of the alphanumeric patterns.
14. A system comprising: a telephone number database storing a plurality of telephone numbers, each having a plurality of digits; and a computing device configured to access the telephone number database, identify and designate as patterned telephone numbers those of the telephone numbers that have digits that occur in any of numeric patterns defined by a first reference list, identify and designate as patterned telephone numbers those of the telephone numbers that have digits that occur in any of alphanumeric patterns defined by a second reference list, each of the alphanumeric patterns including alphabetic letters or mixed alphabetic letters and numbers, and designate any remaining telephone numbers as normal numbers in the telephone number database, wherein the computing device is configured to assign a weight to each patterned telephone number based on the number of alphabetic or alphanumeric patterns identified such that a greater weight is assigned to patterned telephone numbers that have digits that occur both in any of the numeric patterns and in any of the alphanumeric patterns than to patterned telephone numbers that have digits that occur in only one of any of the numeric patterns or any of the alphanumeric patterns. 15. A system as set forth in claim 14 , wherein the computing device is further configured to: identify a letter combination created by at least two of the digits of the telephone number; and determine whether the letter combination forms any of the alphabetic patterns.