Abstract: A system (10) for verifying the identity of a caller in a telecommunications network uses a voice-responsive control device (28) to compare spoken utterances of callers with previously stored voice templates. In preferred forms, the caller speaks an utterance of an identification number which is decoded independently of the speaker thereof and then used to retrieve corresponding voice template identified thereby. In other preferred forms, the ANI of a calling station (18) is delivered to the control device which uses the ANI to retrieve the caller's voice template identified thereby.