Identity risk scoring

• US 10,049,359 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2015
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Checkfree Services Corporation (Fiserv Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Checkfree Corporation (Fiserv Incorporated)
• Inventors: Lyda, Paul J., Borger, Brett V., McCabe, James Patrick, Southard, Roy Alan, Dreyer, Hans D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Kito R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hamerski, Bolko M
• Application Number:
  US14/617,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20150154599A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,282 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4014 Identity check for transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4016 involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

An identity risk score may be determined for subscribers of a service to indicate a level of confidence or certainty associated with a subscriber'"'"'s identity. The identity risk score may be modified upward or downward in order to reflect changing levels of certainty. The changes may be based on transactions performed on behalf of and/or information submitted by the subscriber. Functionality provided to the subscriber may also be dependent upon whether the subscriber'"'"'s identity risk score meets a threshold. In one or more arrangements, an identity risk score may be determined based on whether information entered by the subscriber can be confirmed and a level of confidence with which the information is confirmed.

Claims

1. A system for determining whether to enable (i) a full set of electronic functionality via an interactive user interface or (ii) one or more restricted subsets of the full set of electronic functionality via the interactive user interface, the system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one network interface; and

at least one memory storing computer-executable instructions,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to access the at least one memory and execute the computer-executable instructions to;

establish an initial identity risk score for a subscriber relationship of a user for a particular service, wherein the initial identity risk score corresponds to a verification level of an identity of the user;

receive, via a first network interface of the at least one network interface, a transaction associated with the subscriber relationship, wherein the transaction includes information that (i) has not been previously received in association with the subscriber relationship, and (ii) identifies at least one of a particular account or a particular entity;

determine whether an association between the particular account or the particular entity and the user or a group to which the user belongs is confirmed;

automatically modify, based at least in part on determining that whether the association is confirmed, the initial identity risk score to generate a modified identity risk score;

determine whether to enable (i) a full set of electronic functionality via the interactive user interface or (ii) one or more restricted subsets of the full set of electronic functionality via the interactive user interface by comparing the modified identity risk score or a value derived from the modified identity risk score to a configurable threshold; and

enable the full set of electronic functionality via the interactive user interface or the one or more restricted subsets of the full set of electronic functionality via the interactive user interface based at least in part on the comparison of the modified identity risk score or the value derived from the modified identity risk score to the configurable threshold.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of functionality includes at least one of:

(i) enrollment processing, (ii) login processing, (iii) processing a request to view a bill, (iv) payment request processing, (v) payment processing, (vi) processing a request to view or modify subscriber profile information, (vii) processing a request to view or modify entity information, (viii) processing a request to view payment history, or (ix) collections processing.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the value is further derived from at least one of:

(i) a fraud risk score or (ii) a credit risk score.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber relationship is a first subscriber relationship and wherein the at least one processor is configured to establish the initial identity risk score for the subscriber relationship by executing the computer-executable instructions to match the user to a second subscriber relationship with the particular service.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

determine that the second subscriber relationship is associated with an unresolved negative experience; and

deny at least one service function of the particular service to the user via the first subscriber relationship.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to establish the initial identity risk score by executing the computer-executable instructions to:

receive, via a second network interface of the at least one network interface, from a third party identity service, an identifier associated with the user or generate the identifier associated with the user.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the information is first information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to establish the initial identity risk score by executing the computer-executable instructions to:

transmit, to a third party identity service via a second network interface of the at least one network interface, second information associated with the user; and

receive, from the third party identity service via the second network interface of the at least one network interface, a confidence level, wherein the confidence level corresponds to the verification level.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to establish the initial identity risk score by executing the computer-executable instructions to:

receive, from a third party service provider via a second network interface of the least one network interface, an identifier associated with the user;

store the identifier in association with the subscriber relationship in a database; and

remove at least one item of sensitive information associated with the user from the database.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber relationship is a first subscriber relationship and the transaction information includes an account identifier of the particular account, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine whether the association is confirmed by executing the computer-executable instructions to determine that a second subscriber relationship of the particular service is associated with the particular account.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine that the second subscriber relationship is associated with the particular account based at least in part on at least one of:

(i) an identifier of an entity associated with the particular account or (ii) a group identifier identifying a group that includes the first subscriber relationship and the second subscriber relationship.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction information includes an account identifier of the particular account, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine whether the association is confirmed by executing the computer-executable instructions to:

transmit, to a third-party identity service via a second network interface of the at least one network interface, the account identifier and other information associated with the user; and

receive, from the third party identity service via the second network interface of the at least one network interface, a response indicating that an association between the user and the particular account corresponding to the account identifier exists,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to alter the initial identity risk score by executing the computer-executable instructions to increase the initial identity risk score to reflect an increased confidence in the subscriber relationship.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction information includes an account identifier of the particular account, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine whether the association is confirmed by executing the computer-executable instructions to:

transmit, to a third-party identity service via a second network interface of the at least one network interface, the account identifier and other information associated with the user; and

receive, from the third party identity service via the second network interface of the at least one network interface, a response indicating that an association between the user and the particular account corresponding to the account identifier does not exist,

wherein the at least one processor is configured to alter the initial identity risk score by executing the computer-executable instructions to decrease the initial identity risk score to reflect a decreased confidence in the subscriber relationship.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction information includes new or revised entity information.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber relationship is a first subscriber relationship, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to process the transaction information by executing the computer-executable instructions to:

determine whether a second subscriber relationship of the particular service is associated with the transaction information based at least in part on at least one of;

(i) an identifier identifying an entity corresponding to the first subscriber relationship and (ii) a group identifier identifying a group that includes the first subscriber relationship and the second subscriber relationship;

transmit, to a third party identity service via a second network interface of the at least one network interface, the transaction information and other information associated with the first subscriber relationship; and

receive, from the third party identity service via the second network interface of the at least one network interface, a response indicating that an association between the first subscriber relationship and the transaction information exists, wherein the at least one processor is configured to alter the initial identity risk score by executing the computer-executable instructions to increase the initial identity risk score to reflect an increased confidence in the subscriber relationship.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured

to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive, from a third-party identity service via a second network interface of the at least one network interface, a first identifier;

store the first identifier in association with the subscriber relationship;

receive, from the third party identity service via the second network interface of the at least one network interface, a second identifier;

identify the user using the first identifier; and

store the second identifier in association with the subscriber relationship.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein receipt and storage of the first identifier are associated with establishing the initial identity risk score and identification of the user using the first identifier and storage of the second identifier are associated with altering the initial identity risk score.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the modified identity risk score is below a predefined maximum identity risk score.

18. A method comprising:

establishing, by a computerized system comprising one or more computers, an initial identity risk score for a subscriber relationship of a user for a particular service, wherein the initial identity risk score corresponds to a verification level of an identity of the user;

receiving, by the computerized system via a first communication network, a transaction associated with the subscriber relationship, wherein the transaction includes information that (i) has not been previously received in association with the subscriber relationship, and (ii) identifies at least one of a particular account or a particular entity;

determining, by the computerized system, whether an association between the particular account or the particular entity and the user or a group to which the user belongs is confirmed;

automatically modifying, based at least in part on determining whether the association is confirmed and by the computerized system, the initial identity risk score to generate a modified identity risk score;

determining whether to enable (i) a full set of functionality via an interactive user interface or (ii) one or more restricted subsets of the full set of electronic functionality via the interactive user interface by comparing the modified identity risk score or a value derived from the modified identity risk score to a configurable threshold; and

enabling, by the computerized system, the full set of electronic functionality via the interactive user interface or the one or more restricted subsets of the full set of electronic functionality via the interactive user interface based at least in part on the comparison of the modified identity risk score or the value derived from the modified identity risk score to the configurable threshold.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the transaction information includes an account identifier of the particular account, and wherein determining whether the association is confirmed comprises:

transmitting, to a third-party identity service via a second communication network, the account identifier and other information associated with the user; and

receiving, from the third party identity service via the second communication network, a response indicating that the association between the user and the particular account corresponding to the account identifier exists,

wherein altering the initial identity risk score comprises increasing the initial identity risk score to generate the altered initial identity risk score, wherein the modified identity risk score reflects an increased confidence in the subscriber relationship.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the transaction information includes an account identifier of the particular account, and wherein determining whether the association is confirmed comprises:

transmitting, to a third-party identity service via a second communication network, the account identifier and other information associated with the user; and

receiving, from the third party identity service via the second communication network, a response indicating that the association between the user and the particular account corresponding to the account identifier does not exist,

wherein altering the initial identity risk score comprises decreasing the initial identity risk score to generate the modified identity risk score, wherein the modified identity risk score reflects a decreased confidence in the subscriber relationship.