Method, system and computer readable medium for Web site account and e-commerce management from a central location

• US 20020055909A1
• Filed: 06/14/2001
• Published: 05/09/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slingshot Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: Passgate Corporation
• Inventors: Fung, Daniel Y., Hood, Brandon C.
• Granted Patent: US 6,879,965 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/00 Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus

Abstract

A method, system and computer readable medium for, from a central Web site, performing at least one of registering a user at a destination Web site, logging in a user at a destination Web site and managing an online financial transaction at a destination Web site, including parsing a form Web page of the destination Web site to extract form data fields therefrom; mapping form data fields of a central Web site form to corresponding extracted form data fields of the form Web page of the destination Web site; and using the mapped form data fields to perform at least one of registering a user at the destination Web site, logging in a user at the destination Web site and managing an online financial transaction of a user at the destination Web site. In another aspect, there is provided a method, system and computer readable medium for managing an online or offline financial transaction of a user, from a central Web site, including generating financial transaction account information for a user based on existing credit or debit card information; gathering from the user one or more limits that are applied to a financial transaction performed based on the financial transaction account information; receiving from a source information indicating that an online or offline financial transaction using the financial transaction account information is in progress; applying the one or more limits gathered from the user to approve or disapprove the online or offline or online financial transaction that is in progress; and transmitting an approval or disapproval signal to the source based on a result of the applying step.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing user information at a central communications network site, comprising:

creating a unique user name and password for a user at said central communications network site; and

using said unique user name and password to register said user at one or more other communications network sites.

43. A system for performing the steps recited in anyone of claims 1 to 42.

44. A storage medium storing a program for performing the steps recited in anyone of claims 1 to 42.

46. The memory of claim 45, wherein the data structure further comprises:

at least one field for storing an account number corresponding to the existing credit or debit card information;

at least one field for storing a balance history for the financial transaction account number;

at least one field for storing transactions history for the financial transaction account number;

at least one field for storing transaction requests and transaction confirmations history for the financial transaction account number; and

at least one field for storing a history of the one or more limits on the financial transaction account number.

2. A computer-implemented method for managing user online financial transactions at a central communications network site, comprising:

creating a unique online credit or debit card with a limited available balance based on an existing credit or debit card of a user;

storing account and balance information for said unique online credit or debit card at said central communications network site; and

allowing said user to execute a financial transaction using said unique online credit or debit card in place of said existing credit or debit card during an online financial transaction.

3. A computer-implemented method for managing user online financial transactions at a central communications network site, comprising:

creating a unique online credit or debit card for a user; and

activating said unique online credit or debit card only during an online financial transaction.

4. A computer-implemented method, from a central Web site, performing at least one of registering a user at a destination Web site, logging in a user at a destination Web site and managing an online financial transaction at a destination Web site, comprising:

parsing a form Web page of the destination Web site to extract form data fields therefrom;

mapping form data fields of a central Web site form to corresponding extracted form data fields of the form Web page of the destination Web site; and

using the mapped form data fields to perform at least one of registering a user at the destination Web site, logging in a user at the destination Web site and managing an online financial transaction of a user at the destination Web site.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the form Web page of the destination Web site comprises a registration form Web page for the destination Web site and the method further comprises:

gathering user information data elements corresponding to form data fields of the central Web site from a user;

populating the form data fields of the registration form Web page of the destination Web site with corresponding user information data elements based on the data fields of the central Web site form mapped to the extracted form data fields of the registration form Web page of the destination Web site; and

transmitting the populated registration form Web page to the destination Web site to register the user at the destination Web site.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

transmitting results of the registering of the user at the destination Web site to the user via the central Web site.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing to the user, via the central Web site, a personal Web page including at least one of a link to a destination Web site, at which the user was successfully registered by the central Web site and a link to a destination Web site, at which the user self-registered.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

logging in the user at a destination Web site chosen via a link from the personal Web page and based on the gathered user information data elements.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the form Web page of the destination Web site comprises a login form Web page for the destination Web site and the method further comprises:

gathering user information data elements corresponding to form data fields of the central Web site from a user;

populating the form data fields of the login form Web page of the destination Web site with corresponding user information data elements based on the data fields of the central Web site form mapped to the extracted form data fields of the login form Web page of the destination Web site; and

transmitting the populated login form Web page to the destination Web site to login the user at the destination Web site.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

transmitting results of the logging in of the user at the destination Web site to the user via the central Web site.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the form Web page of the destination Web site comprises an online financial transaction form Web page for the destination Web site and the method further comprises:

gathering user information data elements corresponding to form data fields of the central Web site from a user;

populating the form data fields of the online financial transaction form Web page of the destination Web site with corresponding user information data elements based on the data fields of the central Web site form mapped to the extracted form data fields of the online financial transaction form Web page of the destination Web site; and

transmitting the populated online financial transaction form Web page to the destination Web site to execute an online financial transaction for the user at the destination Web site.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

transmitting an activation command to a financial institution processing the online financial transaction to activate the processing of the online financial transaction, while the user is online; and

transmitting results of the processing of the online financial transaction to the user via the central Web site.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of transmitting the activation command, comprises:

transmitting the activation command from the central Web site.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of transmitting the activation command, comprises:

transmitting the activation command from the destination Web site.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

transmitting a de-activation command to the financial institution processing the online financial transaction to de-activate the processing of the online financial transaction, one of (i) a predetermined amount of time after the user went online to perform the online financial transaction and (ii) after the user is offline.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of transmitting the de-activation command, comprises:

transmitting the de-activation command from the central Web site.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of transmitting the de-activation command, comprises:

transmitting the de-activation command from the destination Web site.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of transmitting the activation command, comprises:

encoding the user information data elements into the activation command; and

parsing the user information data elements from the activation command to activate the processing of the online transaction of the user.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of transmitting the de-activation command, comprises:

encoding the user information data elements into the de-activation command; and

parsing the user information data elements from the de-activation command to de-activate the processing of the online transaction of the user.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

transmitting the activation command as one of an activation signal, an encrypted e-mail message, a secure facsimile message, a secure wireless communication message and a secure telephone communication message.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

transmitting the de-activation command as one of a de-activation signal, an encrypted e-mail message, a secure facsimile message, a secure wireless communication message and a secure telephone communication message.

22. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

transmitting an activation command into a communications channel of a financial institution processing the online financial transaction, while the user is online;

monitoring the communications channel for the activation command;

transmitting a signal to the financial institution to process the online financial transaction if it is determined that the activation command is present within the communications channel; and

transmitting results of the processing of the online financial transaction to the user via the central Web site.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of transmitting the activation command, comprises:

transmitting the activation command from the central Web site.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of transmitting the activation command, comprises:

transmitting the activation command from the destination Web site.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein:

the step of transmitting the activation command, comprises encoding the user information data elements into the activation command,

the step of monitoring the communications channel, comprises parsing the user information data elements from the activation command and

the step of transmitting the signal to the financial institution, comprises transmitting the signal to the financial institution to process the online financial transaction for the user identified based on the parsed user information data elements.

26. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

transmitting the activation command as one of an activation signal, an encrypted e-mail message, a secure facsimile message, a secure wireless communication message and a secure telephone communication message.

27. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of gathering user information data elements, comprises:

generating online financial transaction account information for the user based on existing credit or debit card information; and

using the online financial transaction account information as the user information data elements.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

limiting an amount of funds available for an online financial transaction in the online financial transaction account information to be less than an amount of funds indicated as being available in the existing credit or debit card information.

29. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

configuring the central Web site as an Internet Web site.

30. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

configuring the destination Web site as an Internet Web site.

31. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

configuring the central Web site as an Intranet Web site.

32. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

configuring the destination Web site as an Intranet Web site.

33. A computer-implemented method for managing an online or offline financial transaction of a user, from a central Web site, the method comprising:

generating financial transaction account information for a user based on existing credit or debit card information;

gathering from the user one or more limits that are applied to a financial transaction performed based on the financial transaction account information;

receiving from a source information indicating that an online or offline financial transaction using the financial transaction account information is in progress;

applying the one or more limits gathered from the user to approve or disapprove the online or offline or online financial transaction that is in progress; and

transmitting an approval or disapproval signal to the source based on a result of the applying step.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the step of gathering, comprises:

gathering a calendar limit, which limits performance of at least one selected financial transaction based on the financial transaction account information to occurrence within a predetermined time period.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the step of gathering, comprises:

gathering a number of transactions limit, which limits performance of at least one selected financial transaction based on the financial transaction account information to a predetermined number of transactions.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the step of gathering, comprises:

gathering an identified vendor limit, which limits performance of at least one selected financial transaction based on the financial transaction account information to one or more predetermined vendors or vendor profiles.

37. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

limiting an amount of funds available for financial transactions in the financial transaction account information to be less than an amount of funds indicated as being available in the existing credit or debit card information.

38. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

providing a user interface to the central Web site for generating the financial transaction account information and for gathering the one or more user limits.

39. The method of claim 35, further comprising:

receiving a signal from the user interface at the central Web site, including,

at least one field for transmitting a financial transaction account number for the financial transaction account information,

at least one field for transmitting balance modifications for the financial transaction account number and

at least one field for transmitting the one or more limits.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the step of receiving, comprises:

receiving the signal from the user interface at the central Web site, including,

at least one field for transmitting an account number corresponding to the existing credit or debit card information,

at least one field for transmitting an identification number of the central Web site and

at least one field for transmitting a tracking number for a balance modification or change to the one or more limits.

41. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

providing memory containing a data structure for storing the financial transaction account information, including,

at least one field for storing a financial transaction account number for the financial transaction account information,

at least one field for storing a user identification number for the user of the existing credit or debit card information,

at least one field for storing a user identification number for the user of the financial transaction account number and

at least one field for storing the one or more limits.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the providing step, comprises:

providing the memory containing the data structure for storing the financial transaction account information, including,

at least one field for storing an account number corresponding to the existing credit or debit card information,

at least one field for storing a balance history for the financial transaction account number,

at least one field for storing transactions history for the financial transaction account number,

at least one field for storing transaction requests and transaction confirmations history for the financial transaction account number and

at least one field for storing a history of the one or more limits on the financial transaction account number.

45. A memory, at a central Web site, containing a data structure for storing information for managing an online or offline financial transaction, comprising:

at least one field for storing a financial transaction account number for financial transaction account information, which is based on existing credit or debit card information of a user;

at least one field for storing a user identification number corresponding to a user of the existing credit or debit card information;

at least one field for storing a user identification number for a user of the financial transaction account number; and

at least one field for storing one or more limits gathered from the user of the existing credit or debit card information that are applied to a financial transaction performed based on the financial transaction account information.