Enhanced responses to online fraud
First Claim
1. A method of combating online fraud, the method comprising:
- interrogating a world wide web server to determine whether the server is engaged in a fraudulent activity;
if the server is engaged in a fraudulent activity, submitting with at least one computer a plurality of substantially simultaneous hypertext transfer protocol (“
HTTP”
) requests for reception by the server.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Various embodiments of the invention provide solutions (including inter alia, systems, methods and software) for dealing with online fraud. In particular, various embodiments of the invention provide enhanced responses to an identified instance of online fraud. Such enhanced responses can incorporate one or more of a variety of strategies for defeating an attempt by a server to filter and/or otherwise avoid responses to its fraudulent activity. Merely by way of example, responses may be disguised (e.g., by transmitting the responses from a variety of computers, by transmitting responses that appear to originate from a computer different than the actual source of the responses, etc.). In accordance with various embodiments of the invention, a variety of responsive strategies may be implemented. Merely by way of example, a plurality of substantially simultaneous HTTP requests may be transmitted to a server engaged in fraud. This plurality of responses may be effective to impair the server'"'"'s ability to respond to requests for other users. In some cases, a plurality of computers (each having one of a plurality of IP addresses) may be used to transmit responses to a server.
250 Citations
48 Claims
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1. A method of combating online fraud, the method comprising:
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interrogating a world wide web server to determine whether the server is engaged in a fraudulent activity;
if the server is engaged in a fraudulent activity, submitting with at least one computer a plurality of substantially simultaneous hypertext transfer protocol (“
HTTP”
) requests for reception by the server. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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14. A method of combating online fraud as recited in claim 14, wherein, if it is determined that the plurality of substantially simultaneous HTTP requests has not exceeded the threshold for simultaneous HTTP connections, the method further comprises:
submitting an additional plurality of substantially simultaneous HTTP requests.
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27. A method of combating online fraud, the method comprising:
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determining that a web server is involved in online fraud;
acquiring a plurality of Internet Protocol (“
IP”
) addresses sufficiently diverse to impair an attempt to correlate the plurality of IP addresses;
assigning each of the plurality of IP addresses to one of a plurality of computers; and
transmitting from each of the plurality of computers at least one HTTP request for reception by the web server. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A computer system for combating online fraud, the computer system comprising a processor and a computer readable medium having instructions executable by the processor to:
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interrogate a world wide web server to determine whether the server is engaged in a fraudulent activity;
if the server is engaged in a fraudulent activity, submit a plurality of substantially simultaneous hypertext transfer protocol (“
HTTP”
) requests to the server. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41)
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42. A computer system for combating online fraud, the computer system comprising a processor and a computer readable medium having instructions executable by the processor to:
-
determine that a world wide web server is involved in online fraud;
acquire a plurality of IP addresses sufficiently diverse to impair an attempt to correlate the plurality of IP addresses;
assign each of the plurality of IP addresses to one of a plurality of computers; and
instruct each of the plurality of computers to transmit at least one HTTP request for reception by the web server.
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43. A system for combating online fraud, the system comprising a plurality of computers, wherein each of the plurality of computers is assigned one of a plurality of IP addresses, the plurality of IP addresses being sufficiently diverse to impair an attempt to correlate the plurality of computers, and wherein each of the computers comprises a processor and a computer readable medium having instructions executable by the processor to:
-
receive instructions from a master computer to submit at least one hypertext transfer protocol (“
HTTP”
) request to a particular world wide web server; and
based on the instructions from the master computer, submit at least one HTTP request to the particular world wide web server.
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44. A system for combating online fraud, the system comprising:
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means for interrogating a world wide web server to determine whether the server is engaged in a fraudulent activity; and
means for submitting a plurality of substantially simultaneous hypertext transfer protocol (“
HTTP”
) requests to the server, wherein the plurality of substantially simultaneous HTTP requests is sufficient to substantially prevent the server from responding to an HTTP request submitted by a third party.
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45. A system for combating online fraud, the system comprising:
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means for determining that a web server is involved in online fraud;
means for acquiring a plurality of IP addresses sufficiently diverse to impair an attempt to correlate the plurality of IP addresses;
means for assigning each of the plurality of IP addresses to one of a plurality of computers; and
means for transmitting from each of the plurality of computers at least one HTTP request for receipt by the web server.
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46. A software program embodied on a computer-readable medium, the software program comprising instructions executable by a computer to:
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interrogate a world wide web server to determine whether the server is engaged in a fraudulent activity; and
submit with at least one computer a plurality of substantially simultaneous hypertext transfer protocol (“
HTTP”
) requests to the server, wherein the plurality of substantially simultaneous HTTP requests is sufficient to substantially prevent the server from responding to an HTTP request submitted by a third party.
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47. A software program embodied on a computer-readable medium, the software program comprising instructions executable by a computer to:
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determine that a world wide web server is involved in online fraud;
acquire a plurality of IP addresses sufficiently diverse to impair an attempt to correlate the plurality of IP addresses;
assign each of the plurality of IP addresses to one of a plurality of computers; and
instruct each of the plurality of computers to transmit at least one HTTP request for reception by the web server.
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48. In a system for combating online fraud, the system comprising a plurality of computers, wherein each of the plurality of computers is assigned one of a plurality of IP addresses, the plurality of IP addresses being sufficiently diverse to impair an attempt to correlate the plurality of computers, a software program embodied on a computer-readable medium, the software program comprising instructions executable by a computer to:
-
receive instructions from a master computer to submit at least one hypertext transfer protocol (“
HTTP”
) request to a particular world wide web server; and
based on the instructions from the master computer, submit at least one HTTP request to the particular world wide web server.
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Specification