PAYMENT CARD PRELOADED WITH UNIQUE NUMBERS

• US 20070255657A1
• Filed: 06/25/2007
• Published: 11/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Kerry Brown
• Inventors: Brown, Kerry
• Granted Patent: US 7,380,710 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3672 initialising or reloading thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/10 together with a coded signal , e.g. in the form of personal identification information, like personal identification number [PIN] or biometric data

Abstract

A conventional looking payment card comprises a plastic card with a legacy card reader compatible magnetic stripe for dynamic user account data. Internal to the plastic card, and behind the magnetic stripe, a number of fixed-position magnetic write heads allow the user account data to be modified autonomously. Electronics within the card are pre-loaded with many unique numbers that are selected for one-time use in financial transactions. A payment processing center keeps track of the unique numbers used, and knows which numbers to expect in future transactions. It will not authorize transaction requests if the unique number read during a magnetic card swipe is not as expected. A card-swipe detector embedded in the plastic card detects each use in a scanner, so changes can be made to the data bits sent to the write heads.

Claims

1. A payment card, comprising:

user account data recorded on a magnetic stripe on a payment card for reading by a conventional merchant point-of-sale magnetic-stripe card reader, and recorded according to industry-standards that specify the physical characteristics of cards, embossing, low-coercivity magnetic stripe media characteristics, location of embossed characters, location of data tracks, high-coercivity magnetic stripe media characteristics, and financial transaction cards;

a data generator disposed within said card and that receives its initial programming and personalization data from a data receptor;

a non-volatile memory associated with the data generator and for storing data received from the data receptor during personalization;

a card-swipe detector for sensing the passing of a magnetic read head during scanning by said magnetic-stripe card reader; and

a set of magnetic-transducer write heads located immediately under certain bit positions of said magnetic stripe, wherein written data values of such bits can be controlled by the data generator and such bit positions are thereby programmable;

wherein, the card-swipe detector triggers the set of magnetic-transducer write heads to autonomously write a new user account data to said magnetic stripe that is dependent on data that was previously stored in the non-volatile memory during said personalization.

2. The payment card of claim 1, wherein:

the magnetic-transducer write heads are thin enough and small enough to fit completely within the relatively thin body of a standard credit-card, and are packed dense enough to appear to conform to predetermined recording bit densities.

3. The payment card of claim 1, wherein:

such is constructed to provide user account data for only limited times.

4. A payment card processing system, comprising:

a plurality of payment cards for circulation amongst users, wherein each card is able to change its magnetic card data that will be elicited by a merchant card reader, and that conforms to a particular issuing bank or system;

an automatically selected usage-number provided by each payment card from its private storage of data loaded during card personalization, wherein such is forwarded in an approval request message to a validation processing center to complete a transaction;

a validation processing center for receiving said approval request message and for detecting if an out-of-sequence transaction has been attempted by analyzing which personalization data has been used and which personalization data is still unused, and if so, wherein such a transaction request is subsequently denied.

5. The payment card processing system of claim 4, further comprising:

a dynamic numerical analysis device implemented at the validation processing center, and that fetches a last used valid number from a secure database, and compares such with a sequence number presently being attempted in a financial transaction.

6. A business model for securing credit card transactions which begin with the swiping of a magnetic stripe payment card in a legacy card reader, comprising:

generating a series of unique numbers during card personalization for presentation through a magnetic stripe on a payment card for reading by a merchant card reader in a financial transaction;

using each unique number only once and only for a single financial transaction; and

testing each unique number received by a payment processing center for prior use and for legitimate values stored in a private database in order to decide whether to approve particular financial transactions.