OVER THE AIR UPDATE OF PAYMENT TRANSACTION DATA STORED IN SECURE MEMORY

• US 20100211507A1
• Filed: 09/21/2009
• Published: 08/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Aabye, Christian, Pirzadeh, Kiushan, Pitchford, Chris, Wilson, David William, Zeiden, Gustavo Mariath, Ngo, Hao
• Granted Patent: US 10,706,402 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• 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

Abstract

A system, apparatus, and method for processing payment transactions that are conducted using a mobile device that includes a contactless element, such as an integrated circuit chip. The invention enables the updating, correction or synchronization of transaction data maintained by an Issuer with that stored on the device. This is accomplished by using a wireless (cellular) network as a data communication channel for data provided by an Issuer to the mobile device, and is particularly advantageous in circumstances in which the contactless element is not presently capable of communication with a device reader or point of sale terminal that uses a near field communications mechanism. Data transferred between the mobile device and Issuer may be encrypted and decrypted to provide additional security and protect the data from being accessed by other users or applications. If encryption keys are used for the encryption and decryption processes, they may be distributed by a key distribution server or other suitable entity to a mobile gateway which participates in the data encryption and decryption operations.

Claims

1. A mobile device for use in conducting a payment transaction, comprising:

a processor;

a memory; and

a set of instructions stored in the memory, which when executed by the processor implement a method to

conduct the payment transaction by communicating with a point of sale terminal using a near field communications mechanism of the mobile device; and

receive data related to the payment transaction at the mobile device using a cellular communications network, wherein the received data related to the payment transaction is an update to data stored in the mobile device as a result of communicating with the point of sale terminal.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the device is a mobile wireless phone.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the data stored in the mobile device is a balance of an account associated with the device.

4. The mobile device of claim 3, wherein the account is one of a prepaid account, a credit account, or a debit account.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions further comprises instructions which when executed by the processor implement a process to

receive an encryption key to be used for encrypting and decrypting transaction data;

and

decrypt data related to the transaction received at the mobile device from the cellular communications network.

6. A data processing device, comprising:

a processor;

a memory; and

a set of instructions stored in the memory, which when executed by the processor implement a method to

receive data for a payment transaction from a point of sale terminal, wherein at least some of the data is provided to the point of sale terminal by a mobile device that communicates with the point of sale terminal using a near field communications mechanism;

process the received data to generate a record of the transaction, wherein the record of the transaction includes an update to data stored in the mobile device as a result of communicating with the point of sale terminal; and

provide the record of the transaction to an element of a wireless communications system, thereby causing the record of the transaction to be provided to the mobile device over a wireless network.

7. The data processing device of claim 6, wherein the mobile device is a mobile phone.

8. The data processing device of claim 6, wherein the data stored in the mobile device is a balance of an account associated with the device.

9. The data processing device of claim 8, wherein the account is one of a prepaid account, a credit account, or a debit account.

10. A method of conducting a payment transaction, comprising:

communicating with a point of sale terminal using a near field communications mechanism of a payment device as part of the payment transaction, wherein the payment device includes a contactless element and is contained in a mobile phone; and

receiving data to update a record of the payment transaction contained in the mobile phone using a cellular phone communications network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the contactless element includes a secure memory storage region and the record of the payment transaction is stored in that region.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the payment transaction is a prepaid transaction.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a balance for a prepaid account used for the prepaid transaction is updated using the cellular phone communications network.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein data provided over the cellular phone communications network to update the transaction record is received as encrypted data, and wherein the method further comprises decrypting the received data in the mobile phone.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the encrypted data is decrypted within a secure memory region of the contactless element.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the encrypted data is decrypted using a key provided to the mobile phone by an encryption key distribution server using the intermediary of a mobile gateway.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the encryption key distribution server provides a second key corresponding to the key provided to the mobile phone to the mobile gateway for the mobile gateway to use in encrypting transaction data to be communicated to the mobile phone, and in decrypting transaction data communicated from the mobile phone.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving data to update the record of the payment transaction contained in the mobile phone using a cellular phone communications network further comprises:

receiving data for the payment transaction from the point of sale terminal at a payment processor;

processing the received data to generate a record of the transaction; and

providing the record of the transaction to an element of a cellular phone communications network, thereby causing the record to be provided to the mobile phone over a wireless network.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the payment processor processes payment transaction data for one or more of a credit, debit, or prepaid account, and further, wherein the record of the transaction includes a balance for the credit, debit, or prepaid account.

20. An apparatus for facilitating payment transactions between a plurality of consumers and a plurality of merchants, comprising:

a processor;

a memory; and

a set of instructions stored in the memory, which when executed by the processor implement a method to generate a first pair of encryption keys, the first pair of encryption keys including a first encryption key and a second encryption key;

generate a second pair of encryption keys, the second pair of encryption keys including a first encryption key and a second encryption key;

distribute one key of the first pair of encryption keys to a first mobile gateway, the first mobile gateway configured to process a first set of payment transactions; and

distribute one key of the second pair of encryption keys to a second mobile gateway, the second mobile gateway configured to process a second set of payment transactions, wherein the first set of transactions is different from the second set of transactions.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the first set of transactions are defined by having a common characteristic, the common characteristic being one or more of a region from which the transactions originated, a type or characteristic of a consumer originating the transactions, a type or characteristic of a payment device used to originate the transactions, a service provided as part of processing the transactions, or a characteristic of the mobile gateway.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the second set of transactions are defined by having a common characteristic, the common characteristic being one or more of a region from which the transactions originated, a type or characteristic of a consumer originating the transactions, a type or characteristic of a payment device used to originate the transactions, a service provided as part of processing the transactions, or a characteristic of the mobile gateway.

23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the first set of transactions are defined by having a common characteristic, the common characteristic being that the transactions in the set are of a similar type, wherein the type is one of an eCommerce transaction, a debit transaction, a credit transaction, or a prepaid transaction.

24. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the second set of transactions are defined by having a common characteristic, the common characteristic being that the transactions in the set are of a similar type, wherein the type is one of an eCommerce transaction, a debit transaction, a credit transaction, or a prepaid transaction.

25. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the apparatus is operated by an Issuer of a payment device.

26. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the apparatus is operated by a payment processor.