FRAUD ALERTING USING MOBILE PHONE LOCATION

• US 20120209773A1
• Filed: 01/31/2012
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Ranganathan, Prashanth
• Granted Patent: US 10,373,160 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• 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 location of a transaction or payment request is compared with a location of a user device to determine whether the distance is great enough to send an alert for a possible fraudulent transaction. The user device location may be predicted based on a last known location and information about the area of the last known location and movement of the user device.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a computer storage storing account information for a plurality of users and a plurality of merchants, wherein the information for at least one of the merchants comprises information about location of a merchant and information for at least one of the users comprises information about location of a user; and

a processor coupled to the computer storage operable to;

receive a payment request from a transaction device;

determine a location of the payment request;

determine a location of a user device;

determine a distance between the location of the payment request and the location of the user device; and

communicate an alert if the distance exceeds a predetermined distance.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction device is a merchant device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction device is a second user device.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the user device is a cell phone and the second user device is a personal computer.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the location of the payment request is determined from a merchant address.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the location of the payment request is obtained from an IP address from the transaction device.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the processor is further operable to determine whether the second user device is authorized for use with the service provider.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the location of the payment request is obtained from an IP address from the second user device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the location of the user device is determined using a last known location of the user device based on a location service on the user device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the location of the user device is determined by predicting a current location of the user device based on a last known location of the user device and at least one of a type of the last known location or a type of an area of the last known location, a direction of travel of the user device, and a speed of travel of the user device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the alert is communicated to the user.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the payment request is for a credit card purchase.

13. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processor of a service provider, a payment request from a transaction device;

determining, by the processor, a location of the payment request;

determining, by the processor, a location of a user device;

determining, by the processor, a distance between the location of the payment request and the location of the user device; and

communicating an alert if the distance exceeds a predetermined distance.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the transaction device is a second user device.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the location of the payment request comprises obtaining an IP address from the transaction device.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining whether the second user device is authorized for use with the service provider.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein determining the location of the payment request comprises obtaining an IP address from the second user device.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the location of the user device comprises using a last known location of the user device based on a location service on the user device.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein determining the location of the user device comprises predicting a current location of the user device based on a last known location of the user device and at least one of a type of the last known location or a type of an area of the last known location, a direction of travel of the user device, and a speed of travel of the user device.

20. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by one or more processors of a server are adapted to cause the server to perform a method comprising:

receiving a payment request from a transaction device;

determining a location of the payment request;

determining a location of a user device;

determining a distance between the location of the payment request and the location of the user device; and

communicating an alert if the distance exceeds a predetermined distance.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein determining the location of the payment request comprises obtaining an IP address from the transaction device.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, wherein determining the location of the payment request comprises obtaining an IP address from the transaction device, wherein the transaction is a second user device.

23. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein determining the location of the user device comprises using a last known location of the user device based on a location service on the user device.

24. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein determining the location of the user device comprises predicting a current location of the user device based on a last known location of the user device and at least one of a type of the last known location or a type of an area of the last known location, a direction of travel of the user device, and a speed of travel of the user device.