Method and System to Verify the Identity of a User

• US 20120278240A1
• Filed: 07/13/2012
• Published: 11/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Brad S. Singer, Donald R. Jr. Teagne, Gregory M. Calcagno, Jennifer R. Truitt, Joseph M. Lynam, Mark E. Snycerski, Michael A. Schwarz
• Original Assignee: Brad S. Singer, Donald R. Jr. Teagne, Gregory M. Calcagno, Jennifer R. Truitt, Joseph M. Lynam, Mark E. Snycerski, Michael A. Schwarz
• Inventors: Schwarz, Michael A., Calcagno, Gregory M., Snycerski, Mark E., Lynam, Joseph M., Truitt, Jennifer R., Singer, Brad S., Teagne, Donald R. Jr.
• Application Number:
  US13/549,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20120278240A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• 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 20/4014 Identity check for transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/32 in combination with an identity check
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data

Abstract

A method and system to verify the identity of a user are described. The system may include a communications module to receive a billing telephone number and a private data segment associated with a user; an address detector to obtain a street address associated with the user; a private data processor to obtain one or more identification records, utilizing the obtained street address and the private data segment; and a matching module to compare the one or more identification records with the private data segment associated with the user to generate a match result.

Claims

1. An identity verification system provided to verify the identity of a user associated with a phone bill that can be used as a payment method, the system comprising:

a processor; and

memory to store instructions which cause the processor to implement;

a communications module to receive, at a verification computer system, a billing telephone number and a user-supplied private data segment, wherein the billing telephone number indicates that a user has selected an associated phone bill as a payment method;

a private data processing module to obtain, from a personal data computer system, one or more identification records; and

a matching module to compare the one or more identification records obtained from the personal data computer system with the user-supplied private data segment to generate a match result, the address service computer system and the personal data computer system being third party computer systems.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the private data segment comprises at least one of a date, a zip code, and a portion of an address.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory also stores instructions which cause the processor to implement a subscriber line verification module to determine whether the particular phone bill may be used to make purchases from third party merchants.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a business rules engine to determine whether the match result corresponds to a positive authentication of the user.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the business rules engine is in communication with a configuration module, the configuration module configured to identify authentication criteria.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the authentication criteria comprises a partial match.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an authentication response generator to generate an authentication message based on the match result.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the authentication message is indicative of positive authentication, the positive authentication being based on a partial match of a record from the one or more identification records with the data segment corresponding to the date of birth of the user.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the authentication message is indicative of a failed authentication.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the communications module is configured to initiate an alternative identity verification procedure in response to the failed authentication.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the alternative identity verification procedure comprises initiating a telephone call to the billing telephone number.

12. The system of claim 1, further including a billing number validation interface to obtain validation of a telephone line account associated with the billing telephone number as a valid payment method for the user.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the address detector is to obtain the street address associated with the user from a third party provider, utilizing the billing telephone number.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications module is to receive the street address associated with the user and communicate the street address associated with the user to the private data processor.

15. A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instruction data provided to verify the identity of a user associated with a phone bill that can be used as a payment method, wherein the instruction data, when executed by a machine to cause the machine to:

receive, at a verification computer system, a billing telephone number and a private data segment, the user-supplied private data segment corresponding to a date of birth of a user, wherein the billing telephone number indicates that a user has selected an associated phone bill as a payment method;

obtain a street address associated with the user;

obtain one or more identification records, utilizing the obtained street address; and

compare the one or more identification records with the user-supplied private data segment corresponding to the date of birth of the user to generate a match result

16. An identity verification system provided to determine whether a user is authorized to charge a purchase to a particular phone bill that can be used as a payment method, the system comprising:

a communications module to receive a billing telephone number and a user-supplied private data segment, wherein the billing telephone number indicates that a user has selected a particular phone bill as a payment method;

a subscriber line verification module to determine whether the particular phone bill may be used to make purchases from third party merchants;

a personal data processing module to obtain a lookup result from a database of client profiles in response to the subscriber line verification module determining that the particular phone bill may be used to make purchases from third party merchants; and

a matching module to compare the user-supplied private data segment to the lookup result;

an authentication response generator to provide an authentication result in response to the comparison by the matching module.

17. The identity verification system of claim 16, wherein the user-supplied private data segment includes at least one of a portion of a social security number, a street address, a zip code, a postal code, a password, an account number associated with the billing telephone number, and a date.

18. The identity verification system of claim 16, wherein authentication result is one of an indication that the user is authorized to charge a purchase to the particular phone bill, an indication that the user is not authorized to charge a purchase to the particular phone bill, and an indication that further user-supplied private data is needed to complete a purchase.

19. The identity verification system of claim 16, further comprising a transactions module to charge the particular phone bill with a purchase in response to the authentication response generator providing a response indicating that the user is authorized to charge the purchase to the particular phone bill.