Merchant Verification of In-person Electronic Transactions

• US 20130151419A1
• Filed: 02/14/2012
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hitchcock, Daniel W., Canavor, Darren E., Ramalingam, Harsha, Hanson, Robert, Campbell, Brad Lee
• Granted Patent: US 9,721,282 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/75
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3226 using a predetermined code, e.g. password, passphrase or PIN network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using passwords in a packet data network H04L63/083
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/10 Integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

Validation data, such as an image selected by a merchant, is rendered on a mobile device of a customer to provide the merchant confirmation that payment for an item submitted through the mobile device of the customer was in fact received by the merchant. The merchant may establish an account on a network-accessible computing device (e.g., in the “cloud”) that includes the validation data. The customer authorizes payment to the merchant from the mobile device using the network connectivity of the mobile device. When the payment is received by the merchant, the network-accessible computing device sends the validation data to the customer'"'"'s mobile device. The merchant may be confident that he or she has in fact received an electronic payment from the customer when the validation data is presented on the mobile device. Techniques to prevent reuse and copying of the validation data are also discussed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

under control of a mobile device configured with executable instructions,

receiving, from a customer, a selection of a merchant from a list of one or more merchants presented to the customer on the mobile device;

receiving, from the customer, an indication of a payment amount for an item provided by the merchant;

sending, from the mobile device and over a network, an instruction to transfer the payment amount from an account associated with the customer to an account associated with the merchant;

at least partly responsive to the account associated with the merchant receiving the payment amount from the account associated with the customer, receiving, via the network, a receipt for the payment amount, verification data previously selected by the merchant, and an authentication challenge for accessing the verification data;

receiving, from the merchant, a valid response to the authentication challenge;

at least partly responsive to receiving the valid response, presenting the verification data to the merchant;

receiving, from the merchant, an indication that the item was provided to the customer;

receiving, from the merchant, a command to block subsequent presentation of the verification data; and

at least partly responsive to the command, blocking subsequent presentation of the verification data so that a subsequent valid response to the authentication challenge does not cause a subsequent presentation of the verification data.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the one or more merchants included in the list of the one or more merchants is selected based at least in part on having a name that matches at least in part a name entered by the customer into the mobile device or being within a predefined distance of a location of the mobile device.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the validation data is changed by the merchant at a regular frequency specified by the merchant.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a single input from the merchant comprises both the indication that the item was provided to the customer and the command to block subsequent presentation of the verification data.

5. A method comprising:

under control of a mobile device configured with executable instructions,

receiving an indication of a merchant;

receiving an indication of a payment amount to pay the merchant;

receiving over a network one or more verification tags from a network-accessible computing device, each of the one or more verification tags corresponding with verification data;

displaying at least one of one or more verification tags, wherein the one or more the verification tags, the verification data, and the correspondence between the one or more verification tags and the verification data are based at least in part on information previously provided by the merchant to the network-accessible computing device;

receiving a selection of one of the one or more verification tags; and

rendering the corresponding verification data for the selected one of the verification tags.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the indication of the merchant is based at least in part on an input provided by the customer to the mobile device or a location of the mobile device.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the indication of the amount to pay the merchant is based at least in part on an input provided by the customer to the mobile device or a value detected by a tag scanner of the mobile device.

8. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the verification tags comprise names of people, the verification data comprises photographs of people, and the verification tag comprising the name of one of the people corresponds to a photograph of the one of the people.

9. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions configured to cause one or more processors to:

receive an identification of a merchant to receive a payment;

receive, from a customer, an identification of a payment amount to pay the merchant;

send an instruction for an account associated with the customer to transfer the payment amount to an account associated with the merchant;

receive verification data that the account associated with the merchant received the payment amount; and

render, on a mobile device of the customer, the verification data for presentation to the merchant.

10. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, wherein receiving the identification of the merchant comprises receiving a merchant identifier entered by the customer, receiving data obtained at least in part from a scan of a machine-readable tag, or receiving a geographic location of the merchant.

11. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, wherein the payment amount is determined based at least in part on a payment amount entered by the customer.

12. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, wherein the verification data comprises data previously selected by the merchant.

13. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, wherein the verification data comprises text, a picture, a sound, a video, or a haptic response.

14. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, wherein the verification data comprises a recent purchase history of the merchant, a list of contacts of the merchant, or a social graph of connections of the merchant in one or more social networks.

15. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, wherein the verification data comprises machine-readable data which, when read by a device at the merchant, indicates if the verification data is valid or invalid.

16. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 15, wherein the verification data further comprises a transaction identifier that, when read by the device at the merchant, is stored in computer-readable media associated with the device at the merchant such that subsequent reading of the verification data associated with the same transaction identifier is indicated as invalid by the device at the merchant.

17. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further configured to cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from the merchant at a mobile device of the customer, a confirmation of the payment.

18. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further configured to cause the one or more processors to:

receive an authentication challenge for accessing the verification data;

determine when a response to the authentication challenge is valid; and

render the verification data when the response is determined to be valid.

19. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 18, wherein the authentication challenge comprises a request to provide a password, a personal identification number (PIN), a physical gesture, a spoken phrase, or a biometric identifier.

20. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 18, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further configured to cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from the merchant, a command to block subsequent rendering of the verification data; and

at least partly responsive to the command, blocking subsequent rendering of the verification data.

21. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 9, wherein the rendering of the verification data comprises rendering the verification data as a portion of a receipt indicating the payment amount.

22. A mobile device comprising:

one or more processors;

computer-readable media coupled to the one or more processors;

a merchant identification module stored in the computer-readable media and configured to receive information identifying a merchant;

a payment module stored in the computer-readable media and configured to receive an indication of a payment amount and provide instructions to transfer the payment amount from an account associated with the mobile device to an account associated with the merchant;

a verification data module stored in the computer-readable media and configured to receive verification data indicating that the account associated with the merchant received the payment amount and an authentication challenge associated with the verification data; and

a merchant authentication module stored in the computer-readable media and configured to receive a response to the authentication challenge and, at least partially responsive to receiving a valid response, render the verification data.

23. The mobile device as recited in claim 22, wherein the mobile device comprises a smart phone, a personal digital assistant, a media player, a portable gaming device, an eBook reader, or a tablet computer.

24. The mobile device as recited in claim 22, further comprising a location sensor coupled to the one or more processors and configured to detect a geolocation of the mobile device, wherein the merchant identification module is further configured to identify the merchant based at least in part by comparing the geolocation of the mobile device to a location of the merchant.

25. The mobile device as recited in claim 22, further comprising a tag scanner coupled to the one or more processors and configured to identify a merchant based at least in part on data obtained from a tag scanned by the tag scanner and provide the data identifying the merchant to the merchant identification module.

26. The mobile device as recited in claim 25, wherein the tag scanner comprises a camera, a reflected light scanner, or an antenna configured to receive signals from radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.

27. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

computer-readable media coupled to the one or more processors;

one or more network interfaces coupled to the one or more processors;

a merchant account record stored in the computer-readable media including an identity of a merchant, verification data, and an authentication challenge;

a transaction processing module stored in the computer-readable media and configured to receive, via the one or more network interfaces, a request from a mobile device of a customer to transfer a payment amount from a financial account associated with the customer to a financial account associated with the merchant; and

a payment confirmation module stored in the computer-readable media and configured to send, via the one or more network interfaces, the verification data and the authentication challenge to the mobile device at least partly in response to receiving an indication that the financial account associated with the merchant received the payment amount from the financial account associated with the customer, the verification data remaining concealed on the mobile device until a valid response to the authentication challenge is provided on the mobile device.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising an encryption module stored in the computer-readable media and configured to encrypt the verification data with a private key of the merchant for decryption by a corresponding public key of the merchant on the mobile device.

29. The system of claim 27, further comprising an encryption module stored in the computer-readable media and configured to encrypt the verification data so that a device at the merchant other than the mobile device is able to decrypt the verification data and the mobile device is not able to decrypt the verification data.

30. The system of claim 27, further comprising a customer account record stored in the computer-readable media and comprising an identity of the customer and the financial account associated with the customer, and wherein the merchant account record comprises an identity of the financial account associated with the merchant.