User Terminal Location Based Credit Card Authorization Servers, Systems, Methods and Computer Program Products

• US 20150026066A1
• Filed: 10/07/2014
• Published: 01/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Aaron, Jeffrey A., Ruckart, John P.
• Granted Patent: US 10,373,150 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/26 Debit schemes, e.g. "pay now"
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/126 Anti-theft arrangements, e.g. protection against subscriber identity module [SIM] cloning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Credit card transaction servers, systems, methods and computer program products receive information concerning a prospective credit card transaction with one of multiple credit card issuers and obtain location information from multiple wireless network providers for wireless terminal(s) that are associated with a user of the credit card for the prospective credit card transaction. The locations of the credit card transaction terminal(s) and the locations of the wireless terminal(s) are correlated, and authorization information for the prospective credit card transaction is generated based upon this location correlation.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a system comprising a computing processor, terminal-location data comprising an indication of a terminal location of a credit-card-transaction terminal being associated with a merchant and used for a prospective credit-card transaction for a credit-card user;

determining, by the system, whether the merchant operates, multiple merchant sites or only a single merchant site in a geographic area;

querying, by the system, in response to determining that the merchant operates only the single merchant site in the geographic area, a geographic information system using a merchant identification to obtain a single merchant location corresponding to the single merchant site;

correlating, by the system, in response to obtaining the single merchant location, the single merchant location obtained with a wireless-device location of at least one wireless device associated with the credit-card user;

querying, by the system, in response to determining that the merchant operates multiple merchant sites in the geographic area, the geographic information system using the merchant identification to obtain multiple merchant locations corresponding to the multiple merchant sites; and

correlating, by the system, in response to obtaining the multiple merchant locations, the multiple merchant locations obtained with the wireless-device location of the at least one wireless device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant identification includes a merchant name.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal-location data includes coordinates associated with the credit-card-transaction terminal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal-location data is received from the credit-card-transaction terminal.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the terminal-location data comprises pre-stored coordinates.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal-location data is received from a credit card issuer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal-location data is received from the merchant associated with the credit-card-transaction terminal.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the terminal-location data is received along with a request for authorization for the prospective credit-card transaction

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the prospective credit-card transaction is being made at a subject merchant location corresponding to the merchant identification;

the credit-card-transaction terminal is a subject credit-card-transaction terminal; and

the subject merchant location comprises multiple credit-card-transaction terminals including the subject credit-card-transaction terminal.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographic area is a city.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

correlating the single merchant location with the wireless-device location of at least one user wireless device comprises correlating the merchant location with the wireless-device locations of multiple user wireless devices associated with the credit-card user; and

correlating the multiple merchant locations with the wireless-device location comprises correlating the multiple merchant locations with the wireless-device locations of the multiple user wireless devices.

12. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

obtaining terminal-location data comprising an indication of a terminal location of a credit-card-transaction terminal being associated with a merchant and used for a prospective credit-card transaction for a credit-card user;

determining whether the merchant operates, multiple merchant sites or only a single merchant site in a geographic area;

querying, in response to determining that the merchant operates only the single merchant site in the geographic area, a geographic information system using a merchant identification to obtain a single merchant location corresponding to the single merchant site;

correlating, in response to obtaining the single merchant location, the single merchant location obtained with a wireless-device location of at least one wireless device associated with the credit-card user;

querying, in response to determining that the merchant operates multiple merchant sites in the geographic area, the geographic information system using the merchant identification to obtain multiple merchant locations corresponding to the multiple merchant sites; and

correlating, in response to obtaining the multiple merchant locations, the multiple merchant locations obtained with the wireless-device location of the at least one wireless device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the terminal-location data is received from a credit card issuer.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the terminal-location data is received from the credit-card-transaction terminal or from the merchant associated with the credit-card-transaction terminal.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the terminal-location data is received along with a request for authorization for the prospective credit-card transaction

16. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the prospective credit-card transaction is being made at a subject merchant location corresponding to the merchant identification;

the credit-card-transaction terminal is a subject credit-card-transaction terminal; and

the subject merchant location comprises multiple credit-card-transaction terminals including the subject credit-card-transaction terminal.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein:

correlating the single merchant location with the wireless-device location of at least one user wireless device comprises correlating the merchant location with the wireless-device locations of multiple user wireless devices associated with the credit-card user; and

correlating the multiple merchant locations with the wireless-device location comprises correlating the multiple merchant locations with the wireless-device locations of the multiple user wireless devices.

18. A computer-readable storage device comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

obtaining terminal-location data comprising an indication of a terminal location of a credit-card-transaction terminal being associated with a merchant and used for a prospective credit-card transaction for a credit-card user;

determining whether the merchant operates, multiple merchant sites or only a single merchant site in a geographic area;

querying, in response to determining that the merchant operates only the single merchant site in the geographic area, a geographic information system using a merchant identification to obtain a single merchant location corresponding to the single merchant site;

correlating, in response to obtaining the single merchant location, the single merchant location obtained with a wireless-device location of at least one wireless device associated with the credit-card user;

querying, in response to determining that the merchant operates multiple merchant sites in the geographic area, the geographic information system using the merchant identification to obtain multiple merchant locations corresponding to the multiple merchant sites; and

correlating, in response to obtaining the multiple merchant locations, the multiple merchant locations obtained with the wireless-device location of the at least one wireless device.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein:

the prospective credit-card transaction is being made at a subject merchant location corresponding to the merchant identification;

the credit-card-transaction terminal is a subject credit-card-transaction terminal; and

the subject merchant location comprises multiple credit-card-transaction terminals including the subject credit-card-transaction terminal.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein:

correlating the single merchant location with the wireless-device location of at least one user wireless device comprises correlating the merchant location with the wireless-device locations of multiple user wireless devices associated with the credit-card user; and

correlating the multiple merchant locations with the wireless-device location comprises correlating the multiple merchant locations with the wireless-device locations of the multiple user wireless devices.