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Telecommunications system for generating a three-level customer behavior profile and for detecting deviation from the profile to identify fraud

  • US 6,526,389 B1
  • Filed: 04/20/1999
  • Issued: 02/25/2003
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/20/1999
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer implemented method for determining a normal customer behavior profile that includes a plurality of transactions pertaining to an activity, each transaction being defined by a plurality of attributes which are measures of the transaction, and said normal behavior profile being used to alert of an unusual activity, said method comprising the steps of:

  • selecting a number of prototypical transactions from said plurality of transactions;

    arranging the selected prototypical transactions collected during a first predetermined time interval into a first behavior profile;

    obtaining a plurality of first behavior profiles during a second predetermined time interval that is comprised of a plurality of first predetermined time intervals, wherein each first behavior profile includes a vector representing a multi-dimensional probability distribution of the transactions carried out during said first predetermined time interval, each dimension of the multi-dimensional probability distribution corresponding to one of the plurality of attributes and having a corresponding cumulative distribution;

    arranging the first behavior profiles obtained during said second predetermined time interval into a number of clusters;

    determining a prototypical first behavior profile for each cluster; and

    arranging the determined prototypical first behavior profiles into a plurality of records for representing a second behavior profile;

    wherein said steps of arranging the first behavior profiles and determining said prototypical first behavior profile comprise;

    designating a number of first behavior profiles as respective centers for the clusters;

    finding a closest center to each remaining first behavior profile;

    assigning said each remaining first behavior profile to said closest center;

    recalculating each center for a corresponding cluster according to said step of assigning; and

    repeating said steps of designating, finding, assigning and recalculating until a membership of each cluster does not change;

    wherein said step of finding includes the step of weighted summing the squared differences between the cumulative distribution of the first behavior profile designated as a closest center and the cumulative distribution of each remaining first behavior profile at each attribute.

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