Monitoring and automatic notification of irregular activity in a network-based transaction facility

• US 6,944,599 B1
• Filed: 09/13/2000
• Issued: 09/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Ye, Mei, Vogel, Inna
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jagdish
• Application Number:
  US09/661,168
• Time in Patent Office: 1,826 Days
• Field of Search: 705/37, 705/22
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0185 Product, service or business identity fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0607 Regulated
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A method of filtering out item data in a report in network-based auction facilities. Data concerning multiple items is received in a database of a network-based auction facility. A price-based value is associated with at least one item. Irregular data concerning an irregular item having a price-based value greater than a predetermined price-based value is removed from a representation of the data.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring irregular activity in a network-based transaction facility, the method including:

receiving item data corresponding to completed transactions on the network-based transaction facility, the item data pertaining to multiple items, each of the multiple items having a price-based value;

processing the item data at a server coupled to the network-based transaction facility to identify at least one of the multiple items as being an irregular item based on the price-based value for the irregular item falling outside a range defined by at least one predetermined threshold price-based value, the predetermined threshold price-based value being automatically chosen from a plurality of predetermined threshold price-based values based on a category in which the irregular item was offered for sale within the network-based transaction facility; and

filtering the item data by removing irregular item data that correspond to the identified irregular item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the item data includes, setting an irregular item flag for the identified irregular item.

3. The method of claim 2, including unsetting the irregular item flag for the identified irregular item if the irregular item is found to be legitimate.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the irregular item includes a disingenuous bid.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the irregular item does not physically exist.

6. The method of claim 1, including generating a report from at least one of item data filtered and item data not filtered.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the report is a finance report.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the report is an item category summary report.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the report is a daily statistics report.

10. The method of claim 1, including after receiving the item data corresponding to the multiple items, converting the price-based values of the multiple items from a first currency to a second currency, wherein the second currency is a currency of the threshold price-based value.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the choosing of the predetermined price-based value includes selecting the predetermined threshold price-based value from a table of predetermined price-based values.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the price-based value includes a selling price of the irregular item.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the price-based value includes a fee set by the network-based transaction facility based on the selling price of the irregular item.

14. The method of claim 1, including choosing the predetermined threshold price-based value based an auction type.

15. The method of claim 1, further including:

storing a bidder identification associated with the irregular item in an irregular user database; and

restricting the user associated with the bidder identification from using the network-based transaction facility.

16. The method of claim 15, including removing the bidder identification from the irregular user database if the irregular item associated with the bidder identification is determined to be legitimate.

17. The method of claim 1, further including:

storing a seller identification associated with the irregular item in an irregular user database; and

restricting the user associated with the seller identification from using the network-based transaction facility.

18. The method of claim 17, including removing the seller identification from the irregular user database if the irregular item associated with the seller identification is determine to be legitimate.

19. A machine readable storage medium containing executable instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the method of monitoring irregular activity in network-based transaction facilities, the method including:

receiving item data corresponding to completed transactions within the network-based transaction facility, the item data pertaining to multiple items, each of the multiple items having a price-based value;

processing the item data at a server communicatively coupled to the network-based transaction facility to identify at least one of the multiple items as being an irregular item falling outside a range defined by at least one predetermined threshold price-based value, the predetermined threshold price-based value being automatically chosen from a plurality of predetermined threshold price-based values based on a category in which the irregular item was auctioned or sold within the network-based transaction facility; and

filtering the item data by removing irregular item data that correspond to each identified irregular item.

20. A system for monitoring irregular activity in network-based transaction facilities, the system including:

means for receiving item data corresponding to completed transactions within the network-based transaction facility, the item data pertaining to multiple items, each of the multiple items having a price-based value;

means for processing the item data at a server communicatively coupled to the network-based transaction facility to identify at least one of the multiple items as being an irregular item falling outside a range defined by at least one predetermined threshold price-based value, the predetermined threshold price-based value being automatically chosen from a plurality of predetermined threshold price-based values based on a category in which the irregular item was auctioned or sold within the network-based transaction facility; and

means for filtering the item data by removing irregular item data that correspond to each identified irregular item.

21. A system for generating a report by filtering out item data received in network-based transaction facilities, the system including;

a database to receive and store item data corresponding to completed transactions on a network-based transaction facility, the item data pertaining to multiple items, each of the multiple items having a price-based value; and

a database engine server including an irregular activity monitoring system, wherein the irregular activity monitoring system automatically identifies at least one of the multiple items as being an irregular item falling outside a range defined by at least one predetermined threshold price-based value, the predetermined threshold price-based value being automatically chosen from a plurality of predetermined threshold price-based values based on a category in which the irregular item was auctioned or sold within the network-based transaction facility, and filtering the item data by removing irregular item data that correspond to each identified irregular item.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the irregular activity monitoring system sets an irregular flag for the identified irregular item and generates a report that includes at least one of item data for items not having an irregular item flag set and item data having an irregular item flag set.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the database further includes a first look-up table to store currency conversion rates and a second look-up table to store threshold price-based values based on auction categories, the currency conversion rates used by the database engine server to convert the price-based value of each of the multiple items from a first currency to a second currency, wherein the second currency is the threshold price-based value currency.