Systems and methods for account establishment and transaction management using interrupt messaging

• US 7,042,992 B1
• Filed: 02/07/2003
• Issued: 05/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Securus Technologies Incorporated (Securus Special Investments LLC)
• Original Assignee: Evercom Systems Incorporated (Securus Special Investments LLC)
• Inventors: Murphy, Timothy J., Hite, Marc, Falcone, Richard, Jones, Jimmie Jr., Mudd, Robert, Keiser, Luke
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, QUOC DUC
• Application Number:
  US10/360,248
• Time in Patent Office: 1,187 Days
• Field of Search: 379/114.01, 379/114.05, 379/114.14, 379/114.15, 379/114.19, 379/114.2, 379/114.21, 379/114.22, 379/114.23, 379/114.28, 379/127.02, 379/144.01, 379/144.02, 379/144.03, 379/145, 379/188, 379/196, 705/52, 705/53, 705/54, 705/75, 705/78
• US Class Current: 379/114.21
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/08 Metering calls to called party , i.e. B-party charged for the communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/09 Third party charged communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/47 Fraud detection or prevention means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/59 based on real time
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/88 Provision for limiting connection, or expenditure
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/00 Prepayment of wireline communication systems, wireless communication systems or telephone systems using a coded card to authorise calls from a telephone set H04M1/675
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/20 with provision for recharging the prepaid account or card, or for credit establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0116 Provision for limiting expenditure, e.g. limit on call expenses or account
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0148 Fraud detection or prevention means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/62 Called party billing, e.g. reverse billing, freephone, collect call, 0800 or 0900
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/66 Third party billing, i.e. third party can also be the predetermined telephone line of the caller if he is calling from another telephone set

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods which provide techniques providing account setup, management and transaction authorization determinations in real-time using transaction interrupt messaging. Embodiments preferably take into consideration the quality of one or more parties to the transaction and the means by which charges may be rendered to them when making account setup, management, and/or transaction authorization determinations. Accordingly, transactions, such as collect calls, meeting at least some minimal risk threshold may be completed on a first call attempt, even where a pre-arranged billing agreement or other business relationship is not previously in place.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a request related to a transaction attempt, the transaction attempt associated with an originating party, an end party, and a requested service;

determining if at least one charge rendering alternative is suitable for charging at least one party for the requested service;

performing at least one transaction interrupt to attempt to implement a suitable charge rendering alternative if no suitable charge rendering alternative has been implemented;

implementing a suitable charge rendering alternative for both the purpose of providing the requested service during the transaction attempt and the purpose of providing future requested services associated with at least one of said originating party and said end party; and

providing the requested service associated with the transaction attempt after the suitable charge rendering alternative is implemented.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction attempt is further associated with at least one additional party.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the charge rendering alternatives comprises a prepaid account associated with the originating party, a prepaid account associated with the end party, a prepaid account associated with a third party, a direct billing account associated with the originating party, a direct billing account associated with the end party, a direct billing account associated with a third party, or a billing account associated with a carrier serving the end party.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining if at least one charge rendering alternative is suitable for charging at least one party for the requested service comprises performing at least one transaction authorization.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein performing the at least one transaction authorization comprises:

performing a primary transaction authorization; and

performing a secondary transaction authorization when the primary transaction authorization fails to authorize the requested service.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

performing the primary transaction authorization comprises determining if the requested service represents a collect call and the end party is served by a carrier having no billing agreement with a service provider receiving the request; and

performing the secondary transaction authorization comprises determining if the end party meets a minimal risk threshold.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein performing the at least one transaction interrupt comprises delivering a message to the end party when at least one of the primary and secondary transaction authorizations fails to authorize the requested service.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein performing the at least one transaction interrupt comprises at least one of:

delivering a message to the end party and providing the requested service for a limited amount of time, when at least one of the primary and secondary transaction authorizations fails to authorize the requested service.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said at least one of delivering a message to the end party and providing the requested service for a limited amount of time comprises demonstrating a need for the requested service.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the requested service is provided if authorized by the secondary transaction authorization, the secondary transaction authorization performed using a limited set of data;

and

further comprising performing an additional transaction authorization using additional data collected as the requested service is being provided.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

changing the charge rendering alternative implemented for the requested service based upon said additional data collected.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the requested service associated with the transaction attempt without performing any transaction interrupts in response to determining that at least one of the charge rendering alternatives is suitable for charging at least one of the parties for the requested service.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving the request comprises receiving the request at a first service provider network; and

providing the requested service comprises providing the requested service through a second service provider network.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said transaction attempt comprises attempting to establish communication between said originating party and said end party.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said transaction attempt comprises attempting a commissary transaction.

47. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining if at least one charge rendering alternative is suitable comprises:

analyzing said at least one party with respect to a quality metric.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein said quality metric comprises a minimum quality threshold.

16. A system, comprising:

a transaction processor receiving a request related to a communication attempt from an originating party, the communication attempt associated with an end party and a requested service; and

a transaction validation engine operable to determine if at least one of a plurality of charge rendering alternatives is suitable for charging at least one party for the requested service, and perform at least one transaction interrupt to implement a suitable one of the charge rendering alternatives if none of the charge rendering alternatives has been implemented;

wherein the transaction processor implements a suitable one of the charge rendering alternatives for the communication attempt and future communication attempts and provides the requested service associated with the communication attempt after the suitable charge rendering alternative is implemented.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein implementing the suitable one of the charge rendering alternatives and providing the requested service are completed in real-time with respect to receiving the request.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one of the plurality of charge rendering alternatives comprises a prepaid account associated with the originating party, a prepaid account associated with the end party, a prepaid account associated with a third party, a direct billing account associated with the originating party, a direct billing account associated with the end party, a direct billing account associated with a third party, or a billing account associated with a carrier serving the end party.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the transaction validation engine determines if at least one of the plurality of charge rendering alternatives is suitable for charging at least one party for the requested service by performing at least one transaction authorization.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the transaction validation engine performs the at least one transaction authorization by:

performing a primary transaction authorization; and

performing a secondary transaction authorization when the primary transaction authorization fails to authorize the requested service.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein:

the transaction validation engine causes the transaction processor to provide the requested service if authorized by the secondary transaction authorization, the secondary transaction authorization performed using a limited set of data; and

the transaction validation engine performs an additional transaction authorization using additional data collected as the requested service is being provided.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the transaction processor implements a different one of the charge rendering alternatives for the communication attempt based upon the additional transaction authorization.

23. The system of claim 16, wherein said transaction interrupt performed by said transaction validation engine comprises said transaction validation engine causing at least one of

a message to be delivered from the originating party to the end party, and

allowing communication between the originating party and the end party for a limited amount of time.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the at least one of message delivered from the originating party and the end party and the communication between the originating party and the end party demonstrates a need for the requested service for facilitating implementing the suitable one of the charge rendering alternatives.

49. The system of claim 16, wherein said transaction validation engine operates to determine if at least one of said plurality of charge rendering alternatives is suitable as a function of a quality metric associated with said at least one party.

25. A transaction validation engine, comprising:

one or more billing system for implementing a plurality of charge rendering alternatives;

a plurality of filters used in determining if at least one of the plurality of charge rendering alternatives is suitable for charging at least one of a plurality of parties for a requested service; and

at least one interrupt unit establishing at least one account in the one or more billing system if none of the charge rendering alternatives has been implemented with respect to the at least one of the plurality of parties, the at least one account associated with one or more of the plurality of parties.

26. The transaction validation engine of claim 25, wherein:

the at least one billing system comprises at least one of;

a direct billing system, a prepaid accounting system, and a billing system associated with a carrier serving at least one of the parties.

27. The transaction validation engine of claim 25, wherein:

the at least one interrupt unit comprises an interactive voice response unit.

28. The transaction validation engine of claim 25, wherein the plurality of filters comprises at least one primary authorization filter and at least one secondary authorization filter.

29. The transaction validation engine of claim 28, wherein:

the at least one primary authorization filter determines if the requested service represents a collect call and the party receiving the call is served by a carrier having no billing agreement with a service provider receiving a request for the service; and

the at least one secondary authorization filter determines if the party receiving the call meets a minimal risk threshold.

30. The transaction validation engine of claim 28, further comprising a requested service need demonstrator establishing the requested service for a limited amount of time when at least one of the primary and secondary transaction authorization filters fails to authorize the requested service.

31. The transaction validation engine of claim 28, further comprising a requested service need demonstrator delivering a message when at least one of the primary and secondary transaction authorization filters fails to authorize the requested service.

32. The transaction validation engine of claim 28, wherein:

the at least one secondary authorization filter is capable of initially authorizing the requested communication service based on a limited set of data; and

the at least one secondary authorization filter is capable of performing an additional transaction authorization using additional data collected as the requested communication service is being provided.

33. The transaction validation engine of claim 25, further comprising a requested service need demonstrator.

34. The transaction validation engine of claim 33, wherein the requested service need demonstrator performs at least one of delivering a message and allowing said requested service for a limited time if none of the charge rendering alternatives has been implemented with respect to the at least one of the plurality of parties.

35. The transaction validation engine of claim 25, wherein said requested service comprises a communication service.

36. The transaction validation engine of claim 25, wherein said requested service comprises a commissary service.

50. The system of claim 25, wherein at least one of said filters references a quality metric associated with said at least one of said plurality of parties.

37. A method, comprising:

receiving a request related to a communication attempt, the communication attempt associated with an originating party, an end party, and a requested service;

determining if at least one of a plurality of charge rendering alternatives is suitable for charging at least one party for the requested service;

performing at least one transaction interrupt to implement a suitable one of the charge rendering alternatives if a default one of the charge rendering alternatives is not suitable for implementation;

implementing a suitable charge rendering alternative for both the purpose of providing the requested service during the communication attempt and the purpose of providing services in response to future communication attempts; and

providing the requested service associated with the communication attempt after the suitable charge rendering alternative is implemented.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the communication attempt is further associated with at least one additional party.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein:

the default charge rendering alternative comprises collect call billing; and

the suitable charge rendering alternative comprises at least one of;

a prepaid account associated with the originating party, a prepaid account associated with the end party, a prepaid account associated with a third party, a direct billing account associated with the originating party, a direct billing account associated with the end party, and a direct billing account associated with a third party.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein determining if at least one of the plurality of charge rendering alternatives is suitable for charging at least one party for the requested service comprises performing at least one transaction authorization.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein performing the at least one transaction authorization comprises:

performing a primary transaction authorization; and

performing a secondary transaction authorization when the primary transaction authorization fails to authorize the requested service.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein:

performing the primary transaction authorization comprises determining if the requested service represents a collect call and the end party is served by a carrier having no billing agreement with a service provider receiving the request; and

performing the secondary transaction authorization comprises determining if the end party meets a minimal risk threshold.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein performing the at least one transaction interrupt comprises at least one of:

delivering a message to the end party and providing the requested service for a limited amount of time.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein said at least one of delivering a message to the end party and providing the requested service for a limited amount of time comprises demonstrating a need for the requested service.

45. The method of claim 41, wherein the requested service is provided if authorized by the secondary transaction authorization, the secondary transaction authorization performed using a limited set of data;

and

further comprising performing an additional transaction authorization using additional data collected as the requested service is being provided.

46. The method of claim 45, further comprising:

changing the charge rendering alternative implemented for the requested service based upon said additional data collected.

51. The method of claim 37, wherein said determining if at least one of said plurality of charge rendering alternatives is suitable comprises:

analyzing said at least one party with respect to a quality metric.