Method, system and computer readable medium for web site account and e-commerce management from a central location

• US 7,702,578 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2005
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Slingshot Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: Passgate Corporation
• Inventors: Fung, Daniel Y., Hood, Brandon C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdi, Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIVERSEDGE, JENNIFER L
• Application Number:
  US11/044,874
• Publication Number:
  US 20050131815A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,908 Days
• Field of Search: 705/39
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• 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 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/00 Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus

Abstract

A method, system and computer readable medium for managing a user online financial transaction at a destination ecommerce web site using a credit or debit card account of the user, including a) transmitting an activation command to a financial institution processing financial transactions for activating the credit or debit card account of the user; b) submitting a charge request for the credit or debit card account to the financial institution via a destination e-commerce web site to which the user is logged in while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status; and c) transmitting a de-activation command to said financial institution for de-activating the credit or debit card account, wherein the financial institution only accepts and processes charge requests received from e-commerce web sites while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status and wherein the financial institution declines charge requests while said credit or debit card account is in the de-activated status, and wherein steps a) to c) are repeated at least once.

Claims

1. A method for managing a user online financial transaction at a destination ecommerce web site using a reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account of the user, comprising:

a) transmitting an activation command from a web server computer to a financial institution processing financial transactions for activating the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account of the user;

b) submitting a charge request for the credit or debit card account to the financial institution via a destination e-commerce web site to which the user is logged in while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status; and

c) transmitting a de-activation command from the web server computer to said financial institution for de-activating the credit or debit card account,

wherein the financial institution only accepts and processes charge requests received from e-commerce web sites while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status and wherein the financial institution declines charge requests while the credit or debit card account is in the de-activated status, and

wherein steps a) to c) are repeated at least once, and

the method further comprises determining at the financial institution if a merchant identification in the charge request matches a merchant identification in the activation command,

wherein the financial institution declines charge requests when the merchant identification in the charge request does not match the merchant identification in the activation command.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the online financial transaction is performed from a central web site.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the activation command is automatically transmitted to the financial institution when the user logs from the central web site into a destination ecommerce web site.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the user is automatically logged into the destination e-commerce web site.

5. The method according to claim 4, comprising the steps of:

parsing a form web page of the destination e-commerce web site to extract form data fields therefrom;

mapping form data fields of a central web site form to corresponding extracted form data fields of the form web page of the destination e-commerce web site; and

using the mapped form data fields to perform logging in the user at the destination e-commerce web site.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the form web page of the destination e-commerce web site comprises a login form web page for the destination e-commerce web site, and the method further comprises:

gathering user information data elements corresponding to form data fields of the central web site from the user;

populating the form data fields of the login form web page of the destination e-commerce web site with corresponding user information data elements based on the data fields of the central web site form mapped to the extracted form data fields of the login form web page of the destination e-commerce web site; and

transmitting the populated login form web page to the destination e-commerce web site to login the user at the destination web site.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the form web page of the destination e-commerce web site comprises an online financial transaction form web page for the destination e-commerce web site, and the method further comprises:

gathering user information data elements corresponding to form data fields of the central web site from the user;

populating the form data fields of the online financial transaction form web page of the destination e-commerce web site with corresponding user information data elements based on the data fields of the central web site form mapped to the extracted form data fields of the online financial transaction form web page of the destination e-commerce web site; and

transmitting the populated online financial transaction form web page to the destination e-commerce web site to execute an online financial transaction for the user at the destination e-commerce web site.

8. The method according to claim 2, wherein the results of the processing of the online financial transaction is transmitted to the user via the central web site.

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the activation command is transmitted from the central web site.

10. The method according to claim 2, wherein the activation command is transmitted from the destination e-commerce web site.

11. The method according to claim 2, wherein the de-activation command is transmitted from the central web site.

12. The method according to claim 2, wherein the de-activation command is transmitted from the destination ecommerce web site.

13. The method according to claim 2, wherein the form web page of the destination e-commerce web site comprises a registration form web page for the destination e-commerce web site, and the method further comprises:

gathering user information data elements corresponding to form data fields of the central web site from the user;

populating the form data fields of the registration form web page of the destination e-commerce web site with corresponding user information data elements based on the data fields of the central web site form mapped to the extracted form data fields of the registration form web page of the destination e-commerce web site; and

transmitting the populated registration form web page to the destination ecommerce web site to register the user at the destination e-commerce web site.

14. The method according to claim 2, further comprising filtering out charge requests made via the central web site from normal traffic of traditional credit or debit card transactions.

15. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

creating a unique user name and password for the user at said central web site; and

using said unique user name and password to register said user at one or more other destination e-commerce web sites.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein the de-activation command to the financial institution is transmitted (i) a predetermined amount of time after the user went online to perform the online financial transaction or (ii) after the user went offline.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the activation or de-activation commands are transmitted as one of an activation signal, an encrypted e-mail message, a secure facsimile message, a secure wireless communication message, and a secure telephone communication message.

18. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

creating a unique online credit or debit card with a limited available balance based on the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit card of a user; and

allowing said user to execute a financial transaction using said unique online credit or debit card in place of said reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit card during the online financial transaction.

19. A system for managing a user online financial transaction at a destination ecommerce web site using a reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account of the user, the system comprising:

a) means for transmitting an activation command to a financial institution processing financial transactions for activating the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account of the user;

b) means for submitting a charge request for the credit or debit card account to the financial institution via a destination e-commerce web site to which the user is logged in while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status; and

c) means for transmitting a de-activation command to said financial institution for de-activating the credit or debit card account,

wherein the financial institution only accepts and processes charge requests received from e-commerce web sites while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status and wherein the financial institution declines charge requests while the credit or debit card account is in the de-activated status, and

wherein the functions of means a) to c) are repeated at least once, and

the system further comprises means for determining at the financial institution if a merchant identification in the charge request matches a merchant identification in the activation command,

wherein the financial institution declines charge requests when the merchant identification in the charge request does not match the merchant identification in the activation command.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the online financial transaction is performed from a central web site, the system further comprising means for filtering out charge requests made via the central web site from normal traffic of traditional credit or debit card transactions.

21. A computer program product for managing a user online financial transaction at a destination ecommerce web site using a reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account of the user, including one or more computer readable instructions embedded on a computer readable medium and configured to cause one or more computer processors to perform the step of:

a) transmitting an activation command to a financial institution processing financial transactions for activating the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account of the user;

b) submitting a charge request for the credit or debit card account to the financial institution via a destination e-commerce web site to which the user is logged in while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status; and

c) transmitting a de-activation command to said financial institution for de-activating the credit or debit card account,

wherein the financial institution only accepts and processes charge requests received from e-commerce web sites while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status and wherein the financial institution declines charge requests while the credit or debit card account is in the de-activated status, and

wherein steps a) to c) are repeated at least once, and

further comprising determining at the financial institution if a merchant identification in the charge request matches a merchant identification in the activation command,

wherein the financial institution declines charge requests when the merchant identification in the charge request does not match the merchant identification in the activation command.

22. The computer program product according to claim 21, wherein the online financial transaction is performed from a central web site, and further comprising filtering out charge requests made via the central web site from normal traffic of traditional credit or debit card transactions.

23. A system for managing a user online financial transaction at a destination ecommerce web site using a reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account of the user, comprising:

a web server computer configured to transmit an activation command to a financial institution processing financial transactions for activating the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account of the user; and

a destination e-commerce web site to which the user is logged in and which is configured to submit a charge request for the credit or debit card account to the financial institution while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status,

wherein the web server computer is configured to transmit a de-activation command to said financial institution for de-activating the credit or debit card account,

wherein the financial institution only accepts and processes charge requests received from e-commerce web sites while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status and wherein the financial institution declines charge requests while the credit or debit card account is in the de-activated status,

wherein the transmitting of the activation command, the submitting of the charge request, and the transmitting of the de-activation command are repeated at least once,

wherein the financial institution determines if a merchant identification in the charge request matches a merchant identification in the activation command, and

wherein the financial institution declines charge requests when the merchant identification in the charge request does not match the merchant identification in the activation command.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein the online financial transaction is performed from a central web site, and the system is further configured to filter out charge requests made via the central web site from normal traffic of traditional credit or debit card transactions.