System and method for securing a credit account
First Claim
1. A computer system for approving a commercial transaction between a user with account information and a merchant, said computer system comprising:
- a processing unit for processing data and code;
memory for storing said data and said code;
a merchant interface operative to receive one or more transaction approval requests from one or more merchants;
an account-holder interface operative to establish a connection with an account-holder associated with a credit account, to authenticate said account-holder, to receive a series of activation and deactivation instructions from said account-holder, to store said instructions received from said account-holder, and to store a date and time said instructions were received from said account-holder, whereby said account-holder can repeatedly activate and deactivate said credit account; and
an authorization module operative to deny ones of said transaction approval requests initiated during periods of deactivation; and
whereinsaid activation data further defines at least one automatic activation or deactivation criteria determined by said account holder;
said authorization module is operative to automatically change the activation status of said account based on said automatic activation or deactivation criteria;
said deactivation criteria causes deactivation of said account if a predetermined number of transaction approval requests are received within a given time period, said predetermined number of transaction approval requests determined by said account-holder; and
said authorization module is operative to deactivate said account by recording a date and time in said activation data corresponding to the date and time at which said predetermined number of transaction approval requests is reached.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method is disclosed for verifying a commercial transaction between a card-holder, a merchant, and a credit card company. The card-holder makes a purchase with the merchant using a full credit card number. The merchant submits a transaction approval request for approval with the credit card company. The credit card company executes conventional credit approval of the transaction approval request, as well as verifies the transaction approval request with the card-holder. An approval is sent to the merchant only after the transaction approval request is both conventionally approved by the credit card company and verified by the card-holder. The card-holder, or the credit card company, may initiate verification of the transaction approval request. The transaction approval request can also be automatically verified if one or many pre-verification criteria is/are satisfied by data contained in the transaction approval request. The pre-verification criteria can be initially determined and/or modified by the card-holder. As another security feature, the card-holder may selectively activate and deactivate their credit card/account as desired. The credit card itself includes indicia of security measures.
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Citations
69 Claims
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1. A computer system for approving a commercial transaction between a user with account information and a merchant, said computer system comprising:
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a processing unit for processing data and code; memory for storing said data and said code; a merchant interface operative to receive one or more transaction approval requests from one or more merchants; an account-holder interface operative to establish a connection with an account-holder associated with a credit account, to authenticate said account-holder, to receive a series of activation and deactivation instructions from said account-holder, to store said instructions received from said account-holder, and to store a date and time said instructions were received from said account-holder, whereby said account-holder can repeatedly activate and deactivate said credit account; and an authorization module operative to deny ones of said transaction approval requests initiated during periods of deactivation; and
whereinsaid activation data further defines at least one automatic activation or deactivation criteria determined by said account holder; said authorization module is operative to automatically change the activation status of said account based on said automatic activation or deactivation criteria; said deactivation criteria causes deactivation of said account if a predetermined number of transaction approval requests are received within a given time period, said predetermined number of transaction approval requests determined by said account-holder; and said authorization module is operative to deactivate said account by recording a date and time in said activation data corresponding to the date and time at which said predetermined number of transaction approval requests is reached. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. In a computer system, a method for facilitating commercial transactions between a user with account information and a merchant, said method comprising:
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receiving a series of separate communications from an account-holder associated with said account information, some of said communications including deactivation instructions and others of said communications including reactivation instructions, said deactivation instructions and said reactivation instructions defining interspersed periods of activation and deactivation of an account associated with said account information, said periods of activation and deactivation being defined by setting an indicator of the activation status of said account responsive to said deactivation instructions and said reactivation instructions; receiving a transaction approval request from said merchant, said transaction approval request including data indicative of said account associated with said account information; determining whether said transaction approval request was initiated during one of said periods of deactivation; denying said transaction approval request if said transaction approval request was initiated during one of said periods of deactivation; storing at least one automatic deactivation criteria associated with said account-holder; and automatically temporarily deactivating said account associated with said account-holder when said at least one deactivation criteria is met; and
whereinsaid at least one automatic deactivation criteria includes receiving a predetermined number of transaction approval requests; and said step of automatically temporarily deactivating said account includes deactivating said account after the receipt of said predetermined number of transaction approval requests. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A computer system for approving a commercial transaction between a user with account information and a merchant, said computer system comprising:
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a processing unit for processing data and code; memory for storing said data and said code; a merchant interface operative to receive one or more transaction approval requests from one or more merchants; an account-holder interface operative to receive a series of activation and deactivation instructions from an account-holder associated with a credit account, whereby said account-holder can repeatedly activate and deactivate said credit account; and an authorization module operative to deny ones of said transaction approval requests initiated during periods of deactivation; and
whereinsaid account-holder interface further facilitates verification of pending transaction approval requests by said account-holder, and said authorization module is further operative to, if said account associated with said account-holder is not deactivated, transmit an approval to said merchant only if said approval request is verified by said account-holder. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A computer system for approving a commercial transaction between a user with account information and a merchant, said computer system comprising:
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a processing unit for processing data and code; memory for storing said data and said code; a merchant interface operative to receive one or more transaction approval requests from one or more merchants; an account-holder interface operative to establish a connection with an account-holder associated with a credit account, to authenticate said account-holder, to receive a series of activation and deactivation instructions from said account-holder, to store said instructions received from said account-holder, and to store a date and time said instructions were received from said account-holder, whereby said account-holder can repeatedly activate and deactivate said credit account; and an authorization module operative to deny ones of said transaction approval requests initiated during periods of deactivation; and
whereinsaid account-holder interface further facilitates verification of pending transaction approval requests by said account-holder; and said authorization module is further operative to, if said account associated with said account-holder is not deactivated, transmit an approval to said merchant only if said approval request is verified by said account-holder.
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44. In a computer system, a method for facilitating commercial transactions between a user with account information and a merchant, said method comprising:
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receiving a series of separate communications from an account-holder associated with said account information, some of said communications including deactivation instructions and others of said communications including reactivation instructions, said deactivation instructions and said reactivation instructions defining interspersed periods of activation and deactivation of an account associated with said account information, said periods of activation and deactivation being defined by setting an indicator of the activation status of said account responsive to said deactivation instructions and said reactivation instructions; receiving a transaction approval request from said merchant, said transaction approval request including data indicative of said account associated with said account information; determining whether said transaction approval request was initiated during one of said periods of deactivation; denying said transaction approval request if said transaction approval request was initiated during one of said periods of deactivation; establishing a separate connection with said account-holder responsive to receiving said transaction approval request from said merchant; electronically verifying said transaction approval request with said account holder via said separate connection; and approving said transaction approval request only if said transaction approval request is verified by said account-holder and said account is activated. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69)
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Specification