Prepaid card fraud and risk management

• US 8,165,938 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2007
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Monk, Justin T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Colbert, Ella
• Assistant Examiner(s): ANDERSON, JOHN A
• Application Number:
  US11/757,893
• Publication Number:
  US 20080301019A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/39, 705/44
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/363 with the personal data of a user
• 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 20/4016 involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0866 by active credit-cards adapted therefor G07F7/1008 takes precedence

Abstract

A method of monitoring fraud associated with prepaid devices includes configuring fraud platform parameters which comprise one or more limits defined by one or more values, each limit associated with a particular platform parameter, one or more thresholds defined by one or more values, each threshold associated with a particular platform parameter, and one or more rules that define restrictions for certain prepaid device activities. The method further includes applying the fraud platform parameters to prepaid device production data and determining whether to issue the prepaid device depending on whether any parameters were triggered by the production data.

Claims

1. Method of monitoring fraud associated with prepaid devices, comprising:

configuring fraud platform parameters, the parameters further comprising;

one or more prepaid device limits defined by one or more values, each limit associated with a particular platform parameter;

one or more prepaid device thresholds defined by one or more values, each threshold associated with a particular platform parameter, wherein the one or more prepaid device limits are associated with the one or more prepaid device thresholds and wherein the one or more prepaid device threshold is set below the associated one or more prepaid device limit;

one or more rules that define restrictions for certain prepaid device activities;

applying the fraud platform parameters to prepaid device production data wherein the prepaid device production data comprises prepaid device holder information and prepaid device buyer information; and

determining whether to issue the prepaid device depending on whether any parameters were triggered by the prepaid device production data;

validating the prepaid device production data against an internal database or an external database; and

confirming cases of fraud associated with prepaid devices based on triggered parameters and validated prepaid device production data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more values associated with the one or more limits are configurable.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more values associated with the one or more thresholds are configurable.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more rules are configurable by activating or deactivating within the fraud platform.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the prepaid device production data further comprises prepaid device loading information or prepaid device transactional information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the confirmed fraud cases are added to a database of confirmed fraud cases.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the prepaid device is a cellular phone, personal digital assistant, pager, or card.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining whether a fraud case file should be created if any parameters were triggered by the production data.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising compiling a report listing the number of fraud cases opened and a disposition of each case.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the external database is an Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) compliance information database, a credit reporting and scoring database, a social security number database, or a Patriot Act compliance database.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the internal database is a negative file database.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more limits and the one or more thresholds are set up by an issuer.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more prepaid device limits and the one or more prepaid device thresholds are based on a rolling period of time defined as a number of days.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more prepaid device limits include limits placed on enrollment of the prepaid device, limits place on the prepaid device recipient address, or limits placed on the prepaid device recipient telephone number.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more prepaid device limits include limits placed on the initial purchase and value load of the prepaid device, limits on the number of prepaid devices in an single funding account, limits on the number of prepaid devices in a single funding account within a number of days, limit on the dollar balance per prepaid device per purchase, re-load limits, limits on maximum contribution, or limits on maximum re-load count.

16. Method of managing fraud associated with prepaid devices, comprising:

entering enrollment and funding information associated with a prepaid device into a prepaid device processing system;

uploading a platform of fraud parameters, the parameters further comprising limits, thresholds and rules designed to trigger potential prepaid device fraud cases into the processing system;

running the enrollment and transactional information associated with the prepaid device against the fraud rules;

verifying any information associated with the prepaid device that triggered one or more fraud rules;

using configured rules to determine whether a fraud case is created for the prepaid device; and

managing the fraud case in a fraud queue through disposition.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein a graphical user interface is provided to facilitate the steps associated with managing fraud associated with the prepaid device.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the limits and thresholds each comprise at least one value.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one value is configurable.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the rules are configurable by activating or deactivating within the fraud parameter platform.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein verifying information comprises validating against a third party database.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein verifying information comprises validating the information against a database of confirmed fraud cases.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein determining whether a fraud case is created comprises applying a scoring model comprising a method to detect, identify and take action on any information that triggered one or more fraud rules.

24. A method of managing fraud associated with prepaid devices, comprising:

identifying a potential fraud case based on information associated with a prepaid device, wherein the potential fraud case is triggered by application of a set of fraud parameter rules to enrollment and funding information associated with the prepaid device;

verifying the information associated with the prepaid device against one or more databases to confirm whether the information associated with the prepaid device is fraudulent; and

updating a database of confirmed fraudulent information by adding the confirmed fraudulent information associated with the prepaid device to the database.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the information associated with the prepaid device is enrollment information or load information.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising running one or more preexisting prepaid devices against the updated database.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising managing the fraud case in a fraud queue.

28. The method of claim 24 wherein each fraud parameter rule in the set of fraud parameter rules comprises one or more triggers that can be activated or deactivated.