Identity theft and fraud protection system and method
First Claim
1. A method for protecting against theft of personal identity information during purchase transactions, said method comprising the steps of:
- registering an individual subscriber as a member of an identity protection system and obtaining personal identity information from the subscribing member, including the subscribing member'"'"'s name and account information for at least one financial account of the subscribing member, the at least one financial account being preexisting to and independent of membership, and being issued by a credit issuer that is external to the identity protection system, the identity protection system further performing;
receiving the personal identity information obtained from each subscribing member as storable computer data;
encrypting the entered personal identity information data by a computer;
fragmenting the encrypted data by a computer;
storing portions of the fragmented encrypted data, by at least one computer, independently at separate computer data storage locations;
preventing third party access to the fragmented encrypted data;
allowing the subscribing member to conduct at least one purchase transaction with a merchant, and allowing the subscribing member to select the at least one financial account from which funds will be used for indirect payment of the purchase transaction;
requesting credit authorization of the credit issuer for a monetary purchase value amount to be charged against the at least one financial account of the subscribing member;
obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the monetary purchase value amount;
assigning the monetary purchase value amount to a temporary card number selected from a plurality of pre-approved card numbers at the time of obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the purchase value amount of the purchase transaction, and assigning the card number to an anonymous card for exclusive use by the subscribing member to conduct the at least one purchase transaction with the merchant, the anonymous card having no traceable connection outside the identity protection system to any financial account of the subscribing member including the at least one financial accountpresenting the anonymous card to the merchant when the subscribing member is conducting a purchase transaction with the merchant; and
allowing the merchant to obtain credit approval and payment for the purchase transaction against the anonymous card in an amount not exceeding the approved monetary purchase value amount and without revealing any personal identity information of the subscribing member.
17 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for preventing personal identity theft when making online and offline purchases requires a purchaser to first subscribe and become a member user by registering and providing relevant personal identity information. Once registered, the member is assigned a user name and a password. The subscribing member'"'"'s personal identity information is then encrypted and stored at one or more highly secure locations. The ID protection system obtains a controlled use card (CUC) through a CUC issuer on behalf of the member for use to make each purchase transaction. The CUC is anonymous with respect to user (member) identity and may be a purchase-specific single-use card or a multiple-use stored value card with no traceable connection to any other financial account. When the member makes a secure online purchase, the system software enters anonymous information (i.e. not revealing the member'"'"'s real name, email address, billing information, etc.) on the merchant'"'"'s order placement screen, except in instances where the member'"'"'s real identity information is required (e.g. airline tickets). The merchant receives the completed checkout screen, obtains credit approval through a credit card association, and sends the shipping information to a shipper which independently obtains the correct shipping name and address from the ID protection system prior to shipping the purchased product(s).
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. A method for protecting against theft of personal identity information during purchase transactions, said method comprising the steps of:
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registering an individual subscriber as a member of an identity protection system and obtaining personal identity information from the subscribing member, including the subscribing member'"'"'s name and account information for at least one financial account of the subscribing member, the at least one financial account being preexisting to and independent of membership, and being issued by a credit issuer that is external to the identity protection system, the identity protection system further performing; receiving the personal identity information obtained from each subscribing member as storable computer data; encrypting the entered personal identity information data by a computer; fragmenting the encrypted data by a computer; storing portions of the fragmented encrypted data, by at least one computer, independently at separate computer data storage locations; preventing third party access to the fragmented encrypted data; allowing the subscribing member to conduct at least one purchase transaction with a merchant, and allowing the subscribing member to select the at least one financial account from which funds will be used for indirect payment of the purchase transaction; requesting credit authorization of the credit issuer for a monetary purchase value amount to be charged against the at least one financial account of the subscribing member; obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the monetary purchase value amount; assigning the monetary purchase value amount to a temporary card number selected from a plurality of pre-approved card numbers at the time of obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the purchase value amount of the purchase transaction, and assigning the card number to an anonymous card for exclusive use by the subscribing member to conduct the at least one purchase transaction with the merchant, the anonymous card having no traceable connection outside the identity protection system to any financial account of the subscribing member including the at least one financial account presenting the anonymous card to the merchant when the subscribing member is conducting a purchase transaction with the merchant; and allowing the merchant to obtain credit approval and payment for the purchase transaction against the anonymous card in an amount not exceeding the approved monetary purchase value amount and without revealing any personal identity information of the subscribing member. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for protecting against theft of personal identity information during purchase transactions, said method comprising the steps of:
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registering an individual subscriber as a member of an identity protection system and obtaining personal identity information from each individual member, including the subscribing member'"'"'s name and account information for at least one financial account of the subscribing member, the at least one financial account being preexisting to and independent of membership, and being issued by a credit issuer that is external to the identity protection system, the identity protection system further performing; receiving the personal identity information obtained from each subscribing member as storable computer data; encrypting the entered personal identity information data by a computer; fragmenting the encrypted data by a computer; storing portions of the fragmented encrypted data, by at least one computer, independently at separate computer data storage locations; preventing third party access to the fragmented encrypted data; allowing the subscribing member to conduct at least one purchase transaction with a merchant, and allowing the subscribing member to select the at least one financial account from which funds will be used for indirect payment of the purchase transaction; requesting credit authorization of the credit issuer for a monetary purchase value amount to be charged against the at least one financial account of the subscribing member; obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the monetary purchase value amount and assigning the approved monetary purchase value amount to the issued anonymous controlled use card; assigning the monetary purchase value amount to a temporary controlled use card number selected from a plurality of pre-approved temporary controlled use card numbers at the time of obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the purchase value amount of the purchase transaction, and assigning the temporary controlled use card number to an anonymous controlled use card for exclusive use by the subscribing member to conduct the at least one purchase transaction with the merchant, the anonymous controlled use card having no traceable connection outside the identity protection system to any financial account of the subscribing member including the at least one financial account presenting the anonymous controlled use card number to the merchant when the subscribing member is conducting a purchase transaction with the merchant; and allowing the merchant to obtain credit approval and payment for the purchase transaction against the anonymous controlled use card in an amount not exceeding the approved monetary purchase value amount and without revealing any personal identity information of the subscribing member. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method for protecting against theft of personal identity information during purchase transactions, said method comprising the steps of:
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registering an individual subscriber as a member of an identity protection system and obtaining personal identity information from the member, including the subscribing member'"'"'s name and account information for at least one financial account of the subscribing member, the at least one financial account being preexisting to and independent of membership, and being issued by a credit issuer that is external to the identity protection system, the identity protection system further performing; receiving the personal identity information obtained from each subscribing member as storable computer data; encrypting the entered personal identity information data by a computer; fragmenting the encrypted data by a computer; storing portions of the fragmented encrypted data, by at least one computer, independently at separate computer data storage locations; preventing third party access to the fragmented encrypted data; issuing an anonymous controlled use card from a plurality of pre-approved anonymous controlled use cards on behalf of the subscribing member for exclusive use to conduct at least one purchase transaction with a specific merchant and issuing separate ones of said anonymous controlled use card, each for exclusive use to conduct at least one purchase transaction between the subscribing member and a different merchant, and each issued anonymous controlled use card having no traceable connection to any financial account of the subscribing member including the at least one financial account; presenting the anonymous controlled use card number to a merchant when conducting a purchase transaction with a merchant; requesting credit authorization of the credit issuer for a monetary purchase value amount of the purchase transaction to be charged against the at least one financial account of the subscribing member; obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the monetary purchase value amount, and assigning the approved monetary purchase value amount to the issued anonymous controlled use card; assigning a temporary controlled use card number to the issued anonymous controlled use card at the time of obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the monetary purchase value amount of the purchase transaction; and sending an approval indication to the merchant acknowledging approval for the monetary purchase value amount of the purchase transaction without revealing any personal identity information of the member. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A method for protecting against theft of personal identity information during purchase transactions, said method comprising the steps of:
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registering individual subscribers as members of an identity protection system and obtaining personal identity information from each individual member, including the subscribing member'"'"'s name and account information for at least one financial account of the subscribing member, the at least one financial account being preexisting to and independent of membership, and being issued by a credit issuer that is external to the identity protection system, the identity protection system further performing; receiving the personal identity information obtained from each subscribing member as storable computer data; encrypting the entered personal identity information data by a computer; fragmenting the encrypted data by a computer; storing portions of the fragmented encrypted data, by at least one computer, independently at separate computer data storage locations; preventing third party access to the fragmented encrypted data; issuing an anonymous card from a plurality of pre-approved anonymous cards on behalf of the subscribing member for use to conduct at least one purchase transaction, each issued anonymous controlled use card having no traceable connection to any financial account of the subscribing member including the at least one financial account; establishing at least one anonymous purchase account associated with the issued anonymous card; requesting credit authorization of the credit issuer for a monetary value amount to be charged against the at least one financial account of the subscribing member and credited to the at least one anonymous purchase account of the anonymous card; obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the monetary value amount and crediting the approved monetary value amount to the at least one anonymous purchasing account at the time of obtaining approval; allowing the subscribing member to present the anonymous card to the merchant when conducting a card present purchase transaction without revealing the subscribing member'"'"'s personal identity information to the merchant; allowing the merchant to obtain credit approval and payment against the anonymous card for the card present purchase transaction up to the assigned and approved monetary value amount; and debiting the merchant payment against the at least one anonymous purchasing account to reduce the assigned authorized monetary value amount. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41)
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42. A system for protecting against theft of personal identity information during purchase transactions, said system comprising:
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at least one service provider center and an identity protection software application for registering individual subscribers as members and obtaining personal identity information from each individual member, including the subscribing member'"'"'s name and account information for at least one financial account of the subscribing member, the at least one financial account being preexisting to and independent of membership, and being issued by a credit issuer that is external to the at least one service provider center, and the identity protection software application being structured and disposed for receiving the personal identity information as storable computer data; a computer system for encrypting the entered personal identity information data; a plurality of data storage locations; said computer system being structured and disposed for fragmenting the encrypted data and storing portions of the fragmented encrypted data separately at the plurality of data storage locations; said computer system being structured for issuing anonymous cards, each issued from a plurality of pre-approved cards on behalf of each subscribing member for exclusive use to conduct at least one purchase transaction with a specific merchant, the anonymous cards having no traceable connection outside the at least one service provider center to any financial account of the subscribing member including the at least one financial account; said computer system being structured for requesting credit authorization of the credit issuer for a monetary purchase value amount to be charged against the at least one financial account of the subscribing member; said computer system being further structured for obtaining approval for the monetary purchase value amount and assigning the approved monetary purchase value amount to the issued anonymous card; said computer system being further structured for selecting a temporary card number from a plurality of pre-approved card numbers and assigning the selected temporary card number to the issued anonymous card at the time of obtaining approval for the monetary purchase value amount; said computer system being further structured for presenting the anonymous card to a merchant when the subscribing member is conducting a purchase transaction with the merchant; and said computer system being further structured for allowing the merchant to obtain credit approval and payment against the anonymous card for the purchase transaction in an amount not exceeding the approved monetary purchase value amount and without revealing any personal identity information of the subscribing member.
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Specification