Method for transferring money using email

• US 8,606,703 B1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dorsey, Jack, Andersen, Robert, Grassadonia, Brian, Byttow, David M., Lee, Bob, Broyles, Austin
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jagdish
• Application Number:
  US13/839,623
• Time in Patent Office: 270 Days
• Field of Search: 705/39, 705/40
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

Method, systems, and apparatus for receiving the email message from a sender device; identifying, using data processing apparatus of a payment service system, a sender email address, a service email address, and one or more recipient email addresses from the email message; identifying, for the sender email address, a sender financial account associated with the payment service system and, for each of the one or more recipient email addresses, a respective recipient financial account associated with the payment service system; identifying a payment amount from a subject or body of the email message; submitting a request to transfer, using the payment service system, the payment amount from the respective sender financial account to the respective recipient financial account.

Claims

1. A method of transferring money from a user to a recipient using an email message, comprising:

receiving, by a payment service system, the email message originating at a sender device associated with the user, wherein the email message is transmitted to an email server by the sender device and forwarded by the email server to the payment service system using a payment service email address associated with the payment service system, wherein the email message is addressed to a recipient email address and has a header that specifies the payment service email address associated with the payment service system, and wherein the email message includes, within a body or a subject line of the email message, a payment amount to be transferred to a recipient associated with the recipient email address;

analyzing, by the payment service system, the received email message to identify a sender email address associated with the user and the recipient email address;

identifying, by the payment service system, a sender financial account associated with the identified sender email address of the email message, wherein the sender financial account is preregistered with the payment service system;

identifying, by the payment service system, a recipient financial account associated with the identified recipient email address of the email message;

analyzing, by the payment service system, the subject line or the body of the email message to determine the payment amount to the transferred to the recipient associated with the recipient email address; and

initiating, by the payment service system, a transfer of the determined payment amount from the respective sender financial account to the recipient financial account.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending, to the sender email address and the recipient email address, a confirmation email that the payment amount has been transferred from the sender financial account to the recipient financial account.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the email message is composed by the user in an email application of the email server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the payment service email address is specified on a carbon copy line of the email message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing, by the payment service system, the subject line or the body of the email message to determine the payment amount to the transferred to the recipient associated with the recipient email address comprises:

identifying a plurality of recipient email addresses of the email message and a corresponding plurality of recipient financial accounts;

identifying a user-specified amount from the subject line or the body of the email message;

splitting the user-specified amount into a plurality of portions among each recipient email address of the plurality of recipient email addresses of the email message; and

initiating a transfer, for each recipient email address of the plurality of recipient email addresses, a particular portion of the plurality of portions to a respective recipient financial account of the plurality of recipient financial accounts.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the determined payment amount to the recipient financial account associated with the recipient email address.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a first hash of the email message based on headers of the email message;

receiving a second email message from the email server, wherein the second email message includes the sender email address;

generating a second hash of the second email message based on headers of the second email message;

determining the first hash is equal to the second hash; and

in response to determining that the first hash is equal to the second hash, analyzing the email message instead of the second email message.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a confirmation email to the sender email address, wherein the confirmation email includes a confirmation link; and

receiving, by the payment service system, an indication of user engagement with the confirmation link.

9. A method of transferring money from a recipient to a user using an email message, comprising:

receiving, by a payment service system, the email message sent by an email server, wherein the email message originated from input by the user at a sender device associated with the user, wherein the email message is addressed to a recipient email address, wherein the email message includes a payment service indicator that triggers the email server to forward at least a portion of the email message to the payment service system, wherein the payment service indicator is included in the email message prior to the email being sent to the payment service system by the email server, wherein the email message includes, within a subject or a body of the email message, a payment amount to be transferred to a sender account associated with the user;

identifying, from the received email message by the payment service system, a sender email address associated with the user and a recipient email address;

identifying, by the payment service system, a sender financial account of the payment service system associated with the sender email address of the email message;

identifying, by the payment service system, a recipient financial account of the payment service system associated with the recipient email address of the email message;

analyzing, by the payment service system, the subject or the body of the email message to determine the an invoice amount indicated in the email message by the user;

generating an invoice email message that includes a link to initiate a transfer of the invoice amount from the recipient financial account to the sender financial account; and

sending the invoice email message to the recipient email address.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the payment service system, an indication of user engagement with the link to initiate the transfer of the invoice amount indicated in the email message;

initiating a transfer of the determined invoice amount from the recipient financial account to the sender financial account.

11. A payment service system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving an email message sent by an email server, wherein the email message originated from input by a user at a sender device associated with the user, wherein the email message is addressed to a recipient email address, wherein the email message includes a payment service indicator that triggers the email server to forward at least a portion of the email message to the payment service system, wherein the payment service indicator is included in the email message prior to the email being sent to the payment service system by the email server, wherein the email message includes, within a subject or a body of the email message, a payment amount to be transferred to a recipient account associated with the recipient email address;

identifying, from the received email message, a sender email address associated with the user and the recipient email address;

identifying a sender financial account of the payment service system associated with the sender email address of the email message;

identifying a recipient financial account of the payment service system associated with the recipient email address of the email message;

analyzing the subject or the body of the email message to determine the payment amount indicated in the email message by the user; and

initiating a transfer of the determined payment amount from the sender financial account to the recipient financial account.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the payment service indicator is a payment service email address associated with the payment service system.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the payment service email address is specified on a carbon copy line of the email message.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein identifying a sender email address associated with the user comprises parsing, by the payment service system, a From field of a header of the received email message to identify the sender email address.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein identifying a recipient email address associated with the user comprises parsing, by the payment service system, a To field of a header of the received email message to identify the recipient email address.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the email message is composed by the user in an email application of the email server.

17. A computer-implemented method of transferring money from an account of a user to an account of a recipient using an email message, comprising:

receiving, by a payment service system, the email message sent by an email server, wherein the email message originated from input by the user at a sender device associated with the user, wherein the email message is addressed to a recipient email address, wherein the email message includes a payment service indicator that triggers the email server to forward at least a portion of the email message to the payment service system, wherein the payment service indicator is included in the email message prior to the email being sent to the payment service system by the email server, wherein the email message includes, within a subject or a body of the email message, a payment amount to be transferred to a recipient account associated with the recipient email address;

identifying, from the received email message by the payment service system, a sender email address associated with the user and the recipient email address;

identifying, by the payment service system, a sender financial account of the payment service system associated with the sender email address of the email message;

identifying, by the payment service system, a recipient financial account of the payment service system associated with the recipient email address of the email message;

analyzing, by the payment service system, the subject or the body of the email message to determine the payment amount indicated in the email message by the user;

initiating, by the payment service system, a transfer of the determined payment amount from the sender financial account to the recipient financial account.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the payment service indicator is a payment service email address associated with the payment service system.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the payment service email address is specified on a carbon copy line of the email message.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein identifying a sender email address associated with the user comprises parsing, by the payment service system, a From field of a header of the received email message to identify the sender email address.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein identifying a recipient email address associated with the user comprises parsing, by the payment service system, a To field of a header of the received email message to identify the recipient email address.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the email message is composed by the user in an email application of the email server.