Automated entity verification

• US 8,856,956 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2011
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dun & Bradstreet Corp., DUN & Bradstreet Incorporated (Dun & Bradstreet Corp.), Hoover's Incorporated (Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Credibility Corp. (Dun & Bradstreet Corp.)
• Inventors: Stibel, Jeffrey M., Stibel, Aaron B., Delgrosso, Peter, Mistry, Shailen, Mierke, Bryan, Servino, Paul, Le, Charles Chi Thoi, Lo, David, Lyon, David Allen
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAO, MICHAEL W
• Application Number:
  US13/290,746
• Publication Number:
  US 20130013553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,065 Days
• Field of Search: 726/28
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/082 applying multi-factor authentication cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3215 using a plurality of channels network architectures or network communication protocols using different networks H04L63/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3228 One-time or temporary data, i.e. information which is sent for every authentication or authorization, e.g. one-time-password, one-time-token or one-time-key

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a verification system for automated verification of entities. The verification system automatedly verifies entities using a two part verification campaign. One part verifies that the entity is the true owner of the entity account to be verified. This verification step involves (1) the entity receiving a verification code at the entity account and returning the verification code to the verification system, (2) the entity associating an account that it has registered at a service provider to an account that the verification system has registered at the service provider, (3) both. Another part verifies the entity can respond to communications that are sent to methods of contact that have been previously verified as belonging to the entity. The verification system submits a first communication with a code using a verified method of contact. The verification system then monitors for a second communication to be returned with the code.

Claims

1. An entity verification system comprising a microprocessor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with an executable program stored thereon, wherein said program instructs said microprocessor to perform sets of instructions for:

receiving a request comprising at least one identifier for identifying an entity;

matching said identifier to a particular data structure of a plurality of data structures stored to a trusted database, wherein the particular data structure comprises identification information that has been previously verified for the entity;

identifying an account representing the entity at a social media site using the identification information;

verifying that the entity is an owner of the account by monitoring for completion of a verification task comprising one of (i) return receipt of a code that the entity verification system passes to the account and (ii) performance of an association action linking the account to another account at the social media site;

increasing a verification level of the entity when the entity is verified as the owner of the account upon completion of the verification task;

querying to identify based on at least one item of identification information from the particular data structure, a website containing supplemental identification information about the entity, wherein the website is a different data source than the trusted database;

parsing the website to identify the supplemental identification information about the entity from other information that is unrelated to the entity;

corroborating the supplemental identification information from the website with the identification information from the particular data structure; and

modifying the verification level of the entity by (i) increasing the verification level when the supplemental identification information from the website matches to the identification information from the particular data structure and (ii) decreasing the verification level when the identification information from the website does not match to the information from particular data structure.

2. The entity verification system of claim 1, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for performing a two part verification of said entity.

3. The entity verification system of claim 2, wherein a first part of the two part verification comprises (i) communicating a code to said entity using a verified method of contact that is obtained from the identification information of the particular data structure, and (ii) monitoring for said code to be returned.

4. The entity verification system of claim 3, wherein a second part of the two part verification comprises (i) requesting that the account representing the entity at the social media site be associated with an account that said verification system has registered with the social media site and (ii) monitoring for completion of said association.

5. The entity verification system of claim 3, wherein the code is a first code and wherein a second part of the two part verification comprises (i) disseminating a second code to the account representing the entity at the social media site using a messaging format of the social media site and (ii) monitoring for return of the second code.

6. The entity verification system of claim 1, wherein said program further comprises a set of instructions for presenting the verification level of the entity.

7. The entity verification system of claim 6, wherein said program further comprises a set of instructions for presenting a verification level for each item of corroborated identification information for said entity.

8. The entity verification system of claim 1, wherein said program further a set of instructions for notifying the social media site of the verification level of the entity.

19. The entity verification system of claim 1, wherein the website is a first website, the program further comprising a set of instructions for querying to identify based on at least one item of identification information from the particular data structure, a second website containing supplemental identification information about the entity, wherein the first website is addressed at a different domain than the second website.

20. The entity verification system of claim 19, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for extracting the supplemental identification information about said entity from the second website and corroborating the supplemental identification information from the second website with identification information from the particular data structure.

21. The entity verification system of claim 20, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for modifying the verification level of the entity to increase the verification level when the supplemental identification information from the second website matches to the identification information from the particular data structure and to decrease the verification level when the supplemental identification information from the second website does not match to the information from particular data structure.

9. A verification system comprising a microprocessor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with an executable program stored thereon, said program for verifying an entity at a particular social media site when said entity has registered an account at the particular social media site, wherein said program instructs said microprocessor to perform sets of instructions for:

receiving a data structure comprising verified identification information and contact information for said entity;

querying the particular social media site using the identification information to identify a particular unverified account representing the entity at the social media site;

sending a request to said entity based on contact information from the data structure, said request comprising (i) an identifier identifying an account that is registered to the verification system at the social media site and (ii) instructions for performing an association action to create a link between the verification system account and the particular unverified account at the social media site;

monitoring for completion of said association between the verification system account and the particular unverified account at the particular social media site;

identifying based the identification information from the data structure, a third party site containing supplemental identification information about the entity;

corroborating the supplemental identification information from the third party site with identification information from the data structure; and

generating a verification status for said entity based on (i) completion of the association between the verification system account and the particular unverified account and (ii) amount with which the supplemental identification information from the third party site matches to the identification information from the data structure.

10. The verification system of claim 9, wherein said program further comprises a set of instructions for disseminating a code to the particular unverified account using messaging of the particular social media site, and wherein sending a request to said entity comprises requesting said entity to access the particular unverified account to retrieve and return said code to the verification system.

11. The verification system of claim 10, wherein the set of instructions for monitoring for completion of said association comprises a set of instructions for monitoring for return of said code.

12. A method performed by a verification system comprising a microprocessor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for verifying an entity at a social media site when said entity has registered an account at the social media site, the method comprising:

receiving a data structure at said verification system, said data structure comprising verified identification information and contact information for said entity;

based on contact information from the data structure, sending a message from said verification system to said entity, said message comprising (i) a verification code and (ii) an identifier to a first account that is registered by the verification system at the social media site to which the verification code is to be returned in order to verify the entity at the social media site;

accessing the first account at the social media site;

monitoring the first account for a message that contains the verification code from a second account that is registered at the social media site;

verifying the second account represents said entity at the social media site upon the verification system receiving the message containing the verification code at the first account, wherein said verifying comprises modifying said non-transitory computer-readable storage medium to store verification status of said entity;

obtaining supplemental identification information about the entity from the second account at the social media site; and

modifying the verification status of said entity based on a number of matches between the supplemental identification information from the second account and the identification information from the data structure.

13. A method performed by a verification system comprising a microprocessor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, said method comprising:

receiving a request at said verification system, said request comprising at least one identifier for identifying an entity;

matching by said verification system, said identifier to a particular data structure of a plurality of data structures stored to a trusted database, wherein the particular data structure comprises identification information that has been previously verified for the entity;

identifying an account representing the entity at a social media site using the identification information;

verifying that the entity is an owner of the account by monitoring for completion of a verification task comprising one of (i) return receipt of a code that the entity verification system passes to the account and (ii) performance of an association action linking the account to another account at the social media site;

increasing a verification level of the entity when the entity is verified as the owner of the account upon completion of the verification task;

querying by said verification system to identify based on at least one item of identification information from the particular data structure, a website containing supplemental identification information about said entity, wherein the website is a different data source than the trusted database;

parsing the website to identify the supplemental identification information about the entity from other information that is unrelated to the entity;

corroborating the supplemental identification information from the website with the identification information from the particular data structure; and

modifying the verification level of the entity by (i) increasing the verification level when the supplemental identification information from the website matches to the identification information from the particular data structure and (ii) decreasing the verification level when the identification information from the website does not match to the information from particular data structure.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising extracting the supplemental identification information about said entity from the website, wherein extracting comprises scraping the supplemental identification information from the website.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein matching said identifier comprises searching the trusted database with said identifier to identify said particular data structure with identification information matching to said identifier by a specified threshold.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising providing the verification level of said entity to the online service provider.

17. The method of claim 13 further comprising presenting the verification level of said entity through a user interface.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising presenting a verification level for each item of corroborated identification information for said entity.