Transferring money using email

• US 9,202,207 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2014
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dorsey, Jack, Wilson, Jesse, Grassadonia, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jagdish
• Application Number:
  US14/272,367
• Publication Number:
  US 20140279447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 573 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 45
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/023 the neutral party being a clearing house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/42 Confirmation, e.g. check or permission by the legal debtor of payment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for transferring money using email. One of the methods includes receiving, at a user device, user input of a request to transfer a payment amount from a recipient account with a payment service system to a sender account of a sender with the payment service system. A draft email message is generated, the message having content identifying the requested payment amount, the draft email message including a confirmation link to a network resource associated with the payment service system, wherein upon receiving an indication that the recipient selected the confirmation link, the payment service system identifies a sender account of the sender and a recipient account of the recipient and initiates a transfer of the requested payment amount from the recipient account to the sender account.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for transferring a payment from a sender account to a recipient account using an email message comprising:

receiving, at a user device associated with a sender by an email application, a user input of a requested payment amount to be transferred from a recipient account of a recipient of a payment service system to the sender account associated with the sender of the payment service system and a user input of a recipient email address of the recipient;

generating, by the user device and using the email application, an email message having the requested payment amount in a subject or body of the email message and having a confirmation link to a network resource associated with a payment service system, wherein the confirmation link is encoded with a sender email address and the recipient email address, wherein the confirmation link is generated for activation in a web browser executing on a recipient user device associated with the recipient,

concurrently sending the email message from the user device to the recipient user device associated with the recipient based on the recipient email address and a server associated with the payment service system,

wherein upon receiving an indication that the recipient selected the confirmation link in the email message, the server associated with the payment service system identifies the sender account of the sender and the recipient account of the recipient and initiates a transfer of the requested payment amount from the recipient account to the sender account, wherein the sender account and the recipient account are identified based on association data stored in a database associated with the payment service system, the database storing the association data that defines associations between multiple email addresses and multiple user accounts, wherein at least one email address corresponds to a particular user of multiple users of the payment service system, wherein the at least one email address is associated with at least one of the multiple user accounts in a transaction conducted by said particular user with another user, said another user being one of the multiple users or an unregistered user.

2. A computer implemented method for transferring a payment from a sender account to a recipient account using an email message comprising:

receiving, at a user device associated with a sender by an email application, a user input of a requested payment amount to be transferred from a recipient account of a recipient of a payment service system to a sender account associated with the sender of the payment service system and a user input of a recipient email address of the recipient;

generating a draft email message having content identifying the requested payment amount, the draft email message including a confirmation link to a network resource associated with the payment service system, wherein the confirmation link is encoded with a sender email address and the recipient email address, wherein the confirmation link is generated for activation in a web browser executing on a recipient user device associated with the recipient,

concurrently sending the draft email message from the user device to the recipient device based on the recipient email address and a server associated with the payment service system,

wherein upon receiving an indication that the recipient selected the confirmation link in the draft email message, the server associated with the payment service system identifies the sender account of the sender and the recipient account of the recipient and initiates a transfer of the requested payment amount from the recipient account to the sender account, wherein the sender account and the recipient account are identified based on association data stored in a database associated with the payment service system, the database storing the association data that defines associations between multiple email addresses and multiple user accounts, wherein at least one email address corresponds to a particular user of multiple users of the payment service system, wherein the at least one email address is associated with at least one of the multiple user accounts in a transaction conducted by said particular user with another user, said another user being one of the multiple users or an unregistered user.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

sending, by the user device to the payment service system, an indication of the request to transfer the payment amount from the recipient account, wherein the indication includes an identifier of a sender account of the sender with the payment service system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein sending the indication comprises addressing the draft email message to a service email address associated with the payment service system.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein sending the indication comprises sending a network request to a server of the payment service system.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

requesting, by the user device from the payment service system, an identifier for the request; and

receiving, from the payment service system by the user device, an identifier for the request, wherein the draft email message includes the identifier for the request.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

sending, by the user device to the payment service system, a request to verify a sender account of the sender associated with a user application installed on the user device;

determining that the sender does not have an account with the payment service system;

in response to determining that the sender does not have an account with the payment service system, prompting, by the user device, the sender to enter payment information; and

sending the payment information to the payment service system, wherein the payment service system initiates the transfer of the requested payment amount using the payment information provided by the sender.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the payment service system initiates the transfer without asking the sender to enter a username or a password.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the draft email message includes the payment amount in a subject or body of the draft email message.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the draft email message includes embedded content that identifies the payment amount.

11. A computer implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a user device associated with a sender and at a payment service system, an indication of a first email message being sent from the user device to an email server, the first email message requesting an amount to be transferred from a recipient account of the payment service system of a recipient of the first email message to a sender account of the payment service system of a sender of the first email message, wherein the indication includes a requested payment amount to be transferred and an identification of a recipient email address of the recipient;

generating, by the payment service system, a confirmation link, wherein the confirmation link is encoded with a sender email address and the recipient email address;

generating a second email message addressed to the recipient email address of the recipient, the second email message having the requested payment amount in a subject or body of the second email message and having the conformation link that, when selected by the recipient at a recipient user device associated with the recipient, authorizes transfer of the requested payment amount from the recipient account to the sender account;

sending the second email message to an email server to be forwarded by the email server to the recipient at the recipient email address;

receiving an indication that the recipient selected the confirmation link; and

in response to receiving the indication that the recipient selected the confirmation link;

recognizing, by the payment service system, an authorization by the recipient for the payment service system to initiate a transfer of the requested payment amount; and

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

12. A computer implemented method, comprising:

receiving, from a user device associated with a sender and at a payment service system, a first indication of a first email message being sent from the user device associated with the sender to an email server, the first email message requesting an amount to be transferred from a recipient account of the payment service system of a recipient of the first email message to a sender account of the payment service system of the sender of the first email message, wherein the first indication includes a requested payment amount to be transferred, a recipient email address of the recipient and a sender email address of the sender;

generating, by the payment service system, a confirmation link to a network resource associated with the payment service system, wherein the confirmation link is encoded with the sender email address and the recipient email address, wherein the confirmation link is generated for activation in a web browser executing at a recipient user device associated with the recipient;

generating, by the payment service system, a second email message addressed to the recipient email address of the recipient, the second email message having content identifying the requested payment amount, the second email message including the confirmation link;

sending, by the payment service system, the second email message to an email server to be forwarded by the email server to the recipient at the recipient email address;

receiving, by the payment service system, a second indication of an activation of the confirmation link in the second email message by the web browser of the recipient user device; and

in response to receiving the second indication of the activation of the confirmation link;

recognizing, by the payment service system, an authorization by the recipient for the payment service system to initiate a transfer of the requested payment amount;

accessing, by the payment service system, association data from a database associated with the payment service system to identify the sender account and the recipient account, wherein the database stores the association data that defines associations between multiple email addresses and multiple user accounts, wherein at least one email address corresponds to a particular user of multiple users of the payment service system, wherein the at least one email address is associated with at least one of the multiple user accounts in a transaction conducted by said particular user with another user, said another user being one of the multiple users or an unregistered user; and

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

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the second email message includes the payment amount in a subject or body of the email message.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the second email message includes embedded content that identifies the payment amount.