Payment transfer by sending E-mail

• US 9,378,491 B1
• Filed: 04/04/2014
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Square Inc (Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.))
• Inventors: Paulin, Alan, Grassadonia, Brian, Bekmann, Jochen
• Primary Examiner(s): Ziegle, Stephanie M
• Application Number:
  US14/246,017
• Time in Patent Office: 816 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 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/16 Payments settled via telecommunication systems
• 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 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

Described is a technology for seamless initiation of a transfer of payment from a sender to a recipient by sending email, without requiring any account creation and/or login procedure. The technology can involve sending payment from one mobile device to another. In one aspect, the technology includes receiving a payment amount from a sender via the sender'"'"'s mobile device, causing an email with pre-populated information to be generated using a native email application on the mobile device, and initiating the process to transfer the payment amount upon sending of the email. The technology enables a simplified payment transaction system for ordinary consumers without the hassle of having to sign up, to remember a user account and a password, and to login for sending or receiving every payment transaction, while not sacrificing the essential security feature of authenticating the user for every payment transaction.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, executed by a payment processing system for processing payments, comprising:

receiving, through a payment application running on a mobile device of a sender, a request to transfer money from the sender to a recipient, the request including a payment amount, the payment amount being entered by the sender into the payment application to indicate an amount of money to be transmitted to the recipient, wherein the payment application is associated with the payment processing system and is configured to communicate with an email application running on the mobile device of the sender to generate and send emails to the payment processing system for processing the payments;

upon receiving the request,

launching, by the payment application, the email application running on the mobile device of the sender; and

upon launching the email application, communicating by the payment application with the email application, wherein said communicating results in the email application generating an email for presentation to the sender at the mobile device and prepopulating the email with the payment amount, previously entered into the payment application by the sender, and a payment processing email address associated with the payment processing system, the payment amount being pre-populated in a subject line of the email, wherein the email includes a field to receive, from the sender, a recipient email address associated with the recipient;

receiving, at the mobile device, the recipient email address associated with the recipient and an indication to send the email from the sender;

receiving, by the payment processing system, the email originating from the mobile device of the sender and sent to the payment processing system based on recipient information included in the email, the recipient information including the recipient email address and the payment processing email address, wherein the email, based on the recipient information, is further received at a mobile device of the recipient; and

causing, by the payment processing system, the payment amount to be transferred to the recipient associated with the recipient email address based on the email received, said causing the payment amount to be transferred including;

analyzing the email to identify a sender email address and the recipient email address;

retrieving, from a database coupled to the payment processing system, stored data associated with the sender email address and with the recipient email address;

determining, based on the stored data, a sender financial account associated with the sender email address and a recipient financial account associated with the recipient email address; and

transferring the payment amount from the sender financial account to the recipient financial account based on said determining.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request to transfer money is submitted by the sender via an interface associated with the payment application, the interface enabling the sender to specify the payment amount for the request to transfer money, and wherein the payment amount is utilized to pre-populate the email with the payment amount and the payment processing email address associated with the payment processing system.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining, based on the stored data, the sender financial account and the recipient financial account comprises:

determining, by the payment processing system, whether the sender has a service account associated with the payment processing system based on the sender email address associated with the sender included in the email;

in response to a determination that the sender does not have the service account, transmitting, by the payment processing system, a linking invitation requesting the sender to submit financial account information associated with a first financial account of the sender;

in response to receiving the financial account information from the sender;

generating, by the payment processing system, the service account for the sender; and

associating, by the payment processing system, the service account with the first financial account of the sender, wherein the first financial account of the sender is utilized to transfer the payment amount to the recipient.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to a determination that any of the sender and the recipient has not linked a particular financial account, generating and transmitting, by the payment processing system, a linking invitation requesting the sender and the recipient, respectively, to each submit financial account information for linking the particular financial account with the request to transfer money.

5. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a mobile device of a sender, a request to transfer money from the sender to a recipient, the request including a payment amount entered by the sender at the mobile device;

upon receiving the request, launching an email application running on the mobile device of the sender;

communicating with the email application, said communicating resulting in the email application generating an email for presentation to the sender and prepopulating, the email with the payment amount and a payment processing email address associated with a payment processing system, the payment amount being pre-populated in a subject line of the email, wherein the email includes a field to receive, from the sender, a recipient email address associated with the recipient;

receiving, at the mobile device, the recipient email address associated with the recipient and an indication to send the email from the sender;

transmitting the email to the payment processing system, wherein the payment processing system, in response to receiving the email message, performs the steps of identifying a sender email address and the recipient email address from the email message received, retrieving, from a database coupled to the payment processing system, stored data associated with the sender email address and with the recipient email address, determining, based on the stored data, a sender financial account associated with the sender email address and a recipient financial account associated with the recipient email address, and transferring, from the sender financial account to the recipient financial account based on said determining, the payment amount indicated in the subject line of the transmitted email.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving, at the mobile device of the sender, one of multiple linking invitations requesting the sender to associate a payment vehicle with the request to transfer money from the sender to the recipient, the multiple linking invitations generated by the payment processing system, in response to the transmission of the email, to request the sender and the recipient to each associate the payment vehicle with the request to transfer money.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein said one linking invitation of the multiple linking invitations is presented to the sender via an interface of the mobile device of the sender.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the payment vehicle includes a debit card, a credit card, or a bank account.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

generating, in response to an indication to accept said one linking invitation of the multiple linking invitations, a graphical user interface allowing the sender to enter financial account information for the payment vehicle.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the request to transfer money is submitted by the sender via an interface of the mobile device of the sender, the interface enabling the sender to specify the payment amount for the request to transfer money, and wherein the payment amount is utilized to pre-populate the email with the payment amount and the payment processing email address associated with the payment processing system.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

identifying a particular email application running on the mobile device of the sender, wherein the identified particular email application is the email application that generates and presents the email.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the payment amount is caused to be transferred without requiring the sender to submit login credentials for accessing a service account associated with the payment processing system to submit the request to transfer money.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the email to the payment processing system is generated without requiring the sender to create a service account with the payment processing system or to submit login credentials for accessing the service account.

14. A payment processing system, comprising:

a processor;

a communications module; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing a set of instructions comprising;

instructions for communicating, with a payment application running on a mobile device of a sender, to receive at the payment application a request to transfer money from the sender, the request to transfer money including a payment amount entered by the sender into the payment application to indicate an amount of money to be transmitted to the recipient, wherein the payment application is associated with the payment processing system and is configured for communicating with an email application running on the mobile device of the sender, wherein said communicating results in the email application generating a payment email and sending the payment email to the payment processing system for processing a payment transfer to the recipient;

instructions for receiving, via the communications module, the payment email originating from the mobile device requesting an initiation of a money transfer using the payment processing system, wherein the payment processing system does not require either the sender or the recipient of the money transfer to be registered with the payment processing system for initiating the money transfer, wherein the payment email includes a recipient email address, a payment processing email address associated with the payment processing system, and, in a subject line of the payment email, a payment amount submitted to the payment application by the sender for the money transfer, and wherein the payment email is further received by the recipient;

instructions for analyzing the payment email to identify a sender email address and the recipient email address;

instructions for retrieving, from a database coupled to the payment processing system, stored data associated with the sender email address and with the recipient email address;

instructions for determining, based on the stored data, a sender financial account associated with the sender email address and a recipient financial account associated with the recipient email address; and

instructions for processing the money transfer upon determining the sender financial account associated with the sender and the recipient financial account associated with the recipient, wherein the instructions for processing the money transfer includes instructions for transferring the payment amount from the sender financial account to the recipient financial account.

15. The payment processing system of claim 14, wherein the payment amount is submitted by the sender through an interface of the payment application running on the mobile device of the sender.

16. The payment processing system of claim 15, wherein the payment email is generated without requiring the sender to submit login credentials to login a service account associated with the payment processing system.

17. The payment processing system of claim 15, wherein the payment processing email address is generated in response to the payment amount submitted by the sender through the interface of the payment application.

18. The payment processing system of claim 14, wherein the set of instructions further comprises:

instructions for determining whether the sender has a service account associated with the payment processing system based on the sender email address;

instructions for, in response to a determination that the sender does not have the service account, generating and transmitting, to the sender email address, a linking invitation requesting the sender to submit financial account information associated with a first financial account of the sender;

instructions for, in response to receiving the financial account information from the sender;

generating the service account for the sender; and

associating the service account with the first financial account of the sender, wherein the first financial account of the sender is utilized in the money transfer.

19. The payment processing system of claim 14, wherein the set of instructions further comprises:

instructions for determining whether the recipient has a service account associated with the payment processing system based on the recipient email address;

instructions for, in response to a determination that the recipient does not have the service account, generating and transmitting, to the recipient email address, a linking invitation requesting the recipient to submit financial account information associated with a second financial account of the recipient;

instructions for, in response to receiving the financial account information from the recipient;

generating the service account for the recipient; and

associating the service account with the second financial account of the recipient, wherein the second financial account of the recipient is utilized in the money transfer.

20. The payment processing system of claim 14, wherein the set of instructions further comprises instructions for authenticating the payment email by determining if the sender email address has been spoofed.

21. The payment processing system of claim 14, wherein the set of instructions further comprises instructions for monitoring a total amount of money transfers requested by the sender during a time period, and instructions for, upon determining that the total amount exceeds a threshold, generating an identity verification request.

22. The payment processing system of claim 21, wherein the identity verification request is a request for social media login credentials or a request for a full name, a date of birth, and last four digits of a social security number of the sender.