Transferring money using email

• US 9,449,321 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2014
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• 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:
  US14/260,241
• Publication Number:
  US 20140279446A1
• Time in Patent Office: 881 Days
• Field of Search: 705/39
• 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 of transferring money based on content of email messages transmitted to a payment service system over a network, the method comprising:

causing a processor executing on a user device associated with a sender to invoke a user application in response to receiving input indicative of a request to initiate the user application being received at the user device;

causing the user device to automatically generate a first email message in response to the sender requesting a transfer of funds via the user application, wherein the first email message includes pre-populated information entered by the sender through the user application;

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

determining, by the payment service system, whether the first email message includes an error that prevents the transfer of the requested amount from being completed;

in response to determining that the first email message includes an error,

generating, by the payment service system, a second email message that includes information that identifies the error and a request to generate a corrected email message by the user device, wherein the corrected email message includes corrected information that rectifies the error;

sending, by the payment service system, the second email message to a sender email address of the sender;

receiving, at the payment service system and from the user device associated with the sender, the corrected email message that includes the corrected information;

sending, by the payment service system, a confirmation email message to the sender that includes a confirmation link generated by the payment service system, wherein the confirmation link is encoded with the sender email address and the recipient email address;

determining, by the payment service system, whether the sender selected the confirmation link in the confirmation email message by monitoring whether an indication of confirmation link selection has been received at the payment service system from the user device; and

in response to determining the sender selected the confirmation link,

initiating, by the payment service system, the transfer of the requested amount according to the corrected information, wherein said initiating includes identifying the sender account of the sender, identifying the recipient account of the recipient, and transferring the requested amount between the sender account of the sender and the recipient account of the recipient.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by the payment service system, a second corrected email message to the recipient email address, the second corrected email message having the corrected information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the first email message includes an error comprises determining that the recipient does not have an account with the payment service system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the first email message includes an error comprises determining that the requested amount is not a valid amount.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining that the first email message includes an error comprises determining that the requested amount is not within a valid range.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein determining that the first email message includes an error comprises determining that the requested amount has a syntax error.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the first email message includes an error comprises determining that the first email message includes inconsistent data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the first email message includes an error comprises determining that a discrepancy exists in the first email message between two separate instances specifying the requested amount.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-populated data includes the requested amount, the recipient email address, or both.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first email message and the corrected email message are addressed to a service email address of the payment service system.