Electronic payment restriction

• US 9,547,862 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2012
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Acushnet Company (FILA Holdings Corp.), PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Akin, Jeremiah Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): CAMPEN, KELLY SCAGGS
• Application Number:
  US13/564,044
• Publication Number:
  US 20140040129A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,630 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1.1, 705/319, 705/26.1, 705/35, 705/36.R, 705/44, 705/7.15, 705/39, 705/41, 726/26, 235/379, 235/380
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/32 using wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/384 using social networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4037 Remote solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for facilitating control of a child'"'"'s purchasing of products from a merchant using a credit card, debit card, gift card, secure token, mobile device, or the like. A payment provider, such as Paypal, Inc., can authorized the purchase of a product from the merchant if both the child and the parent are checked in with the same merchant via one or more social networks (thereby indicating that the child and the parent are in or near the same store). This requirement for proximity between the child and the parent can provide the parent with an opportunity to more closely monitor purchases made by the child.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a non-transitory memory storing account information of a parent in a parent account, the account information including information regarding a child of the parent; and

one or more hardware processors configured to execute instructions to cause the system to perform operations comprising;

receiving an indication of a desire of the child to purchase a product from a merchant;

accessing the parent account;

determining from the parent account whether or not the child is authorized to purchase the product;

accessing a child'"'"'s social network to determine whether the child has checked in with the merchant;

obtaining check-in information of the child, the check-in information of the child comprising a first location reported by a global positioning system (GPS) of a mobile device of the child and a first check-in time at the first location;

accessing a parent'"'"'s social network to determine whether the parent has checked in with the merchant;

obtaining check-in information of the parent, the check-in information of the parent comprising a second location reported by a GPS of a mobile device of the parent and a second check-in time at the second location;

receiving, from the mobile device of the parent, boundaries of a geographical area defined by the parent; and

providing authorization for the child to purchase the product in response to;

a determination that the child is authorized to purchase the product, the first location being within a predetermined distance from the second location, the first check-in time being within a predetermined time from the second check-in time, and the first location being within the boundaries of the geographical area defined by the parent.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the child'"'"'s social network and the parent'"'"'s social network are different social networks.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the providing the authorization comprises authorizing the child to purchase the product only when the first location and the second location are the same.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the child checks in with the merchant on the child'"'"'s social network and the parent checks in with the merchant on the parent'"'"'s social network via a near field communications (NFC) enabled mobile device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the geographical area is drawn by the parent on a map displayed on the mobile device of the parent.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the geographical area is drawn via a touchscreen interface on which the map is displayed.

7. A method comprising:

detecting a first check-in of a child at a first merchant;

determining, at least in part via a global positioning system (GPS) on a mobile device of the child, a first location of the child at the first check-in and a first check-in time;

detecting a second check-in of a parent at a second merchant;

determining, at least in part via a GPS on a mobile device of the parent, a second location of the parent at the second check-in and a second check-in time;

receiving, from the mobile device of the parent, boundaries of a geographical area defined by the parent;

receiving, by one or more processors of a payment provider, a payment request from the child for a product offered by the first merchant;

verifying, by the one or more processors, that the child is authorized to purchase the product; and

processing, by the one or more processors, the purchase request based, in part, on whether the first location is within the boundaries of the geographical area defined by the parent, whether the first location is within a predetermined distance from the second location, and whether the first check-in time is within a predetermined time from the second check-in time.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining that the child and the parent are at the same location when the child and the parent are checked in with two different merchants that are proximate to each other.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein verifying that the child is authorized to purchase the product comprises determining whether the purchase will cause an account balance limit or a credit limit to be exceeded.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein verifying that the child is authorized to purchase the product comprises evaluating an age of the child, when the purchase is made, an amount associated with purchases made by the child, or a combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving updates regarding authorized purchases from the parent.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising transmitting a notification to the parent of the purchase request.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the detecting of the first check-in comprises accessing a first social network of the child to obtain information pertaining to the first check-in; and

the detecting of the second check-in comprises accessing a second social network of the parent to obtain information pertaining to the second check-in.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the geographical area is drawn by the parent on a map displayed on the mobile device of the parent.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the geographical area is drawn via a touchscreen interface on which the map is displayed.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

accessing a child'"'"'s location-aware social network to determine whether the child has performed an electronic check-in;

obtaining check-in information of the child, the check-in information of the child comprising a first location reported by a global positioning system (GPS) of a mobile device of the child and a first check-in time at the first location;

accessing a parent'"'"'s location-aware social network to determine whether the parent has performed an electronic check-in;

obtaining check-in information of the parent, the check-in information of the parent comprising a second location reported by a GPS of a mobile device of the parent and a second check-in time at the second location;

comparing the first location to the second location;

determining whether the child and the parent are proximate to each other based on the comparison;

determining whether the first check-in time is within a predetermined time of the second check-in time;

receiving an area defined by the parent via a map displayed on the mobile device of the parent;

receiving a payment request from a child for a product via the mobile device of the child;

verifying that the child is authorized to purchase the product; and

processing the payment request based, in part, on whether the child and the parent are proximate to each other and on whether the first check-in time is within the predetermined time of the second check-in time, and wherein the processing is performed only in response to the first location being within the area defined by the parent.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the child'"'"'s location-aware social network and the parent'"'"'s location-aware social network are different social networks.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the child and the parent are determined to be proximate to each other when the first location is the same as the second location.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the respective check-in formation of the child and of the parent are each provided at least in part via a near field communications (NFC) enabled mobile device at a merchant where the product is offered.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein determining whether the child and the parent are proximate to each other comprises determining whether the first location and the second location are within a predetermined distance from each other.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the area is defined by the parent drawing the area via a touchscreen user interface on which the map is displayed.