Centralized electronic commerce card transactions

• US 9,710,811 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2009
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Davis, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): HALE, TIM B
• Application Number:
  US12/571,213
• Publication Number:
  US 20100023437A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,848 Days
• Field of Search: 705 64- 79
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0855 involving a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3821 Electronic credentials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/383 Anonymous user system
• 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 20/401 Transaction verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A central transaction server in electronic commerce card authorization system enables the electronic commerce card association to manage and monitor the authentication system. The central transaction server acts as an intermediary for all communications between the access control server used for authentication. If any portion of the authentication system fails, the central transaction server compensates by providing appropriate responses to other portions of the system. The centralized transaction server translates all incoming traffic into a format compatible with the intended recipient, enabling portions of the system to be upgraded without breaking compatibility with the non-upgraded portions. The centralized transaction server also enables the integration of formally separate portions of the authentication system into a single unit. The directory and the authentication history servers can be integrated into the central transaction server, and the central transaction server can initiate charges to the electronic commerce card automatically, bypassing the card acquirer.

Claims

1. An electronic commerce card authentication system comprising:

a central transaction server having a processor and a computer-readable non-transitory medium coupled to the processor, the computer readable medium comprising code that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform a method comprising;

receiving a verifying enrollment request from a directory server, wherein the verifying enrollment request comprises electronic commerce card information;

sending a verifying enrollment response to the directory server, the verifying enrollment response indicating an access control server that will process an authentication request;

receiving the authentication request from a cardholder system;

forwarding the authentication request to the access control server;

evaluating a response from the access control server, wherein the response is either an unintelligible response or a non-response from the access control server in response to the forwarded authentication request;

analyzing the response from the access control server to determine if the response is unintelligible or the access control server should have provided the response when no message is received from the access control server;

based on the analysis, generating an attempted authentication response when the access control server does not reply or provides the unintelligible response, wherein;

the central transaction server generates the attempted authentication response independently of the access control server,

the attempted authentication response includes an indication of the determination regarding the no reply or the unintelligible response,

the attempted authentication response includes a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the central transaction server instead of a URL associated with the access control server, and

the attempted authentication response includes a pseudonym associated with the electronic commerce card information; and

forwarding the attempted authentication response to the cardholder system.

2. The electronic commerce card authentication system of claim 1, wherein the attempted authentication response is adapted to be analyzed by a networked system, and wherein the networked system that analyzes the attempted authentication response is a merchant system.

3. The electronic commerce card authentication system of claim 1, wherein the central transaction server is configured to send the verifying enrollment response in response to a query to the access control server.

4. The electronic commerce card authentication system of claim 1, wherein the pseudonym is included in the verifying enrollment response.

5. The electronic commerce card authentication system of claim 4, wherein the pseudonym was previously created by a merchant system.

6. The electronic commerce card authentication system of claim 1, wherein the central transaction server is adapted to initiate a charge request via a card association network in response to generating the attempted authentication response.

7. The electronic commerce card authentication system of claim 3, wherein the central transaction server is configured to:

modify the verifying enrollment response received from the access control server and send the modified verifying enrollment response to the directory server.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein a cardholder initiates an online purchase before verifying enrollment request is received at the central transaction server.

8. A method of authenticating electronic commerce card information provided by a cardholder, the method comprising:

receiving, by a central transaction server computer, a verifying enrollment request from a directory server, wherein the verifying enrollment request comprises electronic commerce card information;

sending, by the central transaction server computer, a verifying enrollment response to the directory server, the verifying enrollment response indicating an access control server that will process an authentication request;

receiving, by the central transaction server computer, the authentication request from a cardholder system;

forwarding, by the central transaction server computer, the authentication request to the access control server;

evaluating a response from the access control server, wherein the response is either an unintelligible response or a non-response from the access control server in response to the forwarded authentication request;

analyzing the response from the access control server to determine if the response is unintelligible or the access control server should have provided the response when no message is received from the access control server;

based on the determination, generating, by the central transaction server computer, an attempted authentication response when the access control server does not reply or provides the unintelligible response, wherein;

the central transaction server computer generates the attempted authentication response independently of the access control server,

the attempted authentication response includes an indication of the determination regarding the no reply or the unintelligible response,

the attempted authentication response includes a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the central transaction server computer instead of a URL associated with the access control server, and

the attempted authentication response includes a pseudonym associated with the electronic commerce card information; and

forwarding, by the central transaction server computer, the attempted authentication response to the cardholder system.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the attempted authentication response is adapted to be analyzed by a networked system, and wherein the networked system that analyzes the attempted authentication response is a merchant system.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the verifying enrollment response is sent in response to a query to the access control server.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein, the pseudonym is included in the verifying enrollment response.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the pseudonym is created by a merchant system.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising initiating a charge request via a card association network in response to generating the attempted authentication response.

22. The method of claim 8 wherein the attempted authentication response is adapted to be analyzed by a networked system, and wherein the networked system is a merchant computer that receives a card number and expiration date from the cardholder.

14. A non-transitory storage medium including a set of instruction adapted to operate an information processing device to perform a set of steps, the set of steps comprising:

receiving a verifying enrollment request from a directory server, wherein the verifying enrollment request comprises electronic commerce card information;

sending a verifying enrollment response to the directory server, the verifying enrollment response indicating an access control server that will process an authentication request;

receiving the authentication request from a cardholder system;

forwarding the authentication request to the access control server;

evaluating a response from the access control server, wherein the response is either an unintelligible response or a non-response from the access control server in response to the forwarded authentication request;

analyzing the response from the access control server to determine if the response is unintelligible or the access control server should have provided the response when no message is received from the access control server;

based on the determination, generating an attempted authentication response when the access control server does not reply or provides the unintelligible response, wherein;

a central transaction server generates the attempted authentication response independently of the access control server,

the attempted authentication response includes an indication of the determination regarding the no reply or the unintelligible response,

the attempted authentication response includes a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the central transaction server instead of a URL associated with the access control server, and

the attempted authentication response includes a pseudonym associated with the electronic commerce card information; and

forwarding the attempted authentication response to the cardholder system.

15. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14, wherein the attempted authentication response is adapted to be analyzed by a networked system, and wherein the networked system that analyzes the attempted authentication response is a merchant system.

16. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14, wherein the verifying enrollment response is sent in response to a query to the access control server.

17. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14, wherein the verifying enrollment response is sent to the directory server without querying the access control server, and the set of steps further comprise querying the access control server in response to receiving the authentication request.

18. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14, wherein the pseudonym is included in the verifying enrollment response.

19. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14, wherein the pseudonym is previously created by a merchant system.

20. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14, wherein the set of steps further comprises initiating a charge request via a card association network in response to generating the attempted authentication response.