Systems and methods for check representment prevention

• US 10,380,559 B1
• Filed: 12/09/2015
• Issued: 08/13/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United Services Automobile Association
• Original Assignee: United Services Automobile Association
• Inventors: Oakes, III, Charles Lee, Morlen, Randy Ray, Gavia, Gabriel Glenn, Nuggehalli, R. Bharat Prasad, Major, Frank Kyle, Pollack, Jeffrey Neal, Walls, Carol Ann, Taylor, Larry Dwayne
• Primary Examiner(s): Austin, Jamie H
• Application Number:
  US14/964,279
• Time in Patent Office: 1,343 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35, 705 45, 705 42, 705 39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0425 the cheque being electronic only
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4016 involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4033 Local solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/63 Scene text, e.g. street names
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/2253 Recognition of characters printed with magnetic ink G06V30/2247 takes precedence

Abstract

Techniques are provided for addressing possible fraud and mistake scenarios in a system for electronically receiving check images from customers and for automatically initiating a deposit of funds into a customer account. An electronic analysis of a check may be conducted to retrieve a check identifier that may be compared against a limited number of previously deposited checks, allowing for faster real-time comparisons. The deposit may be soft-post of regardless whether it is flagged as a potential duplicate, because subsequent more thorough analysis may uncover false positives. Also, transaction and account information can be analyzed to determine if there is a possibility of a check kiting operation.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving from a customer computer, at a processor, a request to make a deposit;

sending a software component to the customer computer;

receiving, through the software component, an image of a payor check and a log file including check identification data, wherein the image of the payor check is in a first data format;

performing optical character recognition (OCR) on the image of the payor check;

obtaining financial institution information from the OCR on the image of the payor check;

comparing the financial institution information against a list of valid financial institutions;

validating the image of the payor check for continued processing based on the comparison of the financial institution information against the list of valid financial institutions;

generating the image of the payor check into a secondary image in a second data format, wherein the second data format is a lower image quality data format compared to the first data format;

storing the image of the payor check and the secondary image of the payor check in the log file;

building a subset from a larger group of available deposit transactions, the subset including one or more previous deposit transactions that occurred in a predetermined time interval adjacently preceding the request to make a deposit;

automatically electronically comparing, using the processor, the check identification data included in the log file against check identification data included in the subset;

automatically electronically flagging a deposit transaction associated with said payor check as involving a potential duplicate check when said check identification data included in the log file matches said check identification data included in the subset;

automatically electronically soft posting a deposit of funds associated with an amount of said payor check into a customer account regardless of whether the deposit transaction associated with said payor check is flagged as involving a potential duplicate check;

automatically electronically confirming the check identification data included in the log file matches the check identification data included in the subset;

receiving an indication that said payor check is a duplicate check based on confirming the check identification data included in the log file matches the check identification data included in the subset, and subsequently reversing said soft posting the deposit of funds associated with said amount of said payor check into said customer account; and

accessing the secondary image stored in the log file during a check detection process.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically electronically compiling a list of flagged deposit transactions.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising automatically electronically placing a reference to an image of said payor check in said list.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising automatically electronically placing a reference to an image of a check associated with said previous deposit transactions in said list.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an indication that said payor check is not a duplicate check, and subsequently allowing a customer to access said funds associated with an amount of said payor check.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more previous deposit transactions comprise only deposit transactions associated with said customer account.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more previous deposit transactions comprise deposit transactions associated with said customer account and any account associated with said customer account.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically electronically comparing said check identification data included in the log file with check identification data associated with previous deposit transactions corresponding to a second time interval, and wherein said second time interval is longer than said predetermined time interval.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically electronically comparing said check identification data included in the log file with previous deposit transactions corresponding to all previous deposit transactions associated with the customer account.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said check identification data associated with said payor check comprises Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data obtained by applying an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process to an image of said payor check.

11. A system comprising:

a memory; and

,

a processor in communication with the memory, the processor configured to;

receive from a customer computer a request to make a deposit;

send a software component to the customer computer;

receive, through the software component, an image of a payor check and a log file including check identification data, wherein the image of the payor check is in a first data format;

perform optical character recognition (OCR) on the image of the payor check;

obtain financial institution information from the OCR on the image of the payor check;

compare the financial institution information against a list of valid financial institutions;

validate the image of the payor check for continued processing based on the comparison of the financial institution information against the list of valid financial institutions;

generate the image of the payor check into a secondary image in a second data format, wherein the second data format is a lower image quality data format compared to the first data format;

store the image of the payor check and the secondary image of the payor check in the log file;

build a subset from a larger group of available deposit transactions, the subset including one or more previous deposit transactions that occurred in a predetermined time interval adjacently preceding the request to make a deposit;

automatically electronically compare the check identification data included in the log file against check identification data included in the subset;

automatically electronically flag a deposit transaction associated with said payor check as involving a potential duplicate check if said check identification data included in the log file matches said check identification data included in the subset;

automatically electronically soft post a deposit of funds associated with an amount of said payor check into a customer account regardless of whether the deposit transaction associated with said payor check is flagged as involving a potential duplicate check;

automatically electronically confirming the check identification data included in the log file against the check identification data included in the subset;

receive an indication that said payor check is a duplicate check based on confirming the check identification data included in the log file matches the check identification data included in the subset, and subsequently reverse said soft posting the deposit of funds associated with said amount of said payor check into said customer account; and

access the secondary image stored in the log file during a check detection process.

12. The system of claim 11, where the processor is further configured to automatically electronically compile a list of flagged deposit transactions.

13. The system of claim 12, where the processor is further configured to automatically electronically place a reference to an image of said payor check in said list.

14. The system of claim 13, where the processor is further configured to automatically electronically place a reference to an image of a check associated with said previous deposit transactions in said list.

15. The system of claim 11, where the processor is further configured to receive an indication that said payor check is a duplicate check, and subsequently reverses said soft posting a deposit of funds associated with an amount of said payor check into said customer account.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein said previous deposit transactions comprise only deposit transactions associated with said customer account.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein said previous deposit transactions comprise deposit transactions associated with said customer account and any account associated with said customer account.

18. The system of claim 11, further comprising a subsystem that automatically electronically compares said check identification data included in the log file with check identification data associated with previous deposit transactions corresponding to a second time interval, and wherein said second time interval is longer than said predetermined time interval.

19. The system of claim 11, further comprising a subsystem that automatically electronically compares said check identification data included in the log file with check identification data associated with previous deposit transactions corresponding to all previous deposit transactions associated with the customer account.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein said check identification data associated with said payor check comprises Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data obtained by applying an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process to an image of said payor check.