Method and System for Duplicate Check Detection

• US 20100098318A1
• Filed: 10/20/2008
• Published: 04/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: ANDERSON, Milton M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,391,584 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/137
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0185 Product, service or business identity fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/2253 Recognition of characters printed with magnetic ink G06V30/2247 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/04 by paper currency
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/08 by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means without personal verification means G07F7/02
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/125 Offline card verification

Abstract

A system and method for detecting duplicate checks during processing. The duplicate detection may be performed by a financial institution, such as a bank. The method may be implemented on a computer based system. The duplicate detection method may be automated. The method may be applied to incoming check files prior to processing of the check data to prevent processing of duplicate checks. The system and method may use a function, such as a hash function, to perform the duplicate detection. Other functions, such as a Bloom filter which may use multiple hash functions, may be used to perform the duplicate detection.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for detecting duplicate check images, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving check data wherein the check data comprises at least check accounting data associated with the one or more checks;

applying a function to the check data wherein the function computes a value based on the check data;

selecting an element from a set where an index of the element corresponds to the computed value;

determining that a check is not a duplicate if the element is in an initialized state;

determining that the check is a suspected duplicate if the element is in an altered state, and

modifying the element by altering a state of the element.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set is an array.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the element of the set is a single bit.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

reviewing the suspected duplicate to determine if it is a true duplicate.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of:

queuing the true duplicate for fraud analysis.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of reviewing is performed by an operator.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein check data comprises an image in a format wherein the check accounting data can be extracted therefrom.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the check accounting data comprises MICR data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of the suspected duplicate is performed against check data for a predetermined time period.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the function comprises a hash function.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the hash function outputs a hash value and wherein the set comprises a single bit table wherein the altered state is equal to a first value and the initialized state is equal to an initial value.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first value is equal to 1 and the initial value is equal to 0.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of applying and selecting further comprise:

creating a hash value from the data using a hash function; and

computing a single bit address in a hash table of the hash value wherein the index comprises an address of a single bit and wherein the table comprises the hash table.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of determining that the check is not a duplicate further comprises:

reading a state of the addressed single bit from the hash table; and

determining if the state of the single bit read is equal to the initialized state.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of modifying further comprises:

setting the state of the addressed bit in the hash table to the altered state if the address of the single bit is not equal to the altered state.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of applying and selecting further comprises:

creating two or more hash values from the data using at least two hash functions;

selecting two or more elements from the set using two or more values as indices; and

determining that the check is not a duplicate if one or more of the elements are in an initialized state.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of determining that the check is not a duplicate further comprises:

reading the single bit addressed by each hash value from the hash table; and

determining if the bit addressed is equal to the initialized state for each of the at least two hash functions.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of modifying further comprises:

setting the single bit addressed of each hash value equal to the altered state if the bit addressed was not equal to the altered state.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

extracting one or more components from the check accounting data for each individual check; and

creating a string of characters based on the one or more extracted components, wherein the function computes the value based on the string.

20. A system for detecting duplicate check images, comprising:

at least one processor;

a receipt module configured to receive check data wherein the check data comprises at least check accounting data associated with the one or more checks;

a function module configured to determine if the check data is unique by applying a function to the check data wherein the function computes a value based on the check data, wherein the function module selects an element from a set where an index of the element corresponds to the computed value, determines that a check is not a duplicate if the element is in an initialized state, and further determines that the check is a suspected duplicate if the element is in an altered state, and modifies the element for processing of further checks by altering a state of the element;

an output module configured to output, based on results from the function module, a listing of suspected duplicate checks; and

a storage module connected to the system and configured to store data associated with the system.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

an accounting data extraction module configured to extract one or more components from the check accounting data for each individual check.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

a character string creation module configured to create a string based on the one or more components, wherein the function module computes the value based on the string.

23. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

a user interface module configured to allow a user to interact with the system.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the user interface module allows a user to review the listing of suspected duplicate checks.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the image of the one or more checks is in a image format wherein the check accounting data can be extracted therefrom.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein the check accounting data comprises MICR data.

27. The system of claim 20, wherein the user queues one or more of the suspected duplicate checks for fraud analysis.

28. The system of claim 20, wherein function module compares present check data against check data from a predetermined time period and check data from a time period prior to the predetermined time period.

29. The system of claim 20, wherein the function module uses a single bit hash table as the function.

30. The system of claim 20, wherein the function module uses a Bloom filter.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the Bloom filter comprises at least two single bit hash functions.

32. A computer-implemented method for detecting duplicate check images, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving check data wherein the check data comprises at least check accounting data associated with the one or more checks;

extracting one or more components from the check accounting data for each individual check; and

creating a string of characters based on the one or more extracted components,

applying a function to the string wherein the function computes a value based on the string;

selecting an element from a set where an index of the element corresponds to the computed value wherein the set is an array and wherein the element of the set is a single bit;

determining that a check is not a duplicate if the element is in an initialized state;

determining that the check is a suspected duplicate if the element is in an altered state wherein the determination of the suspected duplicate is carried out against check data comprising a predetermined time period;

modifying the element for processing of further checks by altering a state of the element;

reviewing the suspected duplicate to determine if it is a true duplicate wherein the step of reviewing is performed by an operator; and

queuing the true duplicate for fraud analysis.