Method, system and computer readable medium for web site account and e-commerce management from a central location

• US 6,879,965 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2001
• Issued: 04/12/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Slingshot Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: Passgate Corporation
• Inventors: Fung, Daniel Y., Hood, Brandon C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Carone, Michael J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bergin, James S.
• Application Number:
  US09/879,964
• Publication Number:
  US 20020055909A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,398 Days
• Field of Search: 705/39, 705/35, 705/41, 705/44, 705/26, 235/379, 235/380, 700/232
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• 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 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/00 Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus

Abstract

A method, system and computer readable medium for, from a central Web site, performing at least one of registering a user at a destination Web site, logging in a user at a destination Web site and managing an online financial transaction at a destination Web site, including parsing a form Web page of the destination Web site to extract form data fields therefrom; mapping form data fields of a central Web site form to corresponding extracted form data fields of the form Web page of the destination Web site; and using the mapped form data fields to perform at least one of registering a user at the destination Web site, logging in a user at the destination Web site and managing an online financial transaction of a user at the destination Web site. In another aspect, there is provided a method, system and computer readable medium for managing an online or offline financial transaction of a user, from a central Web site, including generating financial transaction account information for a user based on existing credit or debit card information; gathering from the user one or more limits that are applied to a financial transaction performed based on the financial transaction account information; receiving from a source information indicating that an online or offline financial transaction using the financial transaction account information is in progress; applying the one or more limits gathered from the user to approve or disapprove the online or offline or online financial transaction that is in progress; and transmitting an approval or disapproval signal to the source based on a result of the applying step.

Claims

1. A method for managing a user online financial transaction at a destination e-commerce web site, comprising:

logging in the user to a destination e-commerce web site;

transmitting an activation command to a financial institution processing financial transactions for activating a reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number of the user while the user is logged into the destination e-commerce web site;

submitting a charge request including the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number to the financial institution via the destination e-commerce web site while the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number is in the activated status; and

transmitting a de-activation command to the financial institution for de-activating the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number,

wherein the financial institution only accepts and processes charge requests received from e-commerce web sites while the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number is in the activated status and wherein the financial institution declines charge requests while the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number is in the de-activated status.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the online financial transaction is performed from a central web site.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the activation command is automatically transmitted to the financial institution when the user logs from the central web site into a destination e-commerce web site.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the result of the processing of the online financial transaction is transmitted to the user via the central web site.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the activation command is transmitted from the central web site.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the de-activation command is transmitted from the central web site.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

authenticating a user at a central web site; and

transmitting from the central web site said activation signal to a financial transaction processor for processing of charge requests,

wherein the financial transaction processor processes charge requests received form commerce sites while the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number is activated and declines charge requests while the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number is in de-activated.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the commerce sites include online commerce sites and an offline commerce sites, and

the charge requests include online charge requests and an offline charge requests.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the user authentication includes at least one of authentication of the user based on a user name and password of the user and authentication of the user based on biometric information of the user.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the de-activating of the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number is performed at the financial transaction processor alter the processing of charge requests without the de-activation command being received.

11. The method according to claim 2, comprising presenting the user with the destination e-commerce web site the from the central web site.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the user is automatically logged into the destination e-commerce web site.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

parsing a form web page of the destination e-commerce web site to extract form data fields therefrom;

mapping form data fields of a central web site form to corresponding extracted form data fields of the form web page of the destination e-commerce web site; and

using the mapped farm data fields to perform logging in the user at the destination e-commerce web site.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the form web page of the destination e-commerce web site comprises a login form web page for the destination e-commerce web site, and the method further comprises:

gathering user information data elements corresponding to form data fields of the central web site from the user;

populating the form data fields of the login form web page of the destination e-commerce web site with corresponding user information data elements based on the data fields of the central web site form mapped to the extracted form data fields of the login form web page of the destination e-commerce web site; and

transmitting the populated login form web page to the destination e-commerce web site to login the user at the destination web site.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the form web page of the destination e-commerce web site comprises an online financial transaction form web page for the destination e-commerce web site, and the method further comprises:

gathering user information data elements corresponding to form data fields of the central web site from the user;

populating the form data fields of the online financial transaction form web page of the destination e-commerce web site with corresponding user information data elements based on the data fields of the central web site form mapped to the extracted form data fields of the online financial transaction form web page of the destination e-commerce web site; and

transmitting me populated online financial transaction form web page to the destination e-commerce web site to execute an online financial transaction for the user at the destination e-commerce web site.

16. The according to claim 13, wherein the form web page of the destination e-commerce web site comprises a registration form web page for the destination e-commerce web site, and the method further comprises:

gathering user information data elements corresponding to form data fields of the central web site from the user;

populating the form data fields of the registration form web page of the destination e-commerce web site with corresponding user information data elements based on the data fields of the central web site form mapped to the extracted form data fields of the registration form web page of the destination e-commerce web site; and

transmitting the populated registration form web page to the destination e-commerce web site to register the user at the destination e-commerce web site.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the activation command is transmitted from the destination e-commerce web site.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the de-activation command is transmitted from the destination e-commerce web site.

19. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

creating a unique user name and password for the user at the central web site; and

using the unique user name and password to register the user at one or more other destination e-commerce web sites.

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein the de-activation command to the financial institution is transmitted (i) a predetermined amount of time after the user went online to perform the online financial transaction or (ii) after the user went offline.

21. The method according to claim 1, wherein the activation or de-activation commands are transmitted as one of an activation signal, an encrypted e-mail message, a secure facsimile message, a secure wireless communication message, and a secure telephone communication message.

22. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

creating a unique online credit or debit card with a limited available balance based on the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number of the user; and

allowing the user to execute a financial transaction using the unique online credit or debit card in place of the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number during the online financial transaction.

23. A system configured to perform the steps recited in claim 1.

24. A storage medium storing a computer program for performing the steps recited in claim 1.

28. The method according to claim 1, wherein the de-activating of the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number is performed at the financial institution after the processing of charge requests without the de-activation command being received.

25. A system for managing a user online financial transaction at a destination e-commerce web site, comprising:

means for logging in the user to a destination e-commerce web site;

means for transmitting an activation command to a financial institution processing financial transactions for activating a reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number of the user while the user is logged into the destination e-commerce web site;

means for submitting a charge request including the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number to the financial institution via the destination e-commerce web site while the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number is in the activated status; and

means for transmitting a de-activation command to the financial institution for de-activating the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number,

wherein the financial institution only accepts and processes charge requests received from e-commerce web sites while the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number is in the activated status and wherein the financial institution declines charge requests while the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account number is in the de-activated status.

26. The system according to claim 25, wherein said means for logging, said means for transmitting said activation command, said means for submitting, and said means for transmitting said de-activation command comprise devices of a computer system.

27. The system according to claim 25, wherein said means for logging, said means for transmitting said activation command, said means for submitting, and said means for transmitting said de-activation command comprise computer readable instructions recorded on a computer readable medium.