System and method for verification, authentication, and notification of a transaction

• US 7,904,360 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2003
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: St. Isidore Research, LLC
• Original Assignee: Alexander W. Evans
• Inventors: EVANS, Alexander William
• Primary Examiner(s): Campen, Kelly
• Application Number:
  US10/354,609
• Publication Number:
  US 20040078340A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,959 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/44, 705/39, 705/78, 705/64, 705/16, 705/40, 705/80, 705/75, 705/35, 705/38, 235/380, 380/30, 348/E5.006
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3255 using mobile network messaging services for payment, e.g. SMS
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/386 using messaging services or messaging apps using mobile network messaging services for payment, e.g. SMS G06Q20/3255
• 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 20/4014 Identity check for transactions
• 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: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

A system and method for verifying, authenticating, and providing notification of a transaction, such as a commercial or financial transaction, with and/or to at least one party identified as engaging in the transaction and/or identified as having a potential interest in the transaction. A central system accepts information regarding a transaction, including information about at least one party identified as engaging in the transaction, such as by a credit account number or Social Security number or merchant account number, and/or identified as having a potential interest in the transaction. Based on the information regarding the transaction and any supplemental information the central system determines, the central system communicates with and/or to at least one party and/or additional or alternative parties, via at least one communications device or system having a communications address, such as a telephone number or Short Message Service address, predetermined as belonging to the at least one party and/or additional or alternative parties. Via said communications, at least one party identified as engaging in, or having an interest or a potential interest in, the transaction may be notified of it, and may further be enabled or required to supply additional verifying or authenticating information to the central system.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system for providing a transaction, the system comprising:

a transaction processing module configured to process a transaction and to communicate via a first communications link and one or more second communications links, wherein the transaction processing module;

receives, via the first communications link, incoming information associated with a transaction;

identifies at least one party associated with the transaction, wherein the at least one party is authorized to verify the transaction and is a non-merchant with regards to the transaction;

transmits, via the one or more second communications links, a verification request to the at least one party to verify the transaction, wherein the one or more second communications links are different from the first communications link;

recognizes an occurrence of an event;

determines authenticity of the transaction based on the recognition of the occurrence of the event; and

continues processing the transaction initiated over the first communications link.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction is at least one of a commercial or a financial transaction.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one party is identified based on information from at least one of the incoming information and an external source.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the external source is at least one of a data storage unit.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one party is identified by a unique party identifier.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the unique party identifier is at least one of a name, at least one DTMF tone, a vocalization, an image, a username, a user ID, a PIN number, a tax ID, a telephone number, an account number, a credit card number, a CVC2 code, a CVV2 code, a CID code, a passcode, a user-defined party identifier, and all or part of a Social Security Number.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the unique party identifier is organized and stored in a user profile.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the user profile is modifiable.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising a rules module having one or more rules for governing behavior of the transaction based on data in the user profile.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more rules are modifiable.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the occurrence of the event comprises an absence of a response, via the one or more second communications links, within a predetermined time period.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the occurrence of the event comprises receiving, via the one or more second communications links, one or more communications responsive to the verification request from the at least one party within a predetermined time period.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the transaction processing module verifies the transaction by receiving at least a verifying response from the at least one party within the predetermined time period.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the transaction processing module verifies the transaction by receiving additional information from the at least one party within the predetermined time period.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the additional information comprises at least a unique verification identifier.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the unique verification identifier comprises at least one of a name, one or more DTMF tones, a vocalization, an image, a username, a user ID, a PIN number, tax ID, telephone number, an account number, a credit card number, a CVC2 code, a CVV2 code, a CID code, a password, a passcode, a user-defined party identifier, and a Social Security Number.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the transaction processing module authenticates the at least one party associated with the transaction by matching the unique verification identifier with data stored in one or more databases connected to the transaction processing module.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more communications are automatically self-adjusting and self-optimizing based on transaction processing.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more communications are formatted based on at least one of type of communications, content of communications, and communication devices.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more communications are formatted to at least one of a universal resource locator (URL) format, a universal resource identifier (URI) format, and a universal description, discover, and integration (UDDI) format.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein content of the one or more communications is formatted into at least one of an XML document and XLS stylesheet.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more communications are formatted based on at least one regional setting.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the regional setting comprises at least one of language, currency, time zone, numeric format, currency format, and date format.

24. The system of claim 12, wherein the transaction processing module determines the authenticity of the transaction with the at least one party via at least one additional communications link.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the one or more communications over the one or more second communications links and one or more communications over the additional communications link are simultaneously communicated.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the first communications link and the one or more second communications links communicate via at least one of public switched telephone network (PSTN), wireless telephony, text messaging, short message service (SMS), Internet, telex, paging service, email, an EDI/EDIFACT/EDI-INT network, an IBM System Network Architecture/Remote Job Entry (SNA/RJE), SMTP, HTML, XHTML, and XML.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more second communications link utilizes middleware having a message queuing capability.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein determining authenticity of the transaction further comprises selecting one or more second communications links based on at least one of default order, preference, type of communications device, and signal strength.

29. The system of claim 1, further comprising a transmitter connected to the transaction processing module, the transmitter configured to notify the at least one party associated with the transaction after the transaction has been processed.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein notification is sent via at least one of the first communications link and the one or more second communications links.

31. The system of claim 1, further comprising a normalization module for normalizing the incoming information into a standardized format to create normalized information, wherein the transaction is processed based on the normalized information.

32. A computer-implemented method for providing a transaction, the method comprising:

receiving, via a first communications link, incoming information associated with a transaction;

identifying, by a computer, at least one party associated with the transaction, wherein the at least one party is authorized to verify the transaction and is a non-merchant with regards to the transaction;

transmitting, via a second communications link, a verification request to the at least one party to verify the transaction, wherein the second communications link is different from the first communications link;

recognizing, by a computer, an occurrence of an event;

determining, by a computer, authenticity of the transaction based on the recognition of the occurrence of the event; and

processing the transaction initiated over the first communications link.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the transaction is at least one of a commercial or a financial transaction.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one party is identified based on information from at least one of the incoming information and an external source.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the external source is at least one of a data storage unit.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein the at least one party is identified by a unique party identifier.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the unique party identifier is at least one of a name, at least one DTMF tone, a vocalization, an image, a username, a user ID, a PIN number, a tax ID, a telephone number, an account number, a credit card number, a CVC2 code, a CVV2 code, a CID code, a passcode, a user-defined party identifier, and all or part of a Social Security Number.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the unique party identifier is organized and stored in a user profile.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the user profile is modifiable.

40. The method of claim 38, further comprising a rules module having one or more rules for governing behavior of the transaction based on data in the user profile.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the one or more rules are modifiable.

42. The method of claim 32, wherein the occurrence of the event comprises an absence of a response, via the one or more second communications links, within a predetermined time period.

43. The method of claim 32, wherein the occurrence of the event comprises receiving, via the one or more second communications links, one or more communications responsive to the verification request from the at least one party within a predetermined time period.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the transaction processing module verifies the transaction by receiving at least a verifying response from the at least one party within the predetermined time period.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the transaction processing module verifies the transaction by receiving additional information from the at least one party within the predetermined time period.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the additional information comprises at least a unique verification identifier.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the unique verification identifier comprises at least one of a name, one or more DTMF tones, a vocalization, an image, a username, a user ID, a PIN number, tax ID, telephone number, an account number, a credit card number, a CVC2 code, a CVV2 code, a CID code, a password, a passcode, a user-defined party identifier, and a Social Security Number.

48. The method of claim 46, wherein the transaction processing module authenticates the at least one party associated with the transaction by matching the unique verification identifier with data stored in one or more databases connected to the transaction processing module.

49. The method of claim 43, wherein the one or more communications are automatically self-adjusting and self-optimizing based on transaction processing.

50. The method of claim 43, wherein the one or more communications are formatted based on at least one of type of communications, content of communications, and communication devices.

51. The method of claim 43, wherein the one or more communications are formatted to at least one of a universal resource locator (URL) format, a universal resource identifier (URI) format, and a universal description, discover, and integration (UDDI) format.

52. The method of claim 43, wherein content of the one or more communications is formatted into at least one of an XML document and XLS stylesheet.

53. The method of claim 43, wherein the one or more communications are formatted based on at least one regional setting.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the regional setting comprises at least one of language, currency, time zone, numeric format, currency format, and date format.

55. The method of claim 43, wherein the transaction processing module determines the authenticity of the transaction with the at least one party via at least one additional communications link.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the one or more communications over the one or more second communications links and one or more communications over the additional communications link are simultaneously communicated.

57. The method of claim 32, wherein the first communications link and the one or more second communications links communicate via at least one of public switched telephone network (PSTN), wireless telephony, text messaging, short message service (SMS), Internet, telex, paging service, email, an EDI/EDIFACT/EDI-INT network, an IBM System Network Architecture/Remote Job Entry (SNA/RJE), SMTP, HTML, XHTML, and XML.

58. The method of claim 32, wherein the one or more second communications link utilizes middleware having a message queuing capability.

59. The method of claim 32, wherein determining authenticity of the transaction further comprises selecting one or more second communications links based on at least one of default order, preference, type of communications device, and signal strength.

60. The method of claim 32, further comprising a transmitter connected to the transaction processing module, the transmitter configured to notify the at least one party associated with the transaction after the transaction has been processed.

61. The method of claim 60, wherein notification is sent via at least one of the first communications link and the one or more second communications links.

62. The method of claim 32, further comprising a normalization module for normalizing the incoming information into a standardized format to create normalized information, wherein the transaction is processed based on the normalized information.

63. A computer readable medium comprising code to perform the acts of a computer-implemented method for providing a transaction, the method comprising:

receiving, via a first communications link, incoming information associated with a transaction;

identifying, by a computer, at least one party associated with the transaction, wherein the at least one party is authorized to verify the transaction and is a non-merchant with regards to the transaction;

transmitting, via a second communications link, a verification request to the at least one party to verify the transaction, wherein the second communications link is different from the first communications link;

recognizing, by a computer, an occurrence of an event;

determining, by a computer, authenticity of the transaction based on the recognition of the occurrence of the event; and

processing the transaction initiated over the first communications link.