Method and system for monitoring electronic purchases and cash-withdrawals

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/346,240 filed on Feb. 3, 2006 and published Oct. 26, 2006 as document 20060237531 which, in turn, claims the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application App. No. 60/674,709, filed Apr. 26, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

This invention relates to a method and system for monitoring electronic purchases.

As credit card and debit card purchases have expanded both in number and in the methods by which they can be accomplished, particularly electronic purchases, the opportunity for fraudulent, invalid or unauthorized purchases has increased. The expansion of such purchase opportunities has resulted in an increase in monetary losses to sellers, merchants, financial institutions and authorized holders of the authorized credit card and debit cards. In response, methods and systems have been developed to reduce the number of fraudulent purchases through verification processes and systems.

An example of a method of increasing the security of payments made by credit and cash cards is set forth in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20040073519.

Another example of a method of increasing the security of payments made by credit and cash cards is set forth in U.S. Patent Publication No. 20040254868.

A cellular telephone location system for automatically recording the location of one or more mobile cellular telephones is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,144. The system comprises a central site system operatively coupled to at least three cell sites. Each of the cell sites receives cellular telephone signals and integrates a timing signal common to all the cell sites. The central site calculates differences in times of arrival of the cellular telephone signals arriving among the cell sites and thereby calculates the position of the cellular telephone producing the cellular telephone signals. Additional examples of known methods for locating phones are cell sector and cell site. The full disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,144 is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently mandated wireless Enhanced 911 (E911) rules to improve the effectiveness and reliability of wireless 911 service by providing 911 dispatchers with additional information on wireless 911 calls. According to the FCC website, the wireless E911 program is divided into two part—Phase I and Phase II. Phase I requires carriers, upon appropriate request by a local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), to report the telephone number of a wireless 911 caller and the location of the antenna that received the call. Phase II requires wireless carriers to provide far more precise location information, within 50 to 300 meters in most cases. The deployment of E911 requires the development of new technologies and upgrades to local 911 PSAPs, as well as coordination among public safety agencies, wireless carriers, technology vendors, equipment manufacturers, and local wireline carriers. The FCC established a four-year rollout schedule for Phase II, beginning Oct. 1, 2001 and to be completed by Dec. 31, 2005.

A method for facilitating the detection of misuse of an identity during an electronic transaction. The present invention comprises at least five embodiments. In a first embodiment, the method comprises the steps of: receiving a notification to authenticate the use of an identity at a first location, wherein the identity is associated with a first wireless terminal; determining an approximate location of the first wireless terminal based on cached position information, the approximate location of the first wireless terminal being a second location; determining whether the first and second locations match in geographical proximity; and generating an alert if the first and second locations do not match in geographical proximity. In a second embodiment, an approximate location of the first wireless terminal is determined based on cached position information stored on a GPS position database. For some embodiments, an approximate location of the internet user\'s geographical is determined using wireless technology.