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Secure networked transaction systemRelated Patent Categories: Data Processing: Financial, Business Practice, Management, Or Cost/price Determination, Automated Electrical Financial Or Business Practice Or Management Arrangement, Finance (e.g., Banking, Investment Or Credit), Including Funds Transfer Or Credit TransactionSecure networked transaction system description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060143119, Secure networked transaction system. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to systems that allow debit cards, credit cards, Direct Check/ACH and other financial transaction instruments to be used in networked purchasing environments between a merchant, customer, and a third party processor. The third party processor acts as an intermediary or clearinghouse for transactions. [0002] Debit cards such as those typically provided by financial institutions such as banks or credit unions require the card to be encoded or the system to be encoded to recognize the card/Personal Identification Number (PIN) combination. When used at an ATM or point of sale terminal, the system contacts the financial institution or a representative thereof with the user's account number and PIN number. The account is checked to determine whether sufficient funds exist for the purchase or cash request. The system records the parameters of the transaction to make the updates to the accounts such that the funds are transferred between parties of the transaction. [0003] Prior art systems utilize various data encryption methods to secure the transmission of the customer's debit card/account number, customer's PIN number, the merchant's ID or code, to the various banking and transaction clearing systems that are checked at the point of sale such that an approval number is received by the merchant indicating that the transaction has been approved. The point-of-sale system or a separate card reader is used to connect directly to the clearing system. [0004] While this type of transaction allows a user to directly pay for purchases at the point of sale, it allows the potential for an unscrupulous merchant, or a party intercepting communications to have access to the user's account number and PIN number. [0005] In an e-commerce environment, the user accesses a merchants web site, indicates the items to be purchased and is requested to supply some means to pay for the items during the checkout process. The user typically enters the credit card number and the expiration date of the card to secure the credit transaction and shipping preferences. The merchant receives this information and generates a request that is transmitted to a credit clearing system that requests approval for the purchase and transfers back an approval code to the merchant. The merchant may at this point indicates to the customer that the purchase was successful and supplies an approval page to the customer. [0006] Since the transaction occurs over the Internet, users have concerns over the privacy and security of the information entered. These privacy and security issues limit the amount of customers that use these forms of commerce at this time. Businesses have been trying to generate more robust security mechanisms to calm nervous customers, but these system still require the customer to provide the complete billing information to the merchant to complete the sale. Robust encryption processes help to reduce the customer's anxiety to some extent. [0007] While credit cards are commonly used in point-of sale and on-line transactions, the merchant is charged a variable fee for the transaction by the credit authorization system based on the risk of the purchase. A higher rate for example, may be charged where the user is not at the point of sale, but is instead making the purchase at a remote location via a computer. The potential for fraud may be increased when the customer is not visible. Since the credit card company has power to act against unscrupulous merchants and to protect the consumer against fraud by merchants, customers are less concerned about the credit transaction that they would be regarding a debit transaction. [0008] In contrast to credit purchases, there are no intermediaries to protect a customer when a debit transaction occurs. Debit transactions in contrast cause direct modifications to the clients bank account or financial assets held in a financial institution. The customer is vulnerable to direct funds transfer and withdrawal activity if someone performs these types of transactions without the customer's knowledge. [0009] What is desired therefore is a system for allowing a customer to purchase items where the customer is not required to give the PIN number of the debit card to a merchant during an on-line purchase. It is another object of the present invention that the merchant or any party intercepting a communication between the customer and merchant, never has access to the customer's PIN number throughout the transaction. It is a further object of the present invention that all the information required to complete a transaction never exists in one transmission on the public network. [0010] It is an object of the invention to provide a system where a third party trusted verification system is contacted during the purchase process by the merchant to request the processing of a customer's debit transaction where the merchant only knows the card number (or a portion of it). The trusted verification system separately receives the PIN number from the customer and processes the transaction with the credit/debit processing system. The functionality performed by the trusted verification system may be performed by the debit card organization/bank directly. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0011] The present invention, in summary form, allows a customer at a customer computing device, interacting with a merchant's computer system/web site, to buy an item with a Debit/Check or credit card. The merchant transmits details of the transaction to a trusted third party verification system (TVS) including card number, merchant number, and transaction amount. The verification system returns a transaction ID and unique verification data string to the merchant. The merchant redirects the customer to the verification system site, passing the transaction ID as part of the communications address. The verification system interacts with the user to acquire the PIN number for the debit/check card, or the expiration date and/or the CVV2 number for a credit card. Using the passed-in transaction ID and the acquired password (PIN), the verification system retrieves the merchant information from it's database, and provides the merchant number, card number, pin and transaction amount to the gateway of the Debit/Check card processing network. Upon retrieving a positive verification of the transaction success, the customer is redirected to the merchant site, passing the transaction ID and a unique verification as part of the redirection. The merchant's system compares the provided verification data string against the expected verification data string it had earlier received from the verification system. If they match, the merchant knows the transaction was successfully completed. [0012] Thus, in particular, in one exemplary embodiment, provided is an internetworked computer system and method having at least one user computer, at least one merchant computer, and a verification computer interconnected to a computer network such as the Internet. The computers carry out a method of approving an online transaction in conjunction with a payment card associated with the user computer. The method includes the steps of the user computer transmitting a transaction request to the merchant computer, which may include information associated with a product to be purchased by the user computer and the payment amount associated with the product. The merchant computer then transmits a verification request to the verification computer, the verification request including a first data string associated with the payment card (such as a debit card account number) and optionally an indication of a payment amount associated with the transaction request. The verification request is then stored at the verification computer in association with a transaction identifier and a verification data string, and the transaction identifier and the verification data string are transmitted from the verification computer to the merchant computer. The merchant computer stores the verification data string as an expected verification data string and the transaction identifier. The merchant computer then transmits the transaction identifier to the user computer, and the user computer transmits the transaction identifier to the verification computer. This may be accomplished by the merchant computer redirecting the web browser of the user computer to the verification computer with the appropriate data. The user computer also transmits a second data string associated with the payment card (such as the PIN for the debit card) after being requested by the verification computer. [0013] The verification computer uses the transaction identifier received via the user computer to retrieve the verification request previously stored with that received transaction identifier, and then it performs a verification step by using the first data string associated with the payment card retrieved from storage and the second data string associated with the payment card received from the user computer to verify if the transaction should be approved, e.g. by determining if an account associated with the payment card is sufficient to cover the payment amount in the verification request. [0014] The verification computer will, upon successful verification that the transaction should be approved, transmit a verification approval message to the user computer, which includes the transaction identifier and the verification data string associated therewith as a confirmation verification data string, and the user computer transmits the verification approval message to the merchant computer. This may also be accomplished by the verification computer redirecting the web browser of the user computer to the merchant computer with the appropriate data. The merchant computer uses the transaction identifier in the verification approval message to retrieve an expected verification data string it had previously stored. The merchant computer then compares the expected verification data string with the confirmation verification data string from the verification approval message and indicates that the transaction has been approved if the comparison is positive. [0015] In the case where the payment card is a debit card, then the first data string is an account number associated with the debit card and the second data string is a PIN. In the case where the payment card is a credit card, then the first data string is an account number associated with the credit card and the second data string is an expiration date or the CVV2 number. [0016] Optionally, the verification computer determines if an account associated with the payment card is sufficient to cover the payment amount in the verification request by communicating with a gateway computer associated with an existing credit approval system. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING [0017] FIG. 1 is a representation of the system components of the present invention; [0018] FIG. 2 is a process diagram of the method of the present invention; [0019] FIG. 3 is a representation of the front face of a debit card of the present invention; [0020] FIG. 4 a representation of the rear face of the debit card of the present invention; [0021] FIG. 5 is a representation of a prior art credit processing fields for on-line transactions; Continue reading about Secure networked transaction system... Full patent description for Secure networked transaction system Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Secure networked transaction system patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Secure networked transaction system or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Electronic factoring Next Patent Application: Systems and methods for price matching on funds transfers Industry Class: Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or cost/price determination ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Secure networked transaction system patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.20928 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Novartis , Pfizer , Philips , Polaroid , Procter & Gamble , 174 |
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