Monetary transaction information delivery system

[0001] U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,472 June 1999 Foladare et al. 235/380

[0002] U.S. Pat. No. 5,661,781 August 1997 DeJager 379/67

[0003] When a financial (credit/debit) card is presented to a merchant in order to purchase goods, or services, or simply for the purposes of distribution of currency, an electronic form of authorization by the financial card issuer is typically sought by the merchant. This is conventionally done via the transaction card authorization system in the financial networks. In these networks, typically the credit card reader device is used to take card information and send the charge request to the card issuer authorization system, which sends back a response either authorizing or rejecting the transaction to the originating device. The originating devices can be a credit card reader, an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine), or a credit card terminal allowing account number to be entered manually.

[0004] One of the problems with this mechanism is that fraudulent charges can be made on lost or stolen financial cards without cardholders knowledge until days or weeks later, causing significant financial lost to, say credit card issuers and/or credit cardholder. In each of these cases, the card information or even the card itself is given to the merchant from sources other than the authorized card users for the purchase transaction being authorized. Another situation of fraudulent transactions is that lost or stolen financial cards are used to withdraw cash from an ATM if the associated Personal Identification Number (PIN) happens to be available. These are the examples where monetary loss might be the fault of neither the merchant nor the card authorization system.

[0005] A resolution to these problems is to give the credit card authorization system in the financial networks a way to notify electronically the credit card holder via a short message and/or Email containing detailed information on the transaction authorization to a pre-designated mobile device, such as mobile phone, pager, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), when such a transaction is authorized on the card. This gives credit card holders instant knowledge of every transaction, i.e., charge, payment, withdraw, fund transfer, etc., being imposed on their cards.

[0006] In addition to the early detection of a fraudulent transaction, thus, minimizing the financial lost to card issuers, and/or cardholders, and/or merchants, several other benefits are realized by this resolution as well. For example, cardholders will be able to track autonomously and constantly the up-to-the-moment total transaction amount, the remaining balance of credit limit, etc. Also, the primary cardholder of the account will constantly be aware of charges made by secondary cardholders, e.g., his/her spouse and/or children, to the account. Furthermore, this resolution allows corporate account owners to monitor every transaction made by their employees to their accounts.

[0007] Needed is a new system and means to take the subscribed monetary transaction information given from the financial system in a financial network when such transaction occurs and deliver such information to financial account owner's mobile device. The system completes the latter step by sending the obtained transaction information together with the mobile device address to the appropriate network element in the wireless network to request such information be delivered to the designated mobile device.

[0008] An objective of the present invention is to provide a system and method that automatically sends a message and/or Email containing subscribed monetary transaction information to the financial account owner's designated mobile device upon receipt of such information on the account from a financial institution. Typically, the address for the pre-designated mobile device was provided by the financial account owner to be used as the destination of a message notification per subscribed transaction made on the account. Examples of prevalent mobile device addresses are, but not limited to, mobile phone number, mobile IP address, and pager number. A database is also required to store the association of a financial account number to its corresponding mobile device address. Further, a second database is required to store the association of a mobile device address to its corresponding wireless network element.

[0009] In the drawings, FIG. 1 shows how the new system, called Wireless Data Delivery System (WDDS) and its associated databases, described in the invention connecting the financial network and the wireless network to communicate each financial transaction made on a financial account (e.g., credit card account, debit card account, checking/savings/investment account) to the account owner's mobile device. The WDDS is a logical entity providing a set of functionality, it might be a physical entity on its own or it might also share the same physical system with other sets of functionality.

[0010] FIG. 2 shows, in block diagram format, the high-level concept that bridges the financial network to the wireless network to allow transaction information originated from the financial network to be delivered to a mobile device.

[0011] FIG. 3 illustrates a database table that correlates a mobile device address to a financial account number.

[0012] FIG. 4 illustrates a database table that correlates a wireless service center to a mobile device address.

[0013] FIG. 5 illustrates the flow diagram showing the detailed steps used for bridging the financial network and the wireless network for delivering transaction information on a financial account to the account owner's registered and pre-designated mobile device.

[0014] FIG. 1 shows a communication system arranged in accordance with the invention to allow each financial transaction information made on a financial account to be delivered to its owner's mobile device. The communication system includes the existing entities in both the financial and wireless networks bridged by the new entities claimed in the invention. As used herein, the term financial account or account refers to any type of monetary account including but not limited to: a) credit or smart card account, b) checking or savings account, and c) financial investment account. As used herein, the term card refers to any type of plastic rectangular-shaped mechanism used for accessing an account, including but not limited to: a) a commercial credit or smart card, b) a debit card, such as an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card. As used herein, the term monetary transaction refers to any credit or debit transaction made to any financial account for purchase of merchandise, services, or distribution of currency. Also used herein, the term mobile device address refers to, but not limited to, mobile phone number, mobile IP address, and pager number. The term wireless network used herein refers to the network of known GSM, TDMA, CDMA, W-CDMA networks, including networks using other radio access standards such as paging network, satellite network and wireless data network. As used herein, the term mobile device refers to any type of mobile communication device including but not limited to mobile handset, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or pager. As used herein, the term message being sent to the mobile device includes but not limited to short text message, or electronic mail message, or enhanced mail message, or multimedia mail message.

[0015] When a monetary transaction is initiated, the communication system of FIG. 1 executes three procedures as illustrated in FIG. 2, procedure 201 is executed in the financial network, procedure 203 is executed in the wireless network, and procedure 202 bridges procedures 201 and 203 to make the transaction information known and available to the wireless network.

[0016] When a monetary transaction is initiated from a card reader 101, an ATM 102, a website 103, or from a bank slip such as a written check, deposit slip, withdraw slip, fund transfer slip 104, procedure 201 is executed in the financial network where the information is typically sent to a bank server system 107 via a communication network, such as Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 105 or the Internet 106, for processing. Other communication networks such as wireless network, public and private data networks, satellite networks, Virtual Private Network are also candidates to transmit the transaction information. For a transaction from a card reader 101, for example, a call is initiated via PSTN 105 to establish the connection with the bank server system after a card is swiped or an account number is entered together with the transaction amount. In contrast, the monetary transaction made on an ATM 102, a website 103, or in a bank slip 104 would normally trigger a data being sent via data network, e.g., Internet 106. Upon receipt of a transaction request, the bank server system 107 invokes the authorization procedure on the account. The bank server 107, usually owned, managed and/or controlled by card issuers, determines whether the transaction is authorized or rejected, and a corresponding response on the outcome of the transaction is sent back to transaction initiator.

[0017] In the wireless network, currently data to be delivered to a mobile device can be initiated from another mobile device or from a system external to the wireless network via a wireless service center 114 in the signaling network for processing. For example, to deliver a short message to a mobile handset, data is currently sent to an Short Message Service Center (SMS-C)a computer system in the signaling network connecting to the wireless switching network 109to be processed accordingly. Data together with a specific destination address, i.e., mobile device address received at the wireless service center 114 triggers procedure 203 to be executed in the wireless network, where the wireless service center 114 communicates with the appropriate systems in the wireless switching network 109 for data delivery. The destination mobile device might be a mobile handset 110 for a PDA 111 or a pager. Since wireless communication services are offered by various wireless carriers, it might require a different wireless service center to handle data delivery to a mobile device.

[0018] Procedure 202 in FIG. 2 is a new procedure to be executed to fill the gap between procedure 201 and procedure 203. Besides the transaction data that needs to be delivered, further needs are: a) a specific destination mobile device address; b) the type of delivery service, for example, short message or electronic mail; and c) a corresponding wireless service center serving the mobile device and capable of processing such data delivery. When the account owner registers for this delivery service, a mobile device address 302 and other service attributes associated with the account have been collected and stored in the Mobile Device Database 112 as detailed in FIG. 3. Associated with each financial account ID 301 is a list of service attributes including, but not limited to, the mobile device address 302 and the type of service delivery 303 pre-registered with the account ID 301. The temporary mobile device address 304 is another data attribute, which temporarily overrides the pre-registered mobile device address 302. The mobile device address 302 and temporary mobile device address 304 might be the mobile phone number of a handset, pager number, or the mobile IP address of a PDA. Wireless Service Center Database 113, as illustrated in FIG. 4, associates each mobile device address 401 with a wireless service center 403 serving that mobile device address for the desired type of service delivery 402 as indicated in 303 for the account. The mobile device address 401 is typically the same as the mobile device addresses listed in 302, except for those Account IDs 301 that instruct the WDDS 108 to use a temporary mobile device address 304. The wireless service center address 403 can be an IP address or other Network Element Addresses. Receipt of transaction information together with a mobile device address at the appropriate wireless service center triggers procedure 203 to be executed in the wireless network for data delivery.

[0019] Procedure 202 is detailed in FIG. 5. When the bank server 107 in step 500 processes a transaction on the account, the transaction information needs to be made known to the WDDS 108, as shown in step 501 if the transaction information is to be delivered to a mobile device. Step 501 involves a new mechanism in the bank server 107 to verify if an account has registered for service delivery in order to trigger this information transfer action. This mechanism can be achieved by either one of the following: a) adding a simple yes/no mark in the existing bank server database for the account, or b) consulting the Mobile Device database 112. If the bank server 107 has obtained data from b), the information sent to the WDDS 108 has both the transaction information (including the account ID) and the information stored in the Mobile Device database 112; otherwise only the transaction information (including the account ID) is sent.

[0020] Upon receipt of the information from bank server 107 for the transaction, step 502 is performed at the WDDS 108 to obtain the mobile device address for the account, either from the information received from the bank server 107 for the transaction or through This mechanism can be achieved by either one of the following: a) adding a simple yes/no mark in the existing bank server database for the account, or b) consulting the Mobile Device database 112. If the bank server 107 has obtained data from b), the information sent to the WDDS 108 has both the transaction information (including the account ID) and the information stored in the Mobile Device database 112; otherwise only the transaction information (including the account ID) is sent.

[0021] Upon receipt of the information from bank server 107 for the transaction, step 502 is performed at the WDDS 108 to obtain the mobile device address for the account, either from the information received from the bank server 107 for the transaction or through accessing the database 112. After getting all necessary information, the WDDS 108 executes step 503 to determine the appropriate service center in the wireless network for the information delivery service by consulting the Wireless Service Center database 113. WDDS then sends a request accordingly in step 504 to the indicated wireless service center found in step 503 to have the transaction information processed and delivered in steps 505 and 506 by the wireless switching network 109 to the mobile device address as indicated by the account owner.