257 results about "Payment card number" patented technology

Methods and systems are disclosed for the generation and use of merchant-customizable token formats that define tokens that represent credit card and other payment numbers in online transactions. The tokens, which are used instead of the card numbers themselves for security, can be specified by the token format to have a certain number of characters, have certain fields reserved for major card identifiers, use encryption and / or randomization, be alphanumeric, and have other formatting. The customized tokens can be used with legacy equipment that uses longer or shorter card numbers than the standard sixteen-digit payment card number format and can be less likely to be recognized as related to card numbers by identify thieves.

End-to-end user anonymity is provided in electronic commerce or other types of online transactions through the use of an intermediary. An intermediary machine, which may be implemented in the form of a set of servers or other type of computer system, receives communications from a consumer or other user, and generates and maintains an alias for that user. Connections between the user machine and any online vendor or other web site are implemented through the intermediary using the alias. When the user desires to make a purchase from a given online vendor, the intermediary may present the user with a number of options. For example, the user may be permitted to select a particular payment card number and real destination address as previously provided to the intermediary. The intermediary then communicates with the online vendor and supplies intermediary payment information, e.g., a payment card number associated with the intermediary rather than the user, along with appropriate authorizing information and an alias destination address, e.g., a third party physical shipping address for deliverable goods, an alias electronic address for downloadable material, etc. The online vendor charges the purchase to the intermediary, and redirects the delivery of the goods or services to the destination address provided by the intermediary. The intermediary charges the payment card number of the user, and arranges for the redirection of the delivery to the real user address. In this manner, the invention provides complete end-to-end anonymity for the user, even when the user desires to enter transactions involving purchase and receipt of deliverable goods and services.

A method for implementing an anonymous payment card transaction, in either a face-to-face transaction or a MOTO transaction, in which the user is allowed to select an option for anonymous delivery of goods. The option is conveyed to a money source by means of a customization parameter. The customization parameter is used to customize generation of a user one-time payment card number, to customize a user identifier or as a customization variable that is included in a user transaction data packet which includes the user one-time payment card number and the user identifier. A delivery agent can be used to deliver the purchased goods to a delivery location that is not known by the merchant by use of a tracking identifier provided by the money source to the merchant and the delivery agent. After the purchased goods are delivered by the merchant to the delivery agent, they can be delivered to a destination location and held for pick-up, they can be delivered to a second delivery agent, or they can be delivered to a delivery address provided to the delivery agent. A person receiving the goods can prove entitlement to such goods by presentation of a delivery code or a dummy one-time payment card number that can also serve as proof of receipt and by used to trigger a charge for the goods once they have been received.

A payment processing system for accepting manually-entered payment-card numbers. Rather than entering a payment-card account number into an application module, the card number is instead captured and stored within a tokenizer prior to being sent to the application module. The tokenizer then returns a random token to the calling application as a pointer to the original payment-card number. The token has no algorithmic relationship with the original payment-card number, so that the payment-card number cannot be derived based on the token itself. Since the token is not considered cardholder data, the token may be used in an application module without the module or its connected hardware from being subject to regulatory standards compliance. Some embodiments involve browser-based schemes, and some embodiments involve PIN-entry device-based schemes.