Payment System Duplicate Charge Prevention via Identifier Detection

Solution Overview

Problem

Software-based payment systems often fail to detect and prevent duplicate financial transaction requests from external order systems, leading to double charges and inability to rollback executed transactions.

Innovation Solution

A system and method that uses a detection algorithm to identify duplicate payment operation requests by combining order, release, and payment identifiers, preventing duplicate requests to the payment provider and retrieving stored transaction results to avoid double charges.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the payment system processes all payment operation requests from the order system, then the order system can receive timely transaction results, but duplicate financial transactions occur causing double charges

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetransaction accuracyVSAvoidduplicate charges

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The payment system performs preliminary detection of duplicate payment operation requests before processing financial transactions. By checking whether a payment operation is a duplication of a previous request using detection algorithms and comparing payment identifiers, the system prevents duplicate charges before they occur, rather than attempting to rollback after the fact.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The payment system acts as an intermediary between the order system and the payment provider. It receives payment operation requests from the order system, detects duplicates, and only forwards non-duplicate requests to the payment provider. This intermediary role allows the payment system to filter out harmful duplicate requests while maintaining normal transaction flow.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Productivity

If the payment system sends duplicate financial transaction requests to the payment provider, then the order system receives transaction results, but the customer is charged multiple times

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetransaction processing speedVSAvoidfinancial loss

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The payment system performs preliminary detection of duplicate payment operation requests before processing financial transactions. By checking whether a payment operation is a duplication of a previous request using detection algorithms and comparing payment identifiers, the system prevents duplicate charges before they occur, rather than attempting to rollback after the fact.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The payment system provides feedback to the order system by returning stored financial transaction results when a duplicate payment operation request is detected. This feedback mechanism allows the order system to receive timely responses without actually processing duplicate transactions, preventing financial loss while maintaining productivity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Reliability

If the payment provider does not allow transaction rollbacks, then executed transactions are final, but duplicate charges cannot be corrected automatically

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetransaction finalityVSAvoiderror correction

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of repair

Solution Approach 1:

The payment system performs preliminary detection of duplicate payment operation requests before processing financial transactions. By checking whether a payment operation is a duplication of a previous request using detection algorithms and comparing payment identifiers, the system prevents duplicate charges before they occur, rather than attempting to rollback after the fact.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The payment system applies preliminary anti-action by detecting and preventing duplicate payment operations before they can cause harmful effects. The detection algorithm compares payment identifiers and determines whether a request is a duplicate, thereby preventing the harmful action of double charging before it occurs.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #9Preliminary anti-action

Data Source

PatentUS10713659B2System and method for preventing multiple charges for a transaction in a payment system

Publication Date: 2020.07.14 PAYPAL INC

AI summary

A system and method for preventing multiple charges for a transaction in a payment system is presented. A payment system receives a payment operation request from the order system, and determines whether the payment operation is a duplication of a previous payment operation request. If so, the payment system retrieves stored financial transaction results and provides the financial transaction results to the order system. When the payment operation request is not a duplicate, the payment system contacts a payment provider to receive financial transaction results, which is passed to the order system and stored in a persistent data store.