GB2371123A

GB2371123A - Performing transactions with a wireless device

Info

Publication number: GB2371123A
Application number: GB0022672A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Paul William Johnson; Christopher Charles Cheney
Original assignee: MPP GLOBAL SOLUTIONS Ltd; MYPOCKETPAL COM Ltd
Current assignee: MPP GLOBAL SOLUTIONS Ltd; MYPOCKETPAL COM Ltd
Priority date: 2000-09-15
Filing date: 2000-09-15
Publication date: 2002-07-17
Also published as: GB0022672D0

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program for enabling the selection and purchasing of goods and other gifts using a wireless device. Said goods and other gifts being offered to the customer via a text message sent to their mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant, and said goods and other gifts being profiled such that they are matched against the customer's friends or relatives' likes, dislikes and personality traits. In use, details of said plurality of customers and their respective friends and relatives' birthdays, anniversaries, likes, dislikes and personality profile are stored on a customer database means, together with details of available goods and services offered. When, for example, an anniversary or birthday is imminent, said customer database means will automatically match the personality profile of the relevant friend or relative and select a number of suitable gift ideas. The customer is then sent a Short Message Service (SMS) text message to his or her mobile phone, via a first server means. The contents of the message may include the number of days until the birthday or anniversary is due, a selection of gifts or a range of different products and price categories, together with a prompt to the customer to select one. In the event of a product being selected, the customer is prompted to confirm the price and other order information and to enter a personal identification number (PIN) or other authorisation means. The process of payment collection is suitably initiated when the first server means sends the relevant order details, including the amount to be debited to a secure second server means. The second server means enables the secure storage of customers payment details, and passes these encrypted payment details to a payment facility, such as a credit card processor, for authorisation.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING TRANSACTIONS WITH A WIRELESS DEVICE This invention relates to a method and apparatus for performing transactions using a wireless device. Said method and apparatus enabling the secure purchase of gifts and other goods.

In recent years, the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet has dramatically increased. The most popular method of purchasing such goods and services is by using a credit or debit card. In this way, the customer simply supplies his card account number which is then transmitted across the Internet to a merchant bank and the payment transaction is completed in the traditional manner for a credit card. Often, these account

numbers are transmitted over the Internet with extremely limited or no security. However, security can be improved by introducing some form of card validation, together with performing a balance check. However, these routines are performed on-line between the card clearing facility, the service provider and the customer. As such, these processes can become time consuming and inefficient when the value of the transaction is low, or when a number of small value transactions take place in a short time span.

Issues of efficiency and security are even more important when purchasing goods over the Internet using a wireless device. At the present time, the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Wireless Markup Language (WML) are the standard programming formats which allow wireless devices, such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants, access to information placed on the Internet. Unfortunately, since WAP protocols conserve bandwidth by reducing the number of communications that pass between a web site and the wireless device, both the speed and content of WAP-compliant sites can be poor. For these reasons, traditional on-line credit card verification processes over a WAP-compliant device can be prohibitively slow and susceptible to fraud.

Furthermore, in traditional web transactions, it is normal for the customer to be presented with a payment screen where they enter their payment details every time they conduct a transaction. Whilst this model works for Internet-based transactions using a personal computer or laptop, it is not suited to WAP-enabled devices, where the user is faced with an extremely limited interface. Usually, data transmitted from the mobile phone is un-encrypted from Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) and reencrypted to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) format at the WAP gateway, and it is at this point that the data is most at risk from violation.

Apart from the problems of fast and secure payment using WAPcompliant devices, the emergence of the mobile internet has provided a host of new services and applications for consumers whilst they are on the move. Indeed, the growing trend for conducting both business and pleasure away from the office or home, means that many people would benefit from a mobile assistant that helps them better manage their life. In particular, the planning and organising of gifts for friends and relatives birthdays and anniversaries or other pertinent dates such as, for example, Mother's Day and Christmas can be extremely time consuming.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for enabling the selection and purchasing of goods and other gifts using a wireless device. Said goods and other gifts being offered to the customer via a text message sent to their mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant, and said goods and other gifts being profiled such that they are matched against the relevant friends or relatives'likes, dislikes and personality traits.

According to the present invention there is provided a method for reminding a plurality of customers of relevant friends and relatives'birthdays and anniversaries and other appropriate occasions, together with prompting the respective customer on his or her wireless device with details of available goods and services offered, said goods and services being matched to the respective customer's friends and relatives'likes, dislikes and personality profile, such details of said plurality of customers and their respective friends and relatives'birthdays, anniversaries, likes, dislikes and personality profile, together with details of available goods and services offered being stored in a customer database means with access to said customer database means being provided by a first server means, payment details of said plurality of customers being held on a second server means, comprising the steps of: accessing said customer database means, and generating at least one message containing details of a respective customer's friends or relatives' upcoming birthday or anniversary, together with details of available goods and services offered; sending at least one said message to said wireless device via said first server means, said goods and services offered being profiled to match the respective customer's preferences, and said message inviting said respective customer to purchase said goods and services; enabling the selection of desired goods and services and sending an order reply to said first server means actioned by said respective customer, said first server means sending relevant order details to said second server means on confirmation of authorisation means; and passing encrypted said payment details via said second server means to a payment facility, and on process of payment, said goods being dispatched to said respective customer.

In a preferred embodiment, the customer's details are initially entered by using, for example, a traditional web site utilising a personal computer or laptop. As will be appreciated, such information may include the customer's name, address and telephone number, as well as profiles of various friends and relatives to which they intend to send goods and other gifts. The customer's details may also include the date of relevant friends and relatives' birthdays and anniversaries. Subsequent customer access being allowed by entering a PIN number or other authorisation means.

Said customer database means may also hold a detailed description of goods, services and other gift ideas, which can be profiled such that they are matched against the relevant friends and relatives'likes, dislikes and other personality traits. When, for example, an anniversary is imminent, said customer database means will automatically match the personality profile of the relevant friend or relative and select a number of gift ideas from an extensive selection using an engine or other algorithm. The customer is then sent a Short Message Service (SMS) text message to his or her mobile phone, via the first server means. Preferably, the content of the message may include the number of days until the anniversary is due, a selection of gifts or a range of different products and price categories, together with a prompt to the customer to select one.

In the event of a product being selected, the customer is then be prompted to dial up said first server means. Additionally, the customer may be prompted to select and confirm a delivery address, and confirm the price and other order information. To confirm the order, the customer may be required to supply a PIN number or other authorisation means. This order information, without payment details, is sent to said first sever means and checked for stock information. If the order can be fulfilled, the payment collection process is initiated.

The process of payment collection is suitably initiated when said first server means sends the relevant order details, including the amount to be debited, to said second server means. Said second server means then adds encrypted payment details, including, for example, card number and expiry date, and forwards such using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) this complete set of data to the credit card processor or payment facility. The card processor server receives this data as if it were a normal instruction where the customer would enter credit card information manually. An on-line credit authorisation is then conducted and the results are sent to the customer via his or her wireless device, the customer being informed that the transaction either has been successful or has failed. This procedure is conducted in real-time whilst the customer is on-line and will, preferably, take less than six seconds to complete. The customer, being provided with an order tracking number, will be able to view the status of their order at any time. The customer can change the order details, or cancel the order, within a set period of the order being processed, after this period they cannot cancel or amend the order.

Preferably, said second server means further comprises a secure server involved in processing transactions containing credit or debit card information which is not exposed directly to the Internet. Such will be located in a secure domain by means of an internal network partitioning with connectivity to the Internet protected by, preferably, a firewall. All secure data transmitted via said second server means will be sent by SSL, or better.

Credit card details will, preferably, be protected by 128-bit high-level encryption, either in storage or transit. At no time in the authorisation process is it required that the date be unencrypted. Preferably, all available means of ensuring credit card transactions are not carried out fraudulently are in place.

These fraudulent checks may include regular inspection of databases of known bad card numbers, e-mail addresses, delivery addresses and telephone numbers. A check for multiple purchases, were one element, for example, the card number remains constant, while another, for example, the delivery address varies, will be undertaken. Duplication of addresses, names and phone numbers will be, preferably, checked across accounts and written to a risk register and manually checked. Any customer purchasing products on, for example, three consecutive days will be written to a risk register and manually checked. If a customer enters an invalid PIN number more than three times, the customer will be prevented from entering his or her account, and routed to a reset procedure. Preferably, said second server means will be protected by a Cisco PIX Firewall. All communication with said second server means being conducted through this firewall.

According to the present invention there is provided an apparatus for reminding a plurality of customers of relevant friends and relatives'birthdays and anniversaries and other appropriate occasions, together with prompting the respective customer on his or her wireless device with details of available goods and services offered, said goods and services being matched to the respective customer's friends and relatives'likes, dislikes and personality profile, comprising: customer database means for enabling the storage and'access to details of said plurality of customers and their respective friends and relatives' birthdays, anniversaries, likes, dislikes and personality profile, together with details of available goods and services offered; first server means for enabling the transmission of messages between said customer database means and said respective customer's wireless device, said messages inviting a respective customer to purchase said goods and services, said goods and services offered being profiled to match the respective customer's preferences, said first server means receiving relevant order details actioned by said respective customer; and second server means for enabling the storage of payment details of said plurality of customers, said second server means receiving said order details from said first server means on confirmation of authorisation means and passing encrypted said payment details means to a payment facility.

Also according to the present invention there is provided a computer program product for reminding a plurality of customers of relevant friends and relatives'birthdays and anniversaries and other appropriate occasions, together with prompting the respective customer on his or her wireless device with details of available goods and services offered, said goods and services being matched to the respective customer's friends and relatives'likes, dislikes and personality profile, such details of said plurality of customers and their respective friends and relatives'birthdays, anniversaries, likes, dislikes and personality profile, together with details of available goods and services offered being stored in a customer database means with access to said customer database means being provided by a first server means, payment details of said plurality of customers being held on a second server means, comprising : computer program means for accessing said customer database means, and generating at least one message containing details of a respective customer's friends or relatives'upcoming birthday or anniversary, together with details of available goods and services offered; computer program means for sending at least one said message to said wireless device via said first server means, said goods and services offered being profiled to match the respective customer's preferences, and said message inviting said respective customer to purchase said goods and services; computer program means for enabling the selection of desired goods and services and sending an order reply to said first server means actioned by said respective customer, said first server means sending relevant order details to said second server means on confirmation of authorisation means; and computer program means for passing encrypted said payment details via said second server means to a payment facility, and on process of payment, said goods being dispatched to said respective customer.

The advantages of the present invention are that the goods and services may be purchased easily and securely using a wireless device. The customer, having first set up the service on a traditional web site, is able to select and purchase a number of goods and other gifts for friends and relatives. In this way, the planning and organising of gifts for friends and relatives'birthdays and anniversaries is greatly simplified and the time involved in shopping is significantly reduced.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that variations of the present invention are possible, and it is intended that the present invention may be used other than specifically as described herein.

A specific non-limiting embodiment of the invention will be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of the present invention.

Referring now to the drawings, the proposed scheme is illustrated in Figure 1. The present invention being particularly suited for anybody with a busy lifestyle that would benefit from a virtual assistant service that helps him or her to better manage their life. In the short term, the present invention is designed to be used with WAP-compliant mobile phones or Personal Digital Assistants, however, such could be implemented using future mobile broadband technology as and when it becomes available. Using the data capabilities of their mobile phone, the customer is be able to select and purchase products such as CD's, send flowers and other gifts to friends and family. To do this, the customer must first have set up the service on a traditional web site and have completed the authorisation process.

In the first instance, prior to using the invention described by Figure 1, the customer sets up an account with the service provider and profiles their friends and family. This profile may include their name, home address, telephone number, relationship and birthday. Other pertinent dates, such as wedding anniversaries or Mother's Day can be set up also, and where possible these will be set up by default. The customer also profiles the friend or relative with their personality traits, likes and dislikes.

Also stored within the database, held on the first server means, will be a variety of goods and other gift ideas, which are also profiled such that that they can be matched against relevant personality profiles. When a birthday or anniversary is imminent, the database engine or algorithm will automatically match the personality profile of the friend or relation and select a number of different gifts from an extensive selection. Examples of fields selectable in the database include, but are not limited to, food and drink, sports, books, music, theatre, museums, ballet, opera, concerts, fashion, films, DIY, gardening, cooking, travel, computing and IT and computer games. Products held in the database, may include CD's, video's, DVD's, hampers, activity days, toys, books, concert and sporting event tickets, pens, crockery, glassware, bedding, clothing, software, gadgets, electrical goods, homeware, kitchenware, computing products, computer games, telephone equipment, holidays, flights and restaurant meals.

Prior to the birthday or anniversary, the customer is then sent a SMS text message to his or her mobile phone and/or e-mail address. The content of the message may include the number of days until the birthday or anniversary is due, the selection of gifts for a range of different product and price categories, and a prompt to the user to select one. Each gift idea will carry a short description and the price to be paid, inclusive of VAT and postage and packing. The customer may then follow a process which will intuitively guide the user to request gift-wrapping, prompt for a delivery message, or enable them to type their own, offer the ship-to address of the friend or relative and prompt for a PIN number to confirm the purchase.

At this point, the present invention both addresses the security issues and simplifies the order process for the customer. The process negates the need for the user to enter their card details each time a transaction is conducted, instead, the credit card details are held in a secure, off-line environment. The service provider issues the customer with a PIN number, which is used to authenticate such, together with the incoming telephone number. Once the customer has been identified in this way, he or she will be able to carry out transactions from the selection of products. When a purchase is made, the customer's credit card details are matched from the secure second server means, in encrypted format, and spooled to the credit card clearing facility in the format required. All credit card details are encrypted and transferred using SSL.

In this way, even if a third party obtained the PIN number, and they wished to use it fraudulently, they would also need to have possession of the wireless device from which to carry out transactions. This is analogous to using a debit card to obtain money from an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM), in that, even if the customer's PIN number were known, a third party would have to obtain the card to withdraw money. Additionally, the credit card information is permanently encrypted on the second server means and can never be viewed.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A method for reminding a plurality of customers of friends and relatives' birthdays and anniversaries and other appropriate occasions, together with prompting the respective customer on his or her wireless device with details of available goods and services offered, said goods and services being matched to the respective customer's friends and relatives'likes, dislikes and personality profile, such details of said plurality of customers and their respective friends and relatives'birthdays, anniversaries, likes, dislikes and personality profile, together with details of available goods and services offered being stored in a customer database means with access to said customer database means being provided by a first server means, payment details of said plurality of customers being held on a second server means, comprising the steps of : accessing said customer database means, and generating at least one message containing details of a respective customer's friends or relatives' upcoming birthday or anniversary, together with details of available goods and services offered; sending at least one said message to said wireless device via said first server means, said goods and services offered being profiled to match the respective customer's preferences, and said message inviting said respective customer to purchase said goods and services; enabling the selection of desired goods and services and sending an order reply to said first server means actioned by said respective customer, said first server means sending relevant order details to said second server means on confirmation of authorisation means; and passing encrypted said payment details via said second server means to a payment facility, and on process of payment, said goods being dispatched to said respective customer.
2. A method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein each respective customer's details are initially entered using a web site, via a personal computer or laptop.
3. A method as claimed in Claim 2, wherein each respective customer's details include the customer's name, address and telephone number, and profiles of friends and relatives to which they intend to send goods and other gifts.
4. A method as claimed in Claims 2 or 3, wherein each respective customer's details include the date of friends and relatives'birthdays and anniversaries.
5. A method as claimed in any of Claims 2 to 4, wherein each respective customer's details include a personal identification number (PIN), or other authorisation means.
6. A method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the step of sending at least one said message to said wireless device via said first server means, said goods and services offered being profiled to match the respective customer's preferences, and said message inviting said respective customer to purchase said goods and services further comprises the step of prompting said respective customer to select and confirm a delivery address, and confirm the price and other order information.
7. A method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the step of passing encrypted said payment details via said second server means to a payment facility, and on process of payment, said goods being dispatched to said respective customer further comprises the step of conducting an on-line credit authorisation and informing said respective customer that the transaction has either been successful or has failed.
8. A method as claimed in Claim 7, wherein if said transaction has been successful, said respective customer is issued with an order tracking number which will allow said respective customer to view the status of their order.
9. An apparatus for reminding a plurality of customers of friends and relatives'birthdays and anniversaries and other appropriate occasions, together with prompting the respective customer on his or her wireless device with details of available goods and services offered, said goods and services being matched to the respective customer's friends and relatives'likes, dislikes and personality profile, comprising: customer database means for enabling the storage and access to details of said plurality of customers and their respective friends and relatives' birthdays, anniversaries, likes, dislikes and personality profile, together with details of available goods and services offered; first server means for enabling the transmission of messages between said customer database means and said respective customer's wireless device, said messages inviting a respective customer to purchase said goods and services, said goods and services offered being profiled to match the respective customer's preferences, said first server means receiving relevant order details actioned by said respective customer; and second server means for enabling the storage of payment details of said plurality of customers, said second server means receiving said order details from said first server means on confirmation of authorisation means and passing encrypted said payment details to a payment facility.
10. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 9, wherein said wireless device is a mobile telephone or Personal Digital Assistant.
11. An apparatus as claimed in Claims 9 or 10, wherein said customer database means holds a detailed description of said goods and services offered.
12. An apparatus as claimed in any of Claims 9 to 11, wherein said customer database means automatically matches the personality profile of each respective customer's friends and relatives and selects a number of gift ideas from a selection using an engine or other algorithm.
13. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 9, wherein the transmission of messages between said customer database means and said respective customer's wireless is achieved using a Short Message Service (SMS) text message.
14. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 9, wherein said payment details of said plurality of customers includes the card number, type and expiry date.
15. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 9, wherein said second server means further comprises a secure server involved in processing transactions containing credit or debit card information which is not exposed directly to the Internet.
16. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 15, wherein said secure server is located in a secure domain by means of internal network partitioning with connectivity to the Internet protected by a firewall.
17. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 9, wherein the encrypted said payment details are encrypted and transmitted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) format.
18. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 9, wherein the encrypted said payment details are protected by at least 128-bit high-level encryption.
19. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 9, wherein said payment facility is a merchant bank or credit card processor.
20. A computer program product for reminding a plurality of customers of friends and relatives'birthdays and anniversaries and other appropriate occasions, together with prompting the respective customer on his or her wireless device with details of available goods and services offered, said goods and services being matched to the respective customer's friends and relatives'likes, dislikes and personality profile, such details of said plurality of customers and their respective friends and relatives'birthdays, anniversaries, likes, dislikes and personality profile, together with details of available goods and services offered being stored in a customer database means with access to said customer database means being provided by a first server means, payment details of said plurality of customers being held on a second server means, comprising : computer program means for accessing said customer database means, and generating at least one message containing details of a respective customer's friends or relatives'upcoming birthday or anniversary, together with details of available goods and services offered; computer program means for sending at least one said message to said wireless device via said first server means, said goods and services offered being profiled to match the respective customer's preferences, and said message inviting said respective customer to purchase said goods and services; computer program means for enabling the selection of desired goods and services and sending an order reply to said first server means actioned by said respective customer, said first server means sending relevant order details to said second server means on confirmation of authorisation means; and computer program means for passing encrypted said payment details via said second server means to a payment facility, and on process of payment, said goods being dispatched to said respective customer.
21. A method for reminding a plurality of customers of friends and relatives' birthdays and anniversaries and other appropriate occasions, together with prompting the respective customer on his or her wireless device with details of available goods and services offered, said goods and services being matched to the respective customer's friends and relatives'likes, dislikes and personality profile, such details of said plurality of customers and their respective friends and relatives'birthdays, anniversaries, likes, dislikes and personality profile, together with details of available goods and services offered being stored in a customer database means with access to said customer database means being provided by a first server means, payment details of said plurality of customers being held on a second server means as herein described.
22. An apparatus for reminding a plurality of customers of friends and relatives'birthdays and anniversaries and other appropriate occasions, together with prompting the respective customer on his or her wireless device with details of available goods and services offered, said goods and services being matched to the respective customer's friends and relatives'likes, dislikes and personality profile as described herein with reference to Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.
23. A computer program product for reminding a plurality of customers of friends and relatives'birthdays and anniversaries and other appropriate occasions, together with prompting the respective customer on his or her wireless device with details of available goods and services offered, said goods and services being matched to the respective customer's friends and relatives'likes, dislikes and personality profile, such details of said plurality of customers and their respective friends and relatives'birthdays, anniversaries, likes, dislikes and personality profile, together with details of available goods and services offered being stored in a customer database means with access to said customer database means being provided by a first server means, payment details of said plurality of customers being held on a second server means as described herein with reference to Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.