JPH11143949A - Credit card management method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inhibit the use of a credit card that is wrong used for the purchase of commodities and services based on the information stored in the terminal of each member store of a credit company. SOLUTION: A card management center 1 has a host computer 104 and a transmitting equipment 4, and a member store 2 of a credit company has a receiving equipment 5, a card reader 111 and a terminal computer 110. The computer 104 outputs the information on the validity/invalidity and crediting limit of the credit card of each member of the credit company as the card information, and the equipment 4 transmits the digital data on the card information by radio. The equipment 5 receives and demodulates the radio signals of the card information. Then the computer 110 extracts and stores the card information necessary for its own store, outputs the validity/invalidity decision result and the crediting limit of the credit card that is inputted to the reader 111, and inhibits the use of an invalid credit card that is wrong used.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a card management method for preventing unauthorized use of a credit card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When purchasing goods or services using a credit card, in addition to a "sales contract" between a credit user and a member store, a credit user and a financial institution such as a credit company (hereinafter referred to as a credit company) are used. A credit exchange contract is concluded with the credit company, and the credit company uses information (called credit information) to determine the ability of credit users to pay in order to protect their receivables. Collection is essential. Since the information owned by one company is not sufficient for a credit company, several credit information agencies are created to use information owned by other companies and exchange information with each other.

[0003] In the information list, the fact that payment to the credit company has been delayed or insolvency has been posted as "accident information", and the credit company does not newly give credit to those who have such information. Because of this, it is called a so-called “blacklist”.

[0004] There are four representative credit information institutions: bank, credit, Sarah, and foreign companies. These information centers have information (name, address, date of birth) for identifying customers. Information on credits (date and time of transaction, timing of transaction, remaining bonds, etc.) and accident information (delinquency, bankruptcy, bankruptcy, etc.) are collected. Information exchanges have been carried out by the former three parties since 1987. ing.

[0005] The credit user is a member of the credit company, and the dealer is a member store of the credit company.
The card management center is an information center of a credit bureau, but may be a financial institution such as a credit company or another institution.

[0006] When a member purchases a product or service at a member store using a credit card, creditworthiness such as whether the card is valid and whether the card is used within a usage limit (credit limit) is determined. Confirmation must be performed by the merchant.

[0007] As a method of confirmation, there is an inquiry by telephone to a card management center or a match with an "invalid card list" of a member store, but recently, online inquiry by CAT has become widespread.

[0008] The work of confirming the creditworthiness of a member is performed using a card,
Credit management systems must always be judged based on the latest information. The so-called off-line reconciliation based on the “invalid card list” provided by the franchisee cannot check the fluctuation of the credit card validity between the issue date of the “invalid card list” and the confirmation date.

In telephone verification, although recent information obtained by the card management center is obtained temporarily, accidents such as "misunderstanding" are expected due to manual contact, and confirmation takes a relatively long time. There are drawbacks such as.

[0010] In this respect, according to the online inquiry by the CAT, accidents such as "misunderstanding" do not occur unlike the inquiry by telephone, and abnormal use such as "purchase" can be checked by constructing the system. It is also possible to prevent unauthorized use.

[0011]

However, the CAT
Is the same as the previous phone call in that the verification is done over the phone line,
During busy seasons such as the mid-year holidays and year-end holidays, CAT usage is concentrated, causing problems such as no line connection and slow response, requiring excessive capital investment during peak periods. I was

[0012] If the work of confirming the creditworthiness of the card information on the credit card becomes insufficient, unauthorized use, for example,
Use exceeding the credit limit and permitting lost cards, stolen cards, and counterfeit cards to travel are permitted.

An object of the present invention is to provide a data processing device provided in a member store for reading out card information on a credit card used for purchasing a product or service, confirming the validity or invalidity of the card, and confirming the invalidity of the card. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for executing a card use suspension process for a card.

[0014]

In order to achieve the above object, in a credit card management method according to the present invention, a credit card for managing the validity of a credit card used for purchasing goods and services at a member store of a credit company. In a management method, a member store of a credit company has a data processing device, and the data processing device stores at least card information regarding validity or invalidity of a credit card of a member of the credit company, and stores goods or services. The card information of the credit card used for the purchase is read, the validity and invalidity thereof are confirmed, and when the invalid credit card is used illegally, the use suspension processing is executed for the card.

The use suspension process is a process for disabling a credit card that has been attempted to be used illegally.

Further, a credit card management method in which a data processing device of a member store checks whether a credit card used for purchasing a product or service is valid or invalid based on card information issued from a card management center. The card management center transmits at least card information regarding the validity or invalidity of the credit card of the member of the credit company, and the data processing device of the member store receives and stores the card information transmitted from the card management center. , Reads out the card information about the credit card used to purchase the product or service, checks whether it is valid or invalid, and if the invalid credit card is used illegally, executes the suspension process for the card The suspension process is based on the unauthorized use of It is a process to disable future the Ttokado.

The card information transmitted from the card management center is information relating to a change in the validity of the credit card. The data processing device receives the card information transmitted from the card management center and updates the card information. Then, based on the updated card information, the process of stopping the use of the invalid credit card is executed.

The card information issued from the card management center is digital data, and the data processing device confirms the validity / invalidity of the credit card based on the card information based on the received digital data. The use suspension process is executed for unauthorized use of the card.

Further, the card management center has a transmission facility, the data processing device has a reception facility, and the transmission facility has
The digital data signal of the card information output from the host computer is wirelessly transmitted, and the receiving equipment receives the wireless signal of the card information wirelessly transmitted from the card management center and sends the digital data signal to the terminal computer of the data processing device. Upon input, the terminal computer stores the card information, determines whether the credit card used for the card reader of the device is valid or invalid, and executes a use suspension process for unauthorized use of the credit card determined to be invalid. Is what you do.

The transmitting equipment of the card management center is as follows:
FM multiplex broadcasting equipment, wherein a digital data signal of card information is FM-broadcasted using an FM multiplexing method, and a data processing apparatus has a receiving facility for receiving digital data of FM broadcast card information, Stores and updates the input card information.

[0021]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, according to the present invention, the card management center 1 of a credit information agency transmits information on credit card validity, that is, information on creditworthiness (referred to as card information) to a data processing device 3 of each member store 2. The second data processing device 3 always holds the latest card information and can freely take out the latest card information whenever necessary.

The host computer 104 provided in the card management center 1 stores information necessary for judging whether all the credit cards of all customers are valid or invalid for each credit company 1.
The information is sequentially input from 01, 102, and 103, and the information is transmitted to the receiving facility 5 of each member store 2 through the transmitting facility 4.

In FIG. 2, each credit company 101,
102 and 103 are telephone lines 10, 20, and 30, respectively.
The card information of the member is sent to the host computer 104 of the card management center 1 as a digital data signal through the PC. The host computer 104
The data of each credit company is processed, and the data of the card information is transmitted to the transmission equipment 4. Reference numeral 105 denotes a first storage unit of the card management center, and the first storage unit 105
Inside, the data of the card information transmitted from each credit company is stored. The transmission facility 4 is a facility for transmitting digital data of card information as a radio signal. The transmission facility 4 can use the broadcasting station 106. When using the broadcasting station 106, digital data of card information is transmitted from the host computer 104 of the card management center 1 to the broadcasting station 106 through the telephone line 40, and
From 06, the card information is broadcast. In the present invention, when the broadcasting station 106 is used for the transmission facility 4, the broadcasting station 106 performs a part of the function of the card management center 1.

The member store 2 includes a receiving facility 5, a terminal computer 110 of a host computer 104 as a data processing device 3, and a card reader 111 of a credit card.
And The receiving equipment 5 includes a receiving unit 107, a band pass filter 108, and a digital demodulator 109. The receiving unit 107 receives the radio wave transmitted from the broadcasting equipment 4, passes through a band pass filter 108, reproduces the digital data with a digital demodulator 109, and inputs the digital data to a terminal computer 110. The terminal computer 110
The reproduced card information is received, the digital data is processed, all input data or extracted data is stored in the second storage unit 113, and the card reader 111 and the display 112 are controlled.

The card reader 111 reads the ID of the card of the member that has been input, and outputs the content to the terminal computer 110. The terminal computer 110 reads the credit card that has been input based on the data read from the second storage unit 113. It determines whether the card is valid or invalid and outputs it to the display 112.

The transmission of card information between the card management center 1 and each member store 2 is a one-way communication sent unilaterally from the card management center 1 to the member store, and is a data broadcast such as FM character multiplex broadcasting. It can also be realized by using.
The broadcasting station 106 uses a broadcasting station having FM multiplex broadcasting equipment.

In FM multiplex broadcasting, a new signal is multiplexed to a higher frequency than the stereo sub-channel signal,
This is a method of modulating and broadcasting, and includes a DARC method, a fixed reception method, an RDS method, and other methods. Literature (Pro
c. of VehicleNavigation &
Information Systems Conf
rence (1994) A4-2 p111-116)
FIG. 3 shows a protocol of the DARC system disclosed in the above. In FIG. 3, a transmission path characteristic is specified for the layer 1. In addition to the L + R signal and the LR signal, which are ordinary FM stereo broadcast signals, a multiplex signal is superimposed on the higher frequency side than the LR signal.

This superposition method considers that the interference from the multiplex signal to the audio signal becomes remarkable when the audio modulation degree is small, and controls the level of the multiplex signal based on the modulation degree of the LR signal (LMSK ( Level contro
lled Minimum Shift Keying)
The method is adopted.

The layer 2 defines a data frame configuration including an error correction method. Each frame is composed of 272 blocks in the column direction, and a 16-bit BI
C (Block Identification Co
de) is added, and frame synchronization and block synchronization are performed based on the BIC. Of the 272 blocks in the column direction, 190 blocks are packets for transmitting data, and 82 blocks are parity packets for transmitting parity in the column direction. Each packet has 176 rows
Bit information part, 14-bit CR that is an error detection code
C (Cyclic Redundancy Code)
And an 82-bit parity section.

That is, transmission data is first subjected to error correction in this layer, with this one frame as a basic unit.

Layer 3 defines the structure of a data packet. The data packet is BI out of each row in the frame.
It consists of 176 bits excluding C, CRC and parity.

Further, this data packet is composed of a prefix and a data block. The prefix includes information about the packet.

Level 4 defines the structure of a data group. A data group is composed of one or more data blocks. That is, based on the information in the prefix in the data packet, the data packets are arranged in order of the data packet number from the data packet number “0” to the data block with the information output flag in the prefix. This data group also includes a CRC which is an error detection code, and error detection is performed on the card information data also in this layer.

One data group includes one data unit,
That is, it corresponds to one data.

The layer 5 constitutes a data unit in which a group of information data transmitted by FM multiplex broadcasting, that is, a data group including a card ID, credit information, a limit, and the like in units of credit card companies. Also, some transmission methods such as forming a data unit group by some credit company data can be applied.

FIG. 4 shows a processing procedure of the host computer 104. The host computer 104 first reads the data of company A among the credit companies (company A, company B, company C) 101, 102, and 103 through a telephone line,
The data is stored in the first storage unit 105. Similarly B
The data of company C and company C are read and stored in the first storage unit 105.
To save. Thereafter, according to the data stored in the first storage unit 105, the packet data of the layer 3 of the FM multiplex broadcasting shown in FIG. 3 is created.

The data of the hierarchy 3 is created based on the hierarchy 5 which is a collection of data units. The data of the layer 5 is composed of a unit group. FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the unit group and an example of data in the unit. Each unit includes a unit header that always exists at the beginning of the unit and unit data that is actual data. The unit data starts with the company name indicating which credit company this unit is for, then the credit card ID number, whether the ID number is blacklisted, and usage Data follows in the order of the possible amount, another ID number, and so on.

In this embodiment, the company name is described at the head of the unit data.
The company name always exists before the number, and it is possible to mix data of various credit companies in the same unit, or to compress the unit using a data compression method to reduce the amount of data Such a configuration is also possible.
The layer 3 packet data is transmitted to the broadcasting station 106 through the telephone line 40, and the broadcasting station 106 sends card information on air in the form of FM broadcast radio waves.

The data of the card information that has been aired is received by the receiving equipment 5 of each member store 2. FIG. 6 shows the configuration of the receiving unit 107 of the receiving facility. FIG. 6A shows an example in which data is transferred by the FM multiplex transmission method. FIG. 6 (a)
, The mixer 114 includes an input signal, an oscillator 115
, And outputs the multiplied signal to the band-pass filter 120. The oscillator 115 transmits a single frequency, and the variable condenser 116 sets the frequency of the oscillator 115 to a desired value. Only necessary components of the multiplied signal are extracted from the band-pass filter 120, and the FM demodulator 1
An FM audio signal and an FM multiplex signal are extracted from 21. This passes through the bandpass filter 108 of FIG.
Only the FM multiplex signal is extracted. The FM multiplex signal is a kind of digital modulation signal, and the digital demodulator 109
The terminal computer 1 is demodulated to digital data.
10 is input.

For example, assume that an FM broadcast of 80 MHz is input to the mixer 114. Since the IF frequency of the FM demodulation is usually 10.7 MHz, the oscillator 115 is
6, the oscillation frequency is adjusted to 69.3 MHz. As a result, the outputs of mixer 114 are 10.7 MHz and 149.3 MHz. Required component is 10.7MHz
Only 10.7 MH at the bandpass filter 120
Extract only the component of z. Thereafter, FM demodulation is performed by the FM demodulator 121 to extract the FM audio signal and the FM multiplex signal. Note that the FM audio signal is cut by the band pass filter 108. Although this configuration has been described with the method of adjusting the tuning frequency with a variable capacitor, the method may be adjusted with a PLL.

In FIG. 6A, FM multiplex broadcasting is used.
In the present system, there is no need for an audio signal, so there is no need to send data by FM multiplexing. Therefore, FIG. 6B shows an example in which data is transmitted using an MSK signal, which is a method used for FM multiplex signals. 117, 118, 11
Reference numeral 9 denotes a mixer, an oscillator, and a tuning variable condenser in order, and their functions are the same as those of 114, 115, and 116 in FIG. In FIG. 6B, FM demodulation for obtaining an FM multiplex signal is unnecessary, and 76 kHz which is the carrier frequency of the FM multiplex signal is used as the IF signal.

For example, if the carrier frequency is 900 MHz, the oscillator 118 has 899.924 MHz.
And the mixer outputs 76 KHz and 179
Obtain 9.924 MHz. 1799.924 MHz is an unnecessary component, and the unnecessary component is cut by the band-pass filter 108 at the subsequent stage.

Thus, the receiving equipment 5 is provided with the carrier 7
An MSK signal of 6 KHz can be obtained. The bandpass filter 108 is a 76 KHz filter, and an LV3400M which is an LSI manufactured by Sanyo can be used.
Unnecessary signals such as FM audio signals are removed by this filter.

As the digital demodulator 109, an LC2700E, which is a Sanyo LSI, can be used for MSK demodulation, and digital data can be obtained from the MSK signal. This digital data is processed by the terminal computer 110. The contents of the processing are shown in the flowchart of FIG. Processing to the terminal computer 110 includes two steps: storage of card information data and reading of card information.
Kind.

FIG. 7A shows a process of storing card information data. In step 501, data is sequentially received. In step 502, unit data is extracted. Since the credit company name exists as data at the head of the unit data as shown in FIG.
, It is checked whether the company name matches the terminal of the member store. For example, a member store that handles only the card of Company A receives the next data without storing data other than Company A. If the received data is company A data, the data is stored in the second storage unit 113.

FIG. 7B shows a card information reading process. In step 505, when the member's credit card is input to the card reader 111, step 5
At 06, the ID number of the credit card is read, and at step 507, the ID of the card is read from the second storage unit 113.
Card information relating to the D number is selected and read.

In step 508, the card reader 111 checks the card information stored in the second storage unit 113 with the card information.
It is determined whether or not the credit card entered in (1) is on the blacklist and whether the credit limit or available amount is not insufficient. In step 510, an indication such as "invalid" or "NG" is displayed on the display 112 when the permission condition for the advance payment is not satisfied.

In the present invention, the card information is credit information and accident information for all the members of the credit company (company A, company B, company C,...). When purchasing merchandise and services at a merchant store, a "payment agreement" with a credit company
Can be exchanged for "valid" cards,
What is called a "blacklist" is an "invalid" card. Although the contents of the card information are exactly the same as the online inquiry by the CAT, in the present invention, the card information is transmitted from the card management center 1 to the member store 2 and the second storage unit of the terminal computer 110 of the member store 2 1
13 and the card information about the credit card data input to the card reader is stored in the second storage unit 11.
3 and can be determined as "valid" or "invalid" without inquiring the card management center.

With the card information transmitted from the card management center, card information for all members of all credit companies can be transmitted regularly or irregularly. If you have a credit card, the Card Management Center will only send information that has changed its validity, including new subscriptions, or when your credit card has changed from valid to invalid or from invalid to valid. In, the stored contents can be updated using the card information whose effect has changed. At the merchant store, of the card information transmitted as digital data from the card management center, only the data required by the company need be extracted and stored, and all the card information data transmitted from the card management center is stored. No need.

Credit cards include ordinary magnetic cards (JISI (ISO) 3 tracks and JISII) C ₁
In addition, there are a contact type IC card C ₂ and a non-contact type IC card C ₃ , and FIG. 8 shows the correspondence for each card.

In FIG. 8, when the credit card is the magnetic card C ₁ , the magnetic head 7 is used for the card reader 111, and the credit card data read by the magnetic head 7 is amplified by the amplifier 8. The data is input to the terminal computer 110 through the buffer 9. On the other hand, based on a command from the terminal computer 110, necessary data is input to the magnetic head 7 through the driver 11,
The data is written in the magnetic card C _1.

The credit card is a contact type IC card C ₂
In the case of, the card reader is a terminal 12 for supplying power to the contact type IC card and transmitting and receiving data,
The transmission / reception data signal to the terminal 12 is transmitted through the communication control unit 13, and the timing of reading and writing data from the contact type IC card C ₂ is controlled by the clock generated by the clock generation unit 14.

Further, the credit card is a non-contact type IC
When a card C ₃ is the card reader antenna 15 is used, the antenna 15, write data to the non-contact type IC card C ₃ is fed through the modulation circuit 16. Further, data read out from the non-contact type IC card C ₃ is the detection circuit 17 is extracted to the terminal computer 111 through the demodulation circuit 18. Card reader 1
When the credit card inserted in 11 matches the one listed on the blacklist, FIG. 7 (b)
Step 510 is followed by step 511 as shown in FIG.
Then, the process of stopping the use of the card is executed. The content of the suspension process is set according to the degree of fraud. Information for stopping the use of the card is input to the magnetic head 7, the terminal 12, or the antenna 15 as one of data to be written to the card.

In the present invention, when the invalid content is a malicious one, for example, a credit card reported to have been stolen or lost, or when it is found to be a counterfeit, it is concluded that it is truly unauthorized use and Information for disabling the card from being used in the future is input from the terminal computer 110 as the stop processing. In order to disable the use of the card, it is sufficient to destroy at least a part of the card membership number and other information written on the card, or to write wrong information.

When the credit card is an IC card, there is a method of setting a flag. If the credit card used only exceeds the credit limit,
When the available amount is insufficient, it is determined that this is merely an erroneous use, and the member may stop using the card only for the sale of goods or services that the member intends to purchase.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention, C
It is possible to judge the validity or invalidity of the credit card used by the member by using the card information stored in the member store without using the AT terminal, and to check the invalid card, especially the card that has been reported to be stolen or lost or the forged card For such invalid and malicious unauthorized use, the card can be subjected to future unusable processing as a processing for stopping the use, thereby preventing the damage from spreading. According to the present invention, the card information stored in the member store updates the validity fluctuation with the card information received from the card management center while validating and invalidating the credit card used by the member based on the latest information. The credit limit can be accurately grasped.

Note that a credit card may be used for a vending machine, but for a vending machine,
Naturally, it is included in the use of credit cards at member stores.

The present invention can be widely used not only for bank credit card companies but also for CD / ATMs of credit companies and credit systems of consumer finance companies.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a card management center and a member store.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a protocol of an FM multiplex transmission method.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing processing contents of a host computer.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a data unit group.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are diagrams showing a receiving unit of a receiving facility in a member store.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are flowcharts showing terminal computer processing of a member store.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an aspect of a credit card.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Card management center 2 Member store 3 Data processing device 4 Transmission equipment 5 Receiving equipment 7 Magnetic head 8 Amplifier 9 Buffer 11 Driver 12 Terminal 13 Communication control unit 14 Clock generation unit 15 Antenna 16 Modulation circuit 17 Detection circuit 18 Demodulation circuit 10, 20 , 30, 40 Telephone lines 101 to 103 Credit company 104 Host computer 105 First storage unit 106 Broadcasting station 107 Receiving unit 108 Bandpass filter 109 Digital demodulator 110 Terminal computer 111 Card reader 112 Display 113 Second storage unit 114 Mixer 115 Oscillator 116 variable condenser 117 mixer 118 oscillator 119 variable capacitor C ₁ the magnetic card C ₂ contact type IC card C ₃ contactless IC card

Claims (7)

[Claims] Claims 1. A credit card management method for managing the validity of a credit card used to purchase goods and services at a credit company member store, wherein the credit company member store has a data processing device, The processing device stores at least card information on the validity or invalidity of the credit card of the credit company member, reads out the card information on the credit card used to purchase the product or service, and confirms the validity / invalidity. A credit card management method, wherein when an invalid credit card is used fraudulently, a process of suspending use is performed on the card. 2. The credit card management method according to claim 1, wherein the process of suspending use is a process of disabling a credit card that has been used illegally in the future. 3. A credit card management method in which the validity / invalidity of a credit card used for purchasing a product or service is confirmed by a data processing device of a member store based on card information issued from a card management center. The card management center transmits at least card information regarding the validity or invalidity of the credit card of the member of the credit company, and the data processing device of the member store receives and stores the card information transmitted from the card management center. , Reads out the card information about the credit card used to purchase the product or service, checks whether it is valid or invalid, and if the invalid credit card is used illegally, executes the suspension process for the card 3. The cradle according to claim 1 or 2, wherein Ttokado management method. 4. The card information transmitted from the card management center is information relating to a change in the validity of the credit card, and the data processing device receives the card information transmitted from the card management center and updates the card information. 4. The credit card management method according to claim 3, wherein the credit card usage suspension processing is performed based on the updated card information. 5. The card information issued from the card management center is digital data, and the data processing device confirms validity / invalidity of the credit card based on the card information based on the received digital data, and determines that the credit card is invalid. 4. The credit card management method according to claim 3, wherein a process of suspending use is performed on the card. 6. The card management center has a transmitting facility, the data processing device has a receiving facility, the transmitting facility wirelessly transmits a digital data signal of card information output from a host computer, and the receiving facility has Receiving a radio signal of the card information wirelessly transmitted from the card management center and inputting the digital data signal to a terminal computer of the data processing device. The terminal computer stores the card information and is used by a card reader of the device. 6. The credit card management method according to claim 5, wherein a determination is made as to whether the credit card is valid or invalid, and a use suspension process is performed for unauthorized use of the credit card determined to be invalid. 7. The transmission facility of the card management center is FM
A multiplex broadcasting facility, in which a digital data signal of card information is FM-broadcasted using an FM multiplexing method, and a data processing apparatus has a receiving facility for receiving digital data of FM-broadcasted card information, and a data processing apparatus. 7. The credit card management method according to claim 6, wherein the input card information is stored and updated.