MXPA00009080A - A method for using a telephone calling card for business transactions - Google Patents

Abstract

A method using a telephone calling card to transact commerce electronically. In one embodiment a user initiates a phone call to a merchant using a calling card provided by a service provider. The service provider initially checks the identify of the user through the use of a PIN code (1). Once the user's identity is validated the user's call to the merchant is established. The user and merchant then agree upon the sale of item at which time an invoice is provided to the service provider by the merchant. The invoice is then approved by the user while the merchant is disconnected from the call. In another embodiment the user is connected to the merchant over the Internet, the user's identify having been previously validated by an Internet Service Provider. The user drags a copy of the invoice to an application running on a Web Page. The application appends the user's digital signature to the invoice and mails it to the merchant. The merchant then presents the signed invoice toa server which authenticates the signature of the user prior to approving the sale.

Description

METHOD FOR USING A TELEPHONE CALLING CARD FOR COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS Field of the invention The present invention relates to the field of commercialization for commercial transactions. More particularly, the present invention relates to the problem of security and efficiency when using a telephone call card as a credit card for business transactions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION More and more consumers are choosing to make purchases without physically entering the place where the service or item is located. This social phenomenon has grown in recent years due to the internet, in particular to the World Wide Web, and other electronically based shopping networks, such as the home shopping network. In fact, virtual shopping malls are available that allow consumers to move from virtual store to virtual store through the use of a personal computer. In addition to shopping at home, other areas that may ultimately be widely available via e-commerce include movies on demand, video games, REF .: 122451 libraries in videos, bank at home, and music on demand. This is particularly attractive to the consumer to buy products and services without the problem of looking for a parking place or waiting in line. In fact, e-commerce may one day be the dominant medium used to buy any or all of the items or services and may revolutionize the way business is run. In today's economy, a consumer wants to make a modest purchase electronically (i.e. without being physically present) has only two alternatives. If you conduct business through the computer, you can use a secure electronic payment scheme, such as eCash or MilliCent. On the other hand, the only available instrument is the ordinary credit card. ECash is a payment system based on programming elements that allows the user to make electronic payments from any computer to any other computer through any network including the internet. An eCash purchase requires three participants a buyer, a seller, and a bank. Initially, the buyer withdraws the digital coins, or the eCash, from his bank account. Digital currencies are in fact messages that have rows of digits, with each digital row corresponding to a different digital currency. The messages are transmitted to the buyer's computer, where the eCash programming element automatically handles the digital coins. A buyer who has eCash available can then make purchases, from a vendor or merchant who has previously signed into the eCash transaction system. However, before a sale is consummated between the buyer and the seller, the seller's programming element automatically sends the digital coins it receives from the buyer to the bank. By sending the coins to the bank the seller can protect against fraud. As such, the bank is used as a central authority. In order to protect the buyer's privacy eCash uses secret claims, "as described in Chau, David L., US Patent No. 4,759,063, entitled" Blind Signature Systems ", and Chaum, David L., US Patent No. 4,949,380, entitled * Returned-Value Blind Systems. '' One drawback of this system is that to make a sale both the buyer and the seller must have accounts in the eCash system.This drawback can be discouraging, particularly because the impulse to buy an item or service can not survive the time it takes for a consumer to sign with such a system.Another drawback is that each purchase requires processing by an intermediary, eg, a bank, before the purchase is judged completed.The MilliCent is another payment based system. in a programming element designed particularly for internet commerce based on content.The MilliCent system is based on the use of a * voucher ". The voucher is a pre-paid electronic voucher that essentially replaces cash for purchases. The voucher is issued by agents, that 'act as intermediaries between consumers and sellers, or by sellers. Basically, a consumer, via a credit card, for example, buys the specific voucher from the seller, ie, that voucher can only be used to buy content from a particular seller, either from an agent or seller, and then uses the It's worth to do the shopping. Even when the MilliCent system does not require user accounts, it also has drawbacks. For one, each user must subscribe and use the MilliCent programming element. In addition, the voucher is specific to the seller, which limits the consumer's flexibility of purchases. Thus, unlike eCash Millicent they can not have a negative impact on the stimulus of the purchase of the moment. On the other hand, the low trasactional cost associated with systems such as eCash or MilliCent make them particularly attractive to purchase items or services that cost as little as 10 cents. ECash and MilliCent are just two of the many schemes in the prior art that provide security for electronic business transactions through the computer network. Other popular schemes include CyberCash, NetBill, NetCash and NetCheck, and the systems offered by Netscape, First Virtual Holding, and NTT. Despite the variety of these e-commerce systems, these systems share a common goal, to provide a system that is safe against fraud, security breaches, or forgery, and ensure consumer privacy. To provide an adequate measure of security, almost all electronic commerce systems employ encryption techniques. In itself, encryption or decryption schemes of both public keys and private keys are used to establish the identity of the buyer or the merchant, to verify information, and to provide electronic signatures that are legally binding and not likely to be falsified. Consumers who use credit cards to shop remotely allow greater flexibility in choosing who they conduct business with than consumers who use e-commerce systems such as eCash or MilliCent. A consumer who uses a credit card to make an electronic purchase, first asks the merchant for the purchase. The merchant then contacts the institution that issues the consumer's credit card for authorization. If the purchase is authorized, the merchant will eventually be given a token that the merchant transfers to his bank account and an invoice is sent to the consumer from the institution. Using a credit card to make an electronic purchase has its own group of problems. First, although encryption is used in credit card transactions to protect information such as credit card numbers, the security of the credit card is poor. Any merchant can take the information given by the user and buy additional merchandise from other merchants; Even if fraud is detected, there is little hope of raising the dishonest merchant. The danger of spying or intruding by a stranger to the transaction also has a significant risk. More significant is the risk associated with breaking details in an organizer where the credit card numbers can be stored. Second, and probably more importantly, the cost of administering the credit card is typically high (typically $ 0.20 + 2% - of the transaction cost). This makes the payment of the credit card inappropriate for payments below $ 1.00. Useful then would be a method and system that allows the consumer to buy items or services from the stores without requiring the merchant or consumer to install the own programming element. In addition, such a system or method must be secure so as not to require the consumer to disclose private information, such as credit card numbers, that may be misused. Finally, such a system must be ubiquitous, to allow any and all consumers to make purchases without visiting a store. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention is a method and system that uses a telephone card to make payments as part of an electronic business transaction. The system includes an eCard server connected to a public network through which a consumer and a merchant can communicate and conduct business. According to our system, the public network can be the internet or the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Therefore, the system provides the opportunity to buy at home without requiring the consumer to own a personal computer or a credit card. By directing purchases via the internet in accordance with the invention, a secret encryption key is shared by the user and the calling card server. In general, when a user or consumer wants to make a purchase, he contacts the merchant, who prepares an invoice. The user signs the invoice using his telephone call card number and a PIN code. The merchant then sends the signed invoice to the eCard server. The server authenticates the signature, verifies that the user has sufficient funds for the purchase, and sends a confirmation to the merchant. After receiving the confirmation the merchant then informs the user of the success of the purchase. Afterwards, the user is invoiced for the item on his telephone bill, and the invoice is kept on the eCard server to verify and guarantee the non-return of the transaction. According to the invention private information will not be passed on to the merchant (the customer's name may even be hidden) as such, the risk of fraud is reduced. According to one embodiment of the invention, purchases can be conducted by means of PSTN. According to this modality the user first initiates a telephone call to the merchant using his telephone call card. In this way, the user first identifies himself to the telephone network. The telephone network then completes the call to the merchant so that 'the merchant and the user can negotiate a transaction. Once the negotiations are completed, the user or the merchant signals the telephone system to mediate a transaction; for example, the user can use a transmission / marking union code, or the merchant can use the internet. The merchant transfers an audible invoice along with the user's PIN (so the user can authenticate that the purchase is actually being made) to the eCard server, the eCard server acts on the audible invoice and the user's pin so the user can be agree to accept or decline the purchase. If you agree with the purchase, the user is billed the item on a subsequent telephone bill, and again the invoice is preserved for future verification and non-return of the transaction. A further extension of this embodiment of the invention includes the user purchasing a prepaid calling card, thereby removing the previous additional step of billing the user. According to another embodiment of the invention, transactions can occur via the internet using the World Wide Web. In this modality, the consumer first marks inside a server maintained by an Internet service provider (ISP) which can be a telephone company. As part of the marking in the process, the identity of the user is validated. The user then draws a copy of an invoice or order 'from the purchase to an application that runs on a Web page. The application adds the user's digital signature to the invoice and mails it to the merchant. The merchant then presents the signed invoice to the eCard server, which authenticates the signature of the previous user to approve the sale. The invention offers several advantages over prior art. Some of these advantages include: The extensive availability of calling cards that provide more sales opportunities for merchants. Because calling cards are even more widely available than credit cards, a very large segment of the purchasing public is therefore available to merchants as potential customers of electronic commerce. More mainly, these clients do not need to be subject to being credit worthy, as customers can buy pre-paid cards that have different levels of digital money available; Even though the billing of each phone is practically necessary, the customer is already being billed on a monthly basis, making the billing smaller; Call cards, unlike credit cards, are insured (with the customer's utility service) because the telephone service provider has more influence than a typical bank, is less likely to have to spend large amounts of money on collections; The calling card infrastructure is designed to handle much smaller payments than the financial services infrastructure; Telephone companies can influence the security available from the existing PSTN, to provide greater security and user authentication; Telephone companies are generally relying on the public and merchants, and thus can serve as an appropriate "trusted third party" in the contract protocols, and the user's identity can be kept private for those transactions that do not involve shipping (eg, payment for transmit maps or videos) Additional objectives, advantages and new features of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows and, in part, will become clearer to those skilled in the art during the examination of the following or, may be learned by the FIELD OF THE INVENTION The objects and advantages of the invention can be realized and achieved by means of the instruments and combinations particularly indicated in the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 describes illustratively the architecture of the system of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a state diagram that describes the flow of information between the elements described in FIG. 1 carrying out a transaction through PSTN; and FIG. 3 is a state diagram describing the flow of information between the elements described in FIG. 1 carrying out a transaction through the internet.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION - Returning to FIG. 1 there is described a generalized scheme of a system 100 according to the invention. The system 100 connects the users or consumers 101 to various merchants or businesses 105 and financial institutions 106 through the public network or internet 111. The user's connection 101 to the merchant 105 is established or operated by a service provider or a third party. reliable part 112, ie an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or a telephone company. A calling card or eCard server 115 also connects to network 111 and stores a list (described illustratively as a data bank 116) of calling card numbers, PINs, names and addresses of users, and credit limits, of either. It should be noted that although the merchant 105 of the service provider 112 was illustratively separated, the merchant and service provider may be the same entity. For example, some telephone companies already have their own networks to buy online. In general, after the service provider 112 connects the user 101 to the merchant 105, the user 101 initiates the operation of the system by selecting an item or service offered by the merchant. Once the price is negotiated between the user 101 and the merchant 105, the user 101 selects the eCard as the payment method. Once the payment method is selected, a series of actions, discussed in detail above, are initiated or handled by the eCard server 115, which allows the actions, to bill the user 101 for the service or merchandise. The calling cards are issued by all telephone companies. These cards have proven to be an effective and convenient way for customers to make call charges when they are done away from home. Typically, the user dials a charge-free number and types in his or her calling card number and a secret code (PIN). The service provider verifies the validity and accuracy of the PIN number and allows the user to place the charge calls. Charges for calls appear on the user's telephone bill. As such, calling cards already provide a secure method that connects users through the PSTN. The invention influences the security already present in the PSTN and improves this security in computer networks, e.g. Internet, using cryptographic techniques. The main cryptographic technique used in the invention are private digital signatures. For these signatures, the user 101 and the server 115 share a secret key. To sign a document, user 101 attaches the secret key to the document and computes a cryptographic checksum, using a standard • cryptographic shredding function such as MD5 or SHA. The checksum is sent together with the document to the server, which performs the same checksum process. If the checksum matches, the server 115 can ensure that the document was signed by user 101. A private digital signature is. the preferred method of encryption, because for each customer a telephone call card can be given a private key at the time the card is disbursed. The private encryption key is also more adjustable for the invention because there is no arbitrary person here who consumers should identify. More precisely, the private encryption key is cheaper to implement and takes advantage of the fact that the service provider issues the calling cards and serves as the trusted third party. Nevertheless, the techniques of public cryptographic keys can also be used to authenticate the client's signature. Returning now to FIG. 2., there is illustrated the steps of the method of a first embodiment of the invention that allows a consumer to make a purchase through the PSTN. Co or FIG. 2 shows, the process begins when a consumer or customer 101 places a telephone call 202 to a merchant 105 from the consumer's house, or using a calling card, or through other mechanisms that are identified to the PSTN. Once the identity of the consumer is established, the consumer service provider system or the PSTN establishes the call 202 between the consumer 101 and the merchant 105. The consumer 101 and the merchant 105 then negotiate a transaction 208. Once the negotiations are completed, the consumer 101 keys a predetermined sequence of keys 210 on the telephone keypad, eg the transmission is followed by * 678, to indicate to the service provider system that a consumer wants to make a purchase. When the service provider system 111 receives this sequence or signal 210, the system 111 temporarily disconnects both the merchant 105 and the consumer 101 and establishes two new calls, one 212 to the consumer 101 and the other 214 to the merchant 105. Alternatively, in instead of temporarily disconnecting the merchant 105 and consumer 101, the system may alternate by temporarily disconnecting the merchant 105 and the consumer 101 from the call. If the consumer is using a calling card, the consumer is consulted by his PIN, step 216. Of course, if the consumer is calling from home a PIN may not be necessary. While the consumer is consulted by his PIN, step 216, the merchant is also consulted to enter the amount of the transaction, step 218. The consumer and merchant then return respectively the information consulted, steps 220 and 222. Returning to the information consulted both for the consumer and for the merchant can also consult or allow to return additional information pertaining to the transaction. For example, the consumer can enter his name and address, he passed 224, and he has this information registered by the service provider 111. Likewise, the merchant can enter his name and the items sold, step 226, and have this information registered by the service provider 111. This additional information provided by the merchant can be described to the consumer or vice versa. In addition, the merchant can send the information by means of an audible invoice or an invoice on the internet to the service provider, however, additional information is not necessary to consummate the sale. This is the case because both parties already know the selected item and the price of the transaction. The service provider then verifies the consumer and merchant records to select an appropriate form of payment and the availability of funds by the consumer, step 227. As illustrated in FIG. 2, step 227 involves the service provider that has access to the eCard server 115. It should be noted that although in the previous decryption the service provider system 111 is described as collecting the information of the consumer and the merchant, the provider system of Service 111 can also function as a traffic authority that allows the eCard server 115 to request, collect, and handle the entire transaction. Once the payment method is selected, the service provider shows the product description and consumer price, step 230, and receives the consumer confirmation, step 232. Once the confirmation is received then the consumer is connected and merchant, step 235. In a second embodiment of the invention, and as illustrated in FIG. 3, the consumer can also buy items through the internet using an application available on the worldwide network (Web). The consumer begins the transaction by dialing in an Internet service provider (ISP) groups of models, entering a user identification code and password, step 302. The ISP then validates the user and establishes a connection to a Web page from which the consumer negotiates an item and price, step 304. The consumer then types in an eCard icon , step 306, on a Web page used to negotiate the transaction; Note that the Web page may be the Web page of the consumer or some other trusted third party. As a result, two new connections are created, one from the consumer to the eCard server, the connection 308, and another from the eCard server to the merchant, step 310. The eCard server then consults the consumer for his calling card PIN, step 312. At the same time. At this time, the merchant is asked to enter the amount of the transaction in an invoice or purchase order 314. As was the case in the previous embodiment of the invention, the consumer and merchant can optionally record a message indicating any other specific term related to the transaction, steps 318 and 320 respectively. Using invoice, a Web page, or online email to the service provider system can optionally record the voice and name of the consumer. The system then verifies the records of the consumer and merchant, step 330, to select an appropriate form of payment (typically in a calling card account, but possibly in a credit card, ATM, etc.). the system then confirms to the consumer, step 336, the description and price of the product and also receives a consumer confirmation, step 338. After the consumer confirmation, step 338, the consumer is again free to browse the internet and make another purchase. The above description has been presented only to illustrate and describe the invention. It is not proposed that it be exhaustive or limit the invention to any precise form described. Many modifications and variations are possible shortly from the previous instruction. The modalities for better explaining the principles of the invention and its practical application were chosen and described to enable other experts in the art to better use the invention in various modalities and with various modifications as adapted to the particular use contemplated. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Claims (9)

REINVIDICATIONS Having described the invention as above, the content of the following claims is claimed as property:

1. A method for electronic commerce, characterized in that it uses a reliable third party consisting of the steps: the identification of the consumer by itself to a network using a telephone call card, and the network that completes a connection between the consumer and a consumer. merchant. the negotiation, between the buyer and the merchant, the terms for the sale of an item selected by the consumer; the reliable third party signage, which identifies the consumer who wants to make a purchase; the sending, by the merchant, of a PIN to the trusted third party; the sending, by the merchant, of an invoice that has the information on the item selected by the consumer; sending the invoice to a server for validation of approval and availability of client funds; secure signage, by the consumer, approval of the merchant's invoice; and the signaling, by the server, to the consumer and the approval of the disbursement of merchant funds.

2. The method of claim 1, characterized in that it additionally contains the billing step of the sale to the invoice of the calling or telephone card of the consumer.

3. The method of claim 2, characterized in that the step of the consumer identification consists of the steps of the user dialing a number for a telephone service provider, the dialed number has a PIN code associated only with the consumer, and the service provider telephone validates the identity of the consumer based on the code marked PIN. -

4. The method of claim 3, characterized in that the steps of approval of marking for the consumer contain the replacements of: the telephone service provider establishes two independent telephone calls, one call to the consumer and another to the merchant; the telephone system works "a recording of the merchant's invoice to the consumer, and the telephone system collects a spoken or coded user approval response.

5. The method of claim 4, characterized in that it contains the consumer's approval of an invoice, consisting of the substeps of the user who obtains a copy of the invoice and the user signs the invoice using a digital signature, created using a public cryptographic key or private

6. The method of claim 1, characterized in that the step of identifying the consumer itself to the network consists of dialing in a group service provider of models on the internet.

7. The method of claim 6, characterized in that the passage of the identification of the consumer by itself to the network contains the additional steps of the user, using a computer to mark the group of models of the internet service provider, introducing a unique code of identification by the user, and the internet service provider validates the identity of the consumer based on the unique identification code entered.

8. The method of claim 7, characterized in that the step of the customer signaling approval of an invoice comprises the steps of: the consumer places a copy of the invoice in an eCard application executed on the consumer's computer; the eCard application consults the consumer with a password; the eCard application creates a digital consumer signature based on the password; the eCard application attaches the digital signature to the invoice; the eCard application sends a copy of the invoice attached to the merchant; submitting, on the merchant's part, the signed invoice to an eCard server; and validating, on the eCard server, the merchant's signature.

9. the method of claim 8, characterized in that the step of creating a consumer digital signature is done using a public or private cryptographic key.