WO2001099062A1

WO2001099062A1 - Improved information-bearing card

Info

Publication number: WO2001099062A1
Application number: PCT/GB2001/002300
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mark Wilson Scholey
Original assignee: Scientific Games International Ltd.
Priority date: 2000-06-21
Filing date: 2001-05-24
Publication date: 2001-12-27
Also published as: AU5861201A; GB0015144D0

Abstract

A telephone card for use in topping up an account with an amount of credit for enabling continuing access to a mobile telephone network is disclosed. Such telephone cards have printed thereon a Hidden Recharge Number (HRN) which is concealed by a layer of scratch off which is to be removed by the user immediately before informing the network operator of that number so that the user account credit can be appropriately increased. In accordance with the invention, the card is printed with said HRN twice, once on the front of the card and once on the back and both HRNs are concealed by a layer of scratch off. In use, a user will remove only one scratch off layer to reveal one of the numbers and the other is ideally provided with an overprint of characters indicating that the card will be voided if that particular layer is removed. This provides an extremely quick and convenient method of validation of the card in the event that fraud is suspected, because the second scratch off layer can be removed so that the HRNs printed on the front and back of the card can be compared.

Description

Improved Information-Bearing Card

This invention relates to an improved information-bearing card such as a lottery ticket or ideally a telephone card such as those sold by retailers on behalf of mobile device network providers to users of mobile devices on those networks who require a prepaid amount of credit before their devices can be used.

Although the following description relates almost exclusively to the provision of pre-paid cards to users of mobile telecommunications devices, and particularly mobile telephones, the reader will instantly appreciate from the following that the invention may have far wider application, and indeed there is no requirement whatsoever that the invention be exclusively restricted to telephone cards, although it does find its most suitable application in this technological field.

The following description of the current mobile telecommunications service will facilitate the understanding of the invention.

Mobile telecommunications is currently one of the largest growth industries in the world at the time of this application, and within this technological field, the provision of so-called "pre-paid" mobile telecommunications services to customers is experiencing particularly explosive growth.

Current pre-paid mobile telecommunications services are generally provided as follows. Firstly, any person desiring to have the facility for mobile communication requires a handset which is generally provided internally with a so-called SIM (subscriber identity module) card. The cost of each handset is heavily subsidised by the mobile telecommunication service provider, hereinafter referred to as the Provider, to entice customers to purchase the handsets which could otherwise be prohibitively expensive.

This SIM is a piece of plastic in which is embedded a piece of solid-state electronic circuitry, and commonly provides an encrypted electronic memory for the handset and optionally some additional processing capability to allow the handset to be used on the particular network to which the handset is subscribed. The SIM card contains information concerning the particular services provided on that network which that handset is enabled for, such as for example the facility for making international calls or receiving "SMS" or text messages.

When a customer elects to use his handset on a pre-paid system, he will generally initially purchase a connection pack containing a handset, a SIM card, and a pre-paid telephone card issued by the provider and suitable for the Provider's network. The telephone card will be of a pre-determined credit value which is printed on the card which the customer can use to make telephone calls. Said cards are also now freely available as commodity items throughout the UK and elsewhere to allow customers having handsets operating on pre-paid systems to purchase further cards after the predetermined credit amount has been used up by virtue of the customer making calls and thus using airtime on that particular Provider's network. This allows a customer to top-up his account.

However, before the handset can be used to make and receive telephone calls on the network, the customer is required to telephone the Provider to "activate" his account, or in the circumstance where the customer is short on credit, to "top-up" his account. The telephone card is provided with two many-digit numbers thereon, one of which is covered by an opaque scratch- off material for security purposes. The first of these numbers, and that commonly covered by the scratch-off material, is known as the Hidden Recharge Number (HRN) , and the second, which is commonly open to view on purchase of the telephone card, is merely a batch or serial code (SC) which is used on the one hand by the printer of the cards as a means audit control to establish which cards to reprint in the event of spoilage of certain cards during the print run, or by the Provider, albeit rarely, as a verification that the card is legitimate and not counterfeit or fraudulent. This number may also be used by the Provider for distribution tracing purposes. It will be understood that the Provider will have a secure database containing all the HRNs matched to corresponding SCs prior to retail of any of said cards.

To activate or top-up the customer's account with an amount of credit dependent on the value of the card, the user supplies to the Provider the HRN on the telephone card (unique to that card) . If the customer has already activated his telephone, then a warning may be issued by the Provider to the customer, for example using a SMS message, advising the customer of the low remaining credit on his account and the need to purchase further credit. Thereafter, the customer will usually purchase a telephone card of suitable value and then telephone the provider using his handset thus automatically providing the Provider with his handset telephone number by virtue of Calling Line Identification or CLI.

Once the Provider is in receipt of this information, and has established that the card is "active" (described below) , then the amount of credit indicated on the telephone card is credited to the customer's account. The user can now make calls up to the value of the credited cash amount, and when no or insufficient credit remains, the user is informed, via his handset, and perhaps using SMS messages of that fact and the process described above must be undergone.

To obtain more credit or "top up" his account, the customer simply purchases another card, and advises the Provider as above of the card HRN using the handset, and the credit will be added to his account.

As mentioned above, the HRN unique number is usually covered with scratch off material, or is otherwise hidden so that the user after purchase has to reveal the number in an irreversible manner, such as by scratching away a covering layer. The card is therefore a "scratch card" of the type popularly used in lotteries. If the HRN was not concealed, then the system would be open to easy fraud, as in effect these telephone cards are simply cash in another form. They are transferable between users who subscribe to the same provider, and in fact in some cases they are transferred between users in the nature of gifts.

To enable the Provider to ascertain the particular retailer or area to which each individual telephone card is delivered, the cards are "enabled" by scanning or otherwise electronically recognising particular features, such as a bar-code or the SC number either immediately prior to being delivered to a logistics company for distribution, or by said logistics company. Once scanned, the telephone cards are effectively enabled, and then represent live cash, so thereafter represent a security risk, especially to supermarkets and the like who are supplied with large numbers of pre-activated cards. Accordingly, supermarkets and other retailers have to take special precautions over and above normal security measures to prevent stealing.

Because of the nature of the system, the cards are sold by a wide variety of outlets, and where a trader, such as a supermarket sells large quantities of the cards, there is a security risk element, in that, as mentioned above, the cards simply represent cash in another form.

As telephone cards increase in popularity and their use becomes more widespread, there is increasing concern over the durability of the card in the region of the HRN underneath the removable layer. In some instances where a user removes the scratch off material in too vigorous a manner, perhaps using a knife or coin to do so, the varnish applied over the HRN in the printing process by which these cards are manufactured can be degraded or destroyed so that the user begins abrading the board material on which the HRN is printed obliterating portions thereof and thus rendering the card useless. Although this problem affects a relatively small number of users, the difficulties which arise from the subsequent requests for replacement of the card which these users make of the retailer who may or may not have sold the original card presents a security risk in the overall pre-paid card system. For example, an unscrupulous user may reveal the HRN on a purchased card, use same to effect a credit top-up on his account, and continue abrading the card thereafter in the region of said HRN to obliterate same. This user may then return to the retailer and claim that he has accidentally abraded the HRN on his card to an undecipherable state, requesting a replacement card.

The aggravation caused to the provider caused by legitimate requests for replacement cards and the potential fraud which can occur as a result of such requests have necessitated a reconsideration of how the HRNs are applied to the cards.

It has been proposed to apply the scratch off material as an adhesive label over the HRN after printing of same on the card. In practice, the label will be made from a translucent polymeric plastics-type material having an adhesive compound applied to one side of the polymer and having a removable scratch off material on its alternate side. After the label is applied, a user simply removes the scratch off material to reveal the HRN beneath the translucent label.

This particular method has been derived from the manufacture of credit and similar cards which are discretely manufactured as individual items. Although the application of an adhesive label does overcome the problem of obliterating the HRN, the cost of providing such individual adhesive labels and the problems associated with applying a scratch off material to pliable sheets of polymeric material increases the cost of the resulting telephone card, both from the perspective of materials and manufacturing process costs.

Additionally, there is a security risk to cards manufactured in this manner in that the label may be lifted by an unscrupulous user or retailer seeking to establish the HRN without abrading the scratch off material whereafter the label could be reapplied and the card subsequently sold on.

An alternative approach to manufacturing telephone cards is to print large numbers of the cards on a web or sheet of board substrate material and to treat the cards not as individual discrete entities but as a set of images to be printed. Conventional lottery ticket production is conducted in this manner and lends itself readily to the production of telephone cards because of both the necessary security considerations in producing occasionally high value winning tickets and also because of the possibility of using silk-screen and/or flexographic printing techniques to apply the scratch off material to such tickets. Currently, lottery tickets tend to be produced using the following steps:

1. Printing a substrate board material in sheet or web form with a plurality of repeating images which provide aesthetic, informational and/or instructional content on each ticket

2. Printing the lottery game over each of the image portions on the tickets in secure manner, usually using a computer controlled ink jet

3. Covering the game portions of each printed image with a varnish, and

4. Applying a scratch off material over the game portion of the ticket, optionally subsequently overprinting the scratch off material with further aesthetic, informational, instructional or security enhancing indicia.

In the case of lottery tickets, additional security features may be printed over or under the game indicia such as confusion patterns and the like to prevent fraudulent inspection of the game indicia beneath the scratch off.

It is conventional in the production of lottery tickets to print a portion of the ticket with a batch or serial code number so that tickets can be verified, and in this respect, telephone cards are similar. This serial code may be initially uncovered by a scratch off compound, or may be covered by a layer of such which is then overprinted with the words "VOID IF REMOVED", but in all cases this number is always different from the game indicia to avoid fraud, although there may be a mathematical or algorithmical relationship between the two sets of indicia.

It is an object of this invention therefore to provide a telephone card, and more generally any type of card on which there is provided a region covered with a removable or abradable material to obscure indicia therebeneath which may have a value and on which it is desired to provide a simple means of establishing what the indicia were if they are for some reason obliterated.

According to the invention there is provided a card of potential or actual value to a user thereof and having indicia printed thereon in a first region of said card which allow the owner to realise the value of said card, said first region being initially at least partially covered by a layer of removable material when said user receives said card and which can be removed to reveal said indicia, characterised in that said card is also printed with the same indicia in a second region thereof, said second region also being covered by a layer of removable material which at least partially obscures said indicia.

Preferably said first and second region are provided with at least one additional and the same security feature.

Preferably at least one of the removable material layers covering first and second regions of the cards is provided with an overprint of indicia, and preferably the removable material layer covering the second region of the card is so provided.

Preferably the overprinted indicia at least partially coincide with the indicia beneath the removable layer to at least partially obscure said indicia and assist in precluding candling attempts. Alternatively or additionally, the overprinted indicia may provide instructions or deter users from removing a particular layer of scratch off.

Preferably the indicia are HRNs and the cards are telephone cards. Preferably the second region is printed with the indicia in a different orientation from that of the indicia in the first region, and for example portrait and landscape orientations may be used.

Preferably the removable material layer covering the indicia on the second region of the card is overprinted with indicia bearing an instruction that only the removable layer material cover one of the first and second regions of the card is to be removed.

Preferably the removable material layer in the second region is printed with overprinted indicia reading "Void if Removed" and or "Retailer Use Only" in English or other suitable language.

Preferably the second region of the card is on the alternate side of said card to the first region.

Preferably the removable material layers covering first and second regions of the card are an abradable scratch off material commonly used on lottery tickets.

Preferably the indicia are of a print size of between 4 point and 14 point and are alphanumeric in nature.

Ideally both the first and second regions are provided with a plurality of types of security measures, each of the first and second regions having the same security measures so that the indicia covered by the removable layer in each region have the same degree of security to prevent retailer fraud. Most preferably, the first and second regions are identical.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate the simplicity of the invention and furthermore the primary advantage thereof in that there is no need for any of the Providers of such cards to significantly alter their card distribution systems. The Provider will simply make eminently clear to any purchaser of the cards that no refund or replacement card will be given unless one of the removable material layers on the ticket identified as being that layer which users should not remove does indeed remain substantially intact so that the indicia beneath said layer are totally obscured.

Once a genuine purchaser of a card returns to the retailer having accidentally removed portions of the HRN in the first region of the card, the retailer simply rubs away the scratch off in the second region of the card to reveal the second HRN printed on the card. A comparison can be effected between those portions of the first HRN which have not been obliterated and the second HRN as revealed by removal of the of scratch off material in the second region as a simple check that the card is valid whereafter the card is returned to the user. Said user can then use the card to effect a top-up of his account using the complete HRN in the second region of the card.

The ease and flexibility with which both the HRNs can be printed and the scratch off material can be applied allows for printing of the first and second regions in different orientations, which advantageous because design space on telephone cards is often limited, and the second covered region needs to be as discreet as possible.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the following drawings wherein:

Figure 1 shows a telephone card according to the invention having first and second regions covered with removable material layer, and Figures 2 and 3 show the card of Figure 1 having had first and second removable material layers removed to reveal indicia beneath.

Referring firstly to figure 1 there is shown a telephone card 2 having a first region 4, a second region 6 and an optional third region 8 on which there is a printed a batch or serial code 9 which helps the printer and or the provider identify the card and perhaps establish either algorithmically or using a look up table what HRN was printed on said card.

The regions 4 and 6 are covered by layers 5, 7 of scratch off material which can easily be removed by a user of the card using his nails or by gentle abrasion with a coin. Either or both of said layers may be printed with an overprint 12 if desired, and in the figure layer 7 is overprinted with the indicia "VOID IF REMOVED ". The card is additionally printed with some value indicator 10 signifying the actual or potential worth of the card. The regions 5, 7 may be on the same or opposite sides of the card.

In Figure 2, the layer 5 has been almost completely removed to reveal indicia 14 in the form of a number. The number is however not completely revealed because in removing the scratch of layer 5, the user has damaged both the varnish covering the indicia and the printed indicia in a region 16, perhaps by over-vigorous abrading in this region. Under normal circumstances, the user would not be able to reclaim the value of his card because of the partial obliteration of the HRN which could thus not be given in full to the relevant Provider.

In accordance with the invention however, the user can now return to the retailer with his card who will then carefully remove the layer 7 to reveal an identical copy 18 of the HRN 14. Of course, if the user wish to risk his card, he can himself remove the layer of scratch off material 7, but the card will then invalidated if he accidentally also partially obliterates the copy HRN 18 in removing layer 7.

Claims

1. A card of potential or actual value to a user thereof and having indicia printed thereon in a first region of said card which allow the owner to realise the value of said card, said first region being initially at least partially covered by a layer of removable material when said user receives said card and which can be removed to reveal said indicia, characterised in that said card is also printed with the same indicia in a second region thereof, said second region also being covered by a layer of removable material which at least partially obscures said indicia.

2. A card according to claim 1 characterised in that said first and second region are provided with at least one additional and the same security feature.

3. A card according to claims 1 or 2 characterised in that at least one of the removable material layers covering first and second regions of the cards is provided with an overprint of indicia.

4. A card according to claim 3 characterised in that the removable material layer covering the second region of the card is also provided with an overprint of indicia.

5. A card according to claims 3 or 4 characterised in that the overprinted indicia at least partially coincide with the indicia beneath the removable layer to at least partially obscure said indicia and assist in precluding candling attempts.

6. A card according to any of claims 3-6 characterised in that the overprinted indicia provide instructions deterring users from removing the particular layer of removable material.

7. A card according to any preceding claim characterised in that the indicia are HRNs and the cards are telephone cards.

8. A card according to any preceding claim characterised in that the second region is printed with the indicia in a different orientation from that of the indicia in the first region.

9. A card according to any of claims 3- 6 characterised in that the removable material layer covering the indicia on the second region of the card is overprinted with indicia bearing an instruction that only the removable layer material cover one of the first and second regions of the card is to be removed.

10. A card according to claim 9 characterised in that the removable material layer in the second region is printed with overprinted indicia reading "Void if Removed" and/or "Retailer Use Only" in English or other suitable language.

1 1. A card according to any preceding claim characterised in that the second region of the card is on the alternate side of said card to the first region.

12. A card according to any preceding claim characterised in that the removable material layers covering first and second regions of the card are an abradable scratch off material commonly used on lottery tickets.

13. A card according to any preceding claim characterised in that the indicia are of a print size of between 4 point and 14 point and are alphanumeric in nature.

14. A card according to claim 2 or any clam dependent on claim 2 characterised in that the first and second regions are provided with a plurality of types of security measures, each of the first and second regions having the same security measures so that the indicia covered by the removable layer in each region have the same degree of security to prevent retailer fraud.

15. A card according to claim 14 characterised in that the first and second regions are identical.