WO2011104514A1

WO2011104514A1 - A system and method for mitigating fraud risk in offer and reward programs

Info

Publication number: WO2011104514A1
Application number: PCT/GB2011/000263
Authority: WO
Inventors: Greg Taylor
Original assignee: The Ntf Group Pty Ltd; Carpmael, Robert, Maurice, Charles
Priority date: 2010-02-26
Filing date: 2011-02-25
Publication date: 2011-09-01
Also published as: GB201003335D0

Abstract

The invention relates to a system and method for mitigating the risk of wastage (through unqualified targeting) and fraud associated with transaction based rewards and offer programs, which link offers and the level of reward to a customer's pattern of expenditure, while allowing customers to validate or authenticate a transaction record (e.g. a purchase receipt) at a terminal remote from a Point of Sale (for example, at a Concierge desk or at the exit of a Shopping Mall), in order to receive promotional offers or rewards to which they are entitled. The validation or authentication of transaction records means those making the promotional offer or funding the reward can control to whom an offer is made, or to whom the reward is conveyed, without requiring the customer to sign up to a loyalty card program. Customers entitled to promotional offers or rewards, by virtue of validating or authenticating their transaction record can potentially share offers or reward with friends or colleagues via a social networking portal, but only where they are eligibility to do so (through validating or authenticating their transaction record), and only in a manner prescribed by the program sponsor.

Description

A system and method for mitigating fraud risk in Offer and Reward Programs

Maximising customer (or consumer) participation in offer and reward programs, minimising implementation costs and maximising flexibility for all parties are key success criteria for transaction based offer and rewards programs, which link offers and the level of reward to a customer's pattern of expenditure.

For example, transaction based offer and rewards programs are more likely to be successful, where all other things are the same, where:

• Customer participation is maximised because the process of receiving offers and rewards is simple, with no requirement for the customer to 'sign-up', or to be an existing loyalty program member in order to receive rewards; · Program sponsors or owners (e.g. Retailers, Mall or Casino Operators) avoid or minimise both the cost of IT integration (between a sales promotion system and core operational systems such as the POS), and potentially any contingent liabilities which may be incurred with points based loyalty programs. It is to be understood that the term "reward" used herein in relation to purchasers of goods or services comprises any loyalty program reward, promotional offer, prize, discount, parking fee reduction or the like which is offered to a purchaser based on his or her transactional data. Moreover, the POS may be in a shop, retail outlet, wholesale outlet, casino, terminal such as a bus, railway, ferry or airport terminal, at a provider of facilities such as leisure e.g. a fitness centre, swimming pool, aerobics class, theatre or the like, or the payment of a service such as provided by a utility. Our earlier application entitled "transaction apparatus" (patent application no PCT/GB2009/002583, the whole contents of which are incorporated herein by way of reference) describes an inventive offer and rewards system which encourages incremental customer expenditure by linking offers and rewards to customer expenditure patterns (e.g. rewards, such as parking discounts, and offers can be based on how much a customer spends, as well as the specific products he or she purchases), yet the system: • Maximises customer participation, as it only requires customers to scan a transaction record (e.g. receipts) and optionally scan identification document/s for identity verification. Customers are not required to undertake any additional activity or effort in order to receive an offer or reward;

• Affords flexibility to customers, who are not required to make any ongoing commitment in order to receive offer and rewards (e.g. customers do not have to sign up to a loyalty card program); · Significantly minimises cost of participation for program owners, as no or minimal integration with core operating systems is required, and program owners do not incur contingent liabilities associated with accumulated 'points';

• Provides flexibility for the program owners, as rewards issued to customers are at the discretion of the program owner (subject to the program's Terms and

Conditions and applicable legislation).

Notwithstanding these beneficial attributes, poorly targeted offers (attracting only price conscious consumers who exhibit no behavioural loyalty) and fraud is a growing problem for transaction based offer and rewards programs, particularly (but not exclusively) in Emerging Markets. This means a benefit is conveyed to a person (e.g. by way of a promotional offer or reward), who is not the intended recipient of the benefit.

It would be desirable to mitigate the risk of fraud when issuing spend based rewards (e.g. parking discounts; promotional credits for Electronic Gaming Machines) based upon the scanning of records presented by customers. Specifically, it would be desirable to prevent customers from presenting the same record (e.g. purchase receipt or identification record) more than once, in order to receive rewards and offers for which they are not the intended recipient.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for or a method of taking a scanned image (e.g. transaction record, identification document), presented by a customer for the purpose of receiving an offer or reward, and transforming it into a unique identifier based upon its dimensions, colour, pixel patterns, text and numerical information, or combinations thereof, enabling real time search procedures to determine if the image presented for scanning has previously been presented or is otherwise fraudulent (e.g. the company purporting to have issued the transaction record does not exist). A scanner and a data processor can be provided for this purpose. According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for, or a method of, providing in a reward based transaction system a unique identifier for a customer or transaction (thereby reducing the possibility of fraud) by the steps of providing a record of a transaction, converting that record into a unique identifier for the particular customer or transaction, and comparing that identifier in real time with a library of existing identifiers, whereby to determine if the unique identifier exists in the library, so as to avoid fraudulent repeat issuance of a reward following a transaction.

A scanner and a data processor can again be provided for this purpose. Using the present invention, a customer cannot present the same transaction record (e.g. a purchase receipt or an identification record) on two or more occasions in order to try to receive multiple rewards or offers, thereby reducing the risk of fraud.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a reward based transaction system, comprising one or several terminal devices, and a central library or server which can be interrogated one or several times in real time by one or more unique identifiers from the or each terminal. This system can operate with or using any of the aspects of the invention described above. As a result of the present invention, offers or rewards are only issued to the intended recipient, or in the event of any uncertainty regarding the customer's eligibility to receive the reward, the level of reward issued can be reduced commensurate with the level of uncertainty. Preferred features of the present invention may comprise any one or more of the following steps:

1. A terminal device (e.g. self service kiosk, Microsoft Surface tabletop), wherein that device is deployed or located remote from, or simply functionally separate from, a point of sale. The terminal device may comprise an image capture scanner. 2. Means whereby a customer can visit one of the terminals and scan one or more transaction record(s), and optionally scan an identification document or documents;

3. Means whereby scanned image(s) are 'de-skewed' and then a unique identifier (similar to a digital fingerprint) is assigned to each scanned image;

4. Means to derive transactional and identity information associated with a customer's purchase or identity record, the means using the steps of: capturing the document image presented by the customer, parsing the captured image, and utilising optical character recognition to extract the relevant customer transaction or identity information (e.g. time and date of purchase; retailer where the purchase was made; specific items purchased; total value of purchases; nationality; passport number; flight details and seat number). A scanner and a data processor can again be provided for this purpose.

5. Means to perform search procedures on both the unique identifier associated with the scanned image and the derived transactional and identity information;

6. Deployment or positioning of the terminal device as part of a plurality of such devices, and preferably such that search procedures can be conducted simultaneously across all deployed terminals. This might be achieved using wired or wireless communications. Preferably, or alternatively, a central server can be interrogated for this purpose. Preferably the central server acts as a repository of all information associated with the totality of customer scan events;

7. Means for printing or delivering offers and/or rewards (e.g. coupons or vouchers; validated discounted parking tickets, TITO tickets for electronic gaming machines or ticket accepters at table games), e.g. once the transaction record is successfully validated or authenticated. Preferably they are printed at the terminal device. In other arrangements a process for publishing an offer or reward might be initiated by the terminal device. One arrangement might be to have an electronic coupon transmitted to a customer's mobile communication device. For example, the offers and rewards may be printed at a terminal device, or transmitted for publication to another electronic device (e.g. the customer's mobile communication device).

8. By virtue of being the entitled recipient, the customer may be able to share offers or reward benefits with friends or colleagues to whom they have chosen to connect with (e.g. using social networking portals), subject to the rules imposed be the program sponsor. Means for implementing this may thus be provided.

Other embodiments of the invention, such as where including validation and authentication, may include the following features, additional steps, or combinations thereof:

1. Barcode validation. For example, the transaction record presented for scanning by the customer may comprise a barcode (e.g. printed on the customer's receipt by a retailer or other participant in the program). This barcode could then be validated because it matches a set of agreed acceptable barcodes, or because it conforms with an agreed algorithmic method. One arrangement might be to accept a barcode if the barcode is for a prime number, and otherwise to reject it, e.g. only to accept it in that circumstance.

2. RFID identification. For example, a customer can receive an RFID tag from a retailer in the form of card or ticket, or it might be embedded in a 'receipt folder' or a shopping bag. The RFID tag can then be detected by an RFID reader installed in the terminal device. The presence of the RFID tag, together with the presentation of a hitherto unseen record of purchase, could then be considered when determining the customer's eligibility to receive a particular level of reward.

3. The use of special illumination to enable recognition of symbols invisible to the customer, and undetectable by machines designed for photographic reproduction (e.g. photocopiers). For example, records of purchase may have printed UV or other symbols not visible to the customer, and not able to be photocopied. These symbols are, however, detectable through the use of appropriate illumination (e.g. IR lighting) installed in the terminal device. 4. Biometric scanning. For example, the customer would be required to place their finger tip on a fingerprint scanner, or to look into a Retinal or Iris scanning device, installed in the terminal device.

The present invention has been described above purely by way of example. Modifications in detail may be made to the invention within the scope of the claims appended hereto.

Claims

I . A computer assisted system for validating transactional data associated with but remote from a Point of Sale (POS).

2. A system according to Claim 1 , comprising a plurality of POS terminals comprising a network thereof.

3. A system according to Claim 2, comprising a plurality of separate retail outlets.

4. A system according to any of Claims 1 to 3, where the validation of transactional data enables a user to receive particular promotional offers, discounts, gifts, promotional credits for a gaming machine or a rewards currency.

5. A system according to any of Claims 1 to 4, where a user presenting a validated transaction record can share with friends or colleagues to which they have chosen to connect with (e.g via a social networking portal), the particular promotional offers, discounts, gifts or rewards to which they are entitled.

6. A system according to any preceding claim, where the means of validation includes the scanning of printed records or reading of an electronic, handheld device.

7. A system according to any preceding claim, where the means of validation includes searching a library of existing transactional data or related identifiers, whereby to determine if the unique transaction data or identifier already exists.

8. A system according to Claim 7, where the means of validation includes searching a library of existing transactional data or related identifiers to identify existing records according to attributes including size, image and pixel patterns, colour detection, text and numeric information.

9. A system according to any preceding claim, where the means of validation includes a barcode.

10. A system according to any preceding claim, where the means of validation includes a barcode conforming to an algorithmic method.

I I . A system according to any preceding claim, where the means of validation includes the detection of an RFID tag.

12. A system according to any preceding claim, where the means of validation includes the use of special illumination to enable recognition of symbols or characters invisible to a user, and undetectable by machines designed for photographic reproduction.

13. A system according to any preceding claim, where the means of validation includes biometric scanning.

14. A computer assisted system for authenticating transactional data associated with but remote from a Point of sale (POS).

15. A system according to Claim 14, comprising a plurality of Point of sale (POS) terminals.

16. A system according to Claim 15, comprising a plurality of separate retail outlets.

17. A system according to any of Claims 14 to 16, where the authentication of transactional data enables a user to receive particular promotional offers, discounts, gifts or rewards.

18. A system according to any of Claims 14 to 17, where the authentication of transactional data enables a user to receive particular promotional offers, discounts, gifts, promotional credits for a gaming machine or a rewards currency.

19. A system according to any of Claims 14 to 18, where a user presenting a authenticated transaction record can share with friends or colleagues to which they have chosen to connect with (e.g via a social networking portal), the particular promotional offers, discounts, gifts or rewards to which they are entitled.

20. A system according to any of Claims 14 to 19, where the means of authentication includes the scanning of printed records or reading of an electronic, mobile device.

21. A system according to any of Claims 14 to 20, where the means of authentication includes searching a library of existing transactional data or related identifiers, whereby to determine if the unique transaction data or identifier already exists.

22. A system according to Claim 21 , where the means of authentication includes searching a library of existing transactional data or related identifiers to identify existing records according to attributes including size, image and pixel patterns, colour detection, text and numeric information.

23. A system according to any of Claims 14 to 22, where the means of authentication includes a barcode.

24. A system according to any of Claims 14 to 23, where the means of authentication includes a barcode conforming to an algorithmic method.

25. A system according to any of Claims 14 to 24, where the means of authentication includes the detection of an RFID tag.

26. A system according to any of Claims 13 to 25, where the means of authentication includes the use of special illumination to enable recognition of symbols invisible to the user and undetectable by machines designed for photographic reproduction.

27. A system according to any of Claims 14 to 26, where the means of authentication includes biometric scanning.

28. A system according to any preceding claim, where the user presents a record of transaction at a terminal device.

29. A system according to claim 28, where the terminal used includes a scanner for capturing or reading a paper or electronic record of transaction displayed on a screen and/ or communicated using a handheld wireless device.

30. A system according to claim 28, where the terminal includes an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) processing capability to parse and interpret a record of transaction.

31. A system according to claim 28, where the terminal includes an embedded processing capability, disk storage and wireless communication device where business rules and analytic based logic can be used to interpret user input and personalise the particular promotional offers, discounts, gifts or rewards displayed or otherwise communicated to the user, based upon the characteristics of the transaction record and/or the user.

32. A system according to any preceding claim, where the communication to users of promotional offers, discount vouchers, gift certificates or rewards can be through a printed coupon or voucher, or via through the publication of same to an electronic, handheld device.

33. A reward based transaction system comprising a means to take a scanned image, presented by a customer for the purpose of receiving an offer or reward, and means for transforming it into a unique identifier based upon its pixel pattern and its text and numerical information, and means for enabling real time search procedures, and means to determine if the image presented for scanning has previously been presented.

34. A reward based transaction system comprising means for providing in a unique identifier for a customer or transaction, comprising the steps of providing a record of a transaction, converting that record into a unique identifier for the particular customer or transaction, and comparing that identifier in real time with a library of existing identifiers to determine if the unique identifier exists in the library.

35. A reward based transaction system comprising one or several terminal devices, and a central library or server which can be interrogated one or several times in real time by one or more unique identifiers from the or each terminal.

36. The system of claim 33, claim 34 or claim 35, comprising a scanner and a data processor.

37. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein offers or rewards are only issued to the intended recipient.

38. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein in the event of any uncertainty regarding the customer's eligibility to receive a reward, the level of reward issued can be reduced commensurate with the level of uncertainty.

39. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a bespoke terminal device that is deployed or located remote from, or simply functionally separate from, a point of sale.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the bespoke terminal device comprises an image capture scanner.

41. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising means whereby a customer can visit one of the terminals and scan one or more transaction record(s), and optionally scan an identification document or documents.

42 The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising means whereby scanned image(s) are 'de-skewed' and then a unique identifier is assigned to each scanned image.

43. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising means to derive transactional and identity information associated with a customer's purchase or identity record, the means using the steps of: capturing the document image presented by the customer, parsing the captured image, and utilising optical character recognition to extract the relevant customer transaction or identity information.

44. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising means to perform search procedures on both the unique identifier associated with the scanned image and the derived transactional and identity information.

45. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a deployment or positioning of the terminal device as part of a plurality of such devices.

46. The system of claim 45, when dependent upon claim 44, wherein search procedures are arranged to be conducted simultaneously across all deployed terminals.

47. The system of claim 45 or claim 46, wherein the devices are linked via a wireless communications means.

48. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a central server for interrogation.

49. The system of claim 48, wherein the central server acts as a repository of all information associated with the totality of customer scan events.

50. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising means for printing or delivering offers and/or rewards.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein they are printed at the terminal device.

52. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein a process for publishing an offer or reward is initiated by the terminal device.

53. The system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the offer or reward takes the form of an electronic coupon transmitted to a customer's mobile communication device.

54. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising Barcode validation.

55. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising RFID identification.

56. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising the use of special illumination to enable recognition of symbols invisible to the customer, and undetectable by machines designed for photographic reproduction.

57. The system of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising biometric scanning.

58. A system substantially as hereinbefore described.