WO2013076558A1

WO2013076558A1 - Method of money transfer using electronic data transmission

Info

Publication number: WO2013076558A1
Application number: PCT/IB2012/002432
Authority: WO
Inventors: Samuele Vinati; Felice Vinati; Matteo Vinati; Maria Chiara Vinati; Giacomo Vinati
Original assignee: Safety World Wide Web
Priority date: 2011-11-21
Filing date: 2012-11-19
Publication date: 2013-05-30
Also published as: ITMI20112112A1

Abstract

A method of money transfer using electronic data transmission between a transferor, a client of a first credit cards management company, and a transferee, a client of a second credit cards management company, by means of an application associated to a portable electronic device of the transferor, the method comprising a step of: - pairing uniquely the portable electronic device of the transferor to a server associated with the first credit cards management company; - issuing a credit order by means of sending money transfer data; - identifying the transferor on the basis of his/her mobile telephone number; - forwarding a credit order of the amount to be subject of the credit order to the second credit cards management company; - identifying the transferee on the basis of his/her mobile telephone number.

Description

Method of Money Transfer Using Electronic Data Transmission

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention refers to a method of money transfer by means of an application associated to a portable electronic device using electronic data transmission.

BACKGROUND ART

As known, nowadays the credit card is considered and mainly and exclusively used for paying at subjects having the POS (Point of Sale) or through Internet to approved subjects with special procedures and however all such subjects are entrepreneurs in their entirety and however subjects performing activities such to lead to a financial transaction with exchange of goods and/or services.

A further fact to be considered lies in the fraud carried out with the credit cards and which imply considerable insurance costs to the management company of the same or to the owners of the card.

For example, it is known that when purchasing online it is required to indicate the type of credit card to be used, the number of the credit card, the security code and the expiry date.

In case of ATM withdrawals there however still persists the problem deriving from the possibility of losing the card.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a substantial replacement of the use of cash and credit card, by carrying out payment in a more secure and widespread manner, by means of a system that substitutes the credit card considered in particular as a support card containing data that identifies a client of a credit cards management company.

A further object of the present invention is to facilitate the use of credit card contracts also by people that do not trust purchasing online carried out indicating the date of the credit card thereof.

Still another object of the present invention, is to make the money transferred to a transferee by a transferor immediately available for subsequent transfers by the transferee.

Another object of the invention is that of attaining the aforementioned result in a practical and economical manner.

Said objects are attained by means of a method of money transfer using electronic data transmission between a transferor, a client of a first credit cards management company, and a transferee, a client of a second credit cards management company, by means of an application associated to a portable electronic device of the transferor, the method comprising a step of:

- pairing uniquely the portable electronic device of the transferor to a server associated with the first credit cards management company;

- issuing a credit order by means of sending payment data in electronic format to the first credit cards management company, where said data comprise a first and a second alphanumeric code each of which identifies a portable electronic device respectively belonging to the transferor and to the transferee and the indication of the second credit cards management company;

- receiving - by the first credit cards management company - the payment data in electronic format;

- identifying the transferor according to a comparison between the first alphanumeric code which identifies the portable electronic device thereof and a first client database of the first management company;

- forwarding a credit order of the amount to be subject of the credit order to the second credit cards management company, said order comprising the second alphanumeric code which identifies the portable electronic device of the transferee;

- identifying the transferee according to a comparison between the second alphanumeric code which identifies the portable electronic device thereof and a second client database of the second management company; and

- transferring the money on the basis of the credit order and sending a money transfer confirmation message to the transferee.

An advantage of this method lies in the fact that it not only allows carrying out the payments even without the use or the presence of the POS (Point of Sale) but it also allows carrying out a financial transaction between the private subjects owning a credit card contract, which can be activated through an application associated to mobile telephone systems. Thus also the transactions between private citizens or however subjects or organizations or companies that do not have the POS device or do not have the internet payment procedure, are allowed by the aforementioned method.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the money transfer confirmation message is sent with push technology to an application associated with the portable electronic device of the transferee where said confirmation message coincides with the availability of the money for subsequent transfers by the transferee.

An advantage of this embodiment is that the confirmation message is transmitted to the portable device of the transferee when the money is available to him/her and therefore said confirmation message coincides with the availability of the money for subsequent money transfers by the transferee.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the alphanumeric codes identifying the portable electronic devices of the transferor and of the transferee are telephone numbers.

An advantage of this embodiment lies in the simplicity of actuation conjugated to the privacy offered for the transferor and the transferee.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, the telephone numbers of the transferor and of the transferee are associated to the IMSI code of the respective SIM and/or to the IMEI code of the respective portable electronic device.

This embodiment confers a further level of privacy available for the users. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will be apparent from reading the following description provided by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the figures illustrated in the attached drawings, wherein: - figure 1 represents a block diagram regarding an embodiment of the method of the invention;

- figure 2 represents a block diagram regarding a second embodiment of the method of the invention;

- figure 3 represents the main components required for providing the method of the invention;

- figure 4 represents a paring between a portable electronic device with a server associated to a credit cards management company; and

- figures 5-6 represent further embodiments of the method of the invention. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

In figure 1 there is represented a first user 30 who is the client of a first credit cards management company 34 which uses the method according to an embodiment of the present invention to pay a second user 42 using the respective mobile telephone number for identification thereof and for identifying the second user 42.

The first user 30 is thus a transferor and the second user 42 a transferee.

Following such request, which may occur through a portable electronic device, such as a mobile telephone 70 or a smartphone (fig.3) belonging to the first user 30, the credit request is forwarded to the first credit cards management company 34 (block 32).

The first credit cards management company 34, having identified the client thereof through a first alphanumeric code 72 which identifies the cellular telephone 70, transmits the credit order data to the second credit cards management company 38 (block 36).

The second credit cards management company 38 confirms to the transferee user 42, via SMS or Mail or any other message that can be received by the cellular telephone 80 of the transferee 42, the reception of a successful credit order in favour of the transferee user 42, using a second alphanumeric code 82 which identifies the cellular telephone 80 of the transferee user (block 40) as the identification code.

The transferor user 30 and the transferee user 42 are, during the method, identified by means of the mobile telephone number alone, possibly associating it to the IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) code of the respective SIM and/or to the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) code of the mobile telephone thereof or any other device, such as for example a smartphone.

This allows total and absolute privacy due to the fact that the first credit cards management company 34 identifies the transferor client 30 thereof using - as the identification code - the number of the mobile telephone thereof, but cannot know or identify the transferee (unless the latter is also a client thereof) given that he/she receives solely the mobile telephone number to which the amount is to be transferred.

The transferor 30 is identified according to the comparison between the mobile telephone number thereof and a first client database 22 of the first management company 34.

The second credit cards management company 42 identifies the transferee client thereof using - as an identification code - the mobile telephone number, but cannot know or identify the transferor (unless the latter is also a client) given that it receives the mobile telephone number of the transferor alone.

The transferee 42 is identified according to the comparison between the mobile telephone number thereof and a second client database 61 of the second management company 38.

Both the transferor and transferee users 30,42 are identified given that the mutual mobile telephone number appears in the phonebook thereof.

The transferor 30 and the transferee 42 are thus capable of identifying each other and being identified by the respective credit cards management company 34,38.

The credit cards management company 34,38 in turn can only exclusively recognise and identify the client thereof and not that of the corresponding company intervening in the transaction.

The transferor user 30 can use a suitable software previously installed in the mobile telephone and/or data transmission 70 device thereof. The previously installed software can be granted for use by the respective credit card management company or any other interested subject.

The two credit cards management companies may be provided with a clearing room 99 for regulating the respective debit and credit order.

According to the present invention, the portable electronic device 70 of the transferor may be paired to a server associated to the credit cards management company 34 by means of a pairing procedure (fig. 4). A similar pairing procedure may be performed for the portable electronic device 80 of the transferee.

In particular, on the portable electronic device 70 (and 80) an application 92 may be installed by means of which to perform the various functions of the method of the invention.

The application 92 may also allow the performance of the above mentioned pairing procedure.

The pairing procedure comprises also a phase in which the identifying data relative to the portable electronic device 70, such as the SIM number, the MSISDN number of mobile telephone, namely the telephone number of the user, and the IMEI code, and eventually an application code specific for that specific user, are sent to the server 90 of the credit cards management company 34 (arrow F1).

The server 90 replies by releasing an activation code 91 for activating the connection with the portable electronic device 70, which by means of the application 92, is now able to connect to the server 90 of the credit cards management company 34 (arrow F2). Server 90 may be a server operating with an HTTPS protocol or another protocol that allows a safe encryption of the transmitted data.

The activation code 91 can also be communicated in a different way to the transferor and be inputted into the application 92 in order to activate the pairing procedure above mentioned, namely activate the connection with the specific portable electronic device 70 with the serve 90 of the credits management company 34.

The SIM number, the MSISDN number of mobile telephone and the IMEI code guarantee an unique pairing between the device 70 and the server 90. Application 92 can be installed on the device 70, such as a smartphone, and be configured to operate on one or more operating system for smartphones such as iOS, Android or the like and may be download from the relative online stores.

Activation code 91 is used in order to allow to the credit cards management company 34 to interact with its own Client, for example to activate application 92 on the first use by the Client.

In fact the SIM alone does not identify the user that can be different from the individual who has requested it, as in the case of SIMs used by minors or those given in use by companies.

Moreover, in several Countries the release of the SIM is performed without identification of the user.

Application 92 can be protected by an access password.

After having performed the unique paring between the portable electronic device 70 and the server 90, every time that the application 92 is activated, for example by pressing a relative button, a verifying phase is performed in order to allow the pairing with the server 90 with a secure and non-cloneable identification of the Client of the credit cards management company 34.

The same procedure may be employed for the mobile telephone and/or data transmission device 80 of the transferee in order to pair it to the server

90 of the second credit cards management company 38. The transferee may also be client of credit cards management company of the transferor, in which case a clearing room facility between two companies will not be necessary.

In this way, by means of application 92, it is possible to communicate directly with the server of the credit cards management company and order the money transfer to another credit cards management company (or to the same) to the mobile telephone number indicated, number that becomes an identifier of the user to whom the money transfer is intended.

If said user uses also the same application 92, he/she may receive a push confirmation message of the money transfer to his/her account.

Said confirmation message using push technology may be received when the first and the second credit cards management company have regulated their accounts by means of a clearing room 99 or any other analogous system, an operation that can be performed in real time.

The push technology confirmation message is representative of the fact that the amount has been credited to the transferee account using and of its immediate availability for subsequent money transfers and/or payments because the confirmation message is sent to an application 92 of the transferee that is analogous to the one of the transferor and can therefore carry out the same operations.

By consequence, at this point the transaction is completed and the money is immediately available to the transferee for other money transfers or payments.

It is important to note that, thanks to this embodiment of the method of the invention, the possibility of instantly transferring money from one point to the other in the world is obtained, the money being immediately ready for further transfers or payments.

This is not possible even with real money.

Moreover, this system does not necessitate the use of the telephone network but can be implemented even only by a connection between the devices, such as the smartphones, and the servers 90 of the credit cards management companies, connection that may be implemented by known techniques such as WI-FI or similar.

If the transferee does not use application 92, he/she may however receive a confirmation message, for example by SMS, and can spend the money received using his/hers credit card.

Following the diagram of figure 2, it can be observed that the transferor user 30 activates the software for implementing the method of the invention, gaining access thereto through an enabling password.

The method thus implemented provides for that there are entered the payment or credit order parameters (block 12).

These payment order parameters may comprise:

- selecting the credit card to be used for the debit order (within the mobile telephone device there can be installed several software for different credit card companies);

- mobile telephone number of the user intended to receive the credit order which serves as an identification of the transferee client 42 of the second

5 credit cards company 38;

- credit cards management company intended to receive the credit;

- transaction code or number (if present);

- amount subject of the credit order;

- currency to be used;

o - possible text message;

- possible personal control code between subjects.

Thus, there follows the pressing of a button for sending data (block 14) on the cellular telephone 70 thereof.

There follows the encrypting (block 16) of the data sent as a function of 5 the type of selected credit card contract subject of the debit order and forwarding thereof to a predefined address of the selected credit cards management company 38 and, if it is an SMS, to the predefined telephone number (block 18).

Upon receiving the message there occurs the relative decryption from o which there is evinced the transmitted data which allow the first credit cards management company 34 to identify the client thereof, i.e. the transferor user 30 through comparison with the first database 22, and simultaneously identifying the second credit cards management company 38 (block 20). Regarding the transferee user 42, guaranteeing the privacy, there will be 5 disclosed only the mobile telephone number, which will allow the identification thereof by the second credit cards management company through the second client database 61 , to each of which there is associated the mobile telephone number thereof, without these being known to the first credit cards management company 38 (block 20).

o It is thus ascertained whether the transferor user 30 is a client of the first credit cards management company 34 (block 26). Should such ascertainment give a negative result, a transaction denial message (block 28) is forwarded to the transferor user 30.

On the contrary should such ascertainment give a positive result, the first credit cards management company 34 ascertains the availability of funds required for the operation (block 52). Should such ascertainment give a negative result, a transaction denial message due to unavailability of funds (block 54) is forwarded to the transferor user 30.

On the contrary, should such last ascertainment give a positive result, the first credit cards management company 34 carries out a further ascertainment (block 56) to verify whether there is indicated a second credit cards management company 38 that can be involved to complete the operation. Should such ascertainment give a negative result, a message confirming the successful credit order of the transferred amount (block 58) is sent to the transferee user 42 given that it is not required to contact a second credit cards company 38.

Should such ascertainment give a positive result, i.e. the transferee user 42 is a client of the second credit cards management company 38, where identification thereof occurred through comparison of the telephone number thereof with the personal information data contained in the second database 61 , a credit order (block 60) which will include the transaction data and the identification data of the transferee user 42 is carried out.

The second credit cards management company 38 will also forward to the transferee user 42 a message indicating the successful credit order (block 62).

As clearly observable such method allows the transaction between all subjects having a mobile telephone number and a credit card or rather users and/or clients of a credit cards company.

By way of example of an application of an embodiment of the method of the invention, it can allow a first travelling user to transmit an amount by ordering a credit transfer to a second user, for example to a friend elsewhere in the world.

In turn, the second transferee user, obtains a credit availability immediately increased with respect with the credit order carried out and which can be in turn used for any purchase or carrying out other credit transaction orders and so on and so forth.

Let us consider the advantage of the above embodiment of the method when the other subject is abroad or lives abroad.

An embodiment of the method of the invention can be used for the direct payment of goods and services (fig.5).

In this case, by use of the application 92, it is sufficient to indicate the identifying code of the cellular telephone 80 of the transferee, for example the simple telephone number, that can be for this aim expressly written on: Invoices, restaurant Invoices, Bills and similar documents of request of payment.

It is therefore sufficient that on the payment document is indicated the mobile telephone number 82 and, preferably, the name 84 of the credit cards management company that receives and handles the payment (and eventually an operation code) in order to proceed to the payment. It is finally indicated the amount 100 to be paid.

The user that initiates the payment, having performed the pair of his/hers portable electronic device 70 with his/hers credit cards management company by means of application 92, can performe the payment simply by inputting the mobile telephone number 82 of the transferee in his/hers application 92 and following the method indicated before.

An application of the method of the invention can be used for purchasing online: after selecting the products online, when confirming the order and the payment request, the display of the online seller proposes the following elements to be added before paying:

mobile telephone number of the seller to be indicated a credit card to be indicated for the credit order

an amount to be indicated

a transaction code

- a mobile telephone number of the purchaser (used for confirming the identity of the number the order comes from).

The online payment page will not necessarily ask for the credit card number and the security code thereof, but it is sufficient to ask for the above data.

Also in this case, in an analogous way with the payment of invoices, bills or similar in paper format as described above, the transferor, having paired his/hers portable electronic device 70 with his/hers credit cards management company, can perform the payment simply by inputting the mobile telephone number 82 of the transferee in his/hers application 92.

Upon performing the method indicated above, the screen of the computer or any other data transmission device appears confirming the completion of a successful transaction.

The user in turn who has purchased will receive an SMS or any other debit order confirmation and transaction data message.

The method is thus absolutely secure and free of any type of risk of losing the payment data.

In case of use of an ATM card the card shall be provided with an application indicating the possibility of accessing the method of the invention.

Upon pressing the activation button of the method the number to be indicated in the transaction will be shown on the mobile telephone.

The ATM system at the end of the method shall dispense the indicated amount.

For a further protection it is also possible that at the end of the method the user receives on the mobile telephone thereof a code to be indicated to the ATM and the ATM shall dispense such amount only after entering this code.

The ATM procedure is particularly useful with respect to the use of ATM card should the later for example be lost, stolen or should anything else happen to the card.

In such case lack of the card leads to the impossibility to any money dispensing request operation, while in the case of the method of the invention, the same may occur even from a remote telephone. Let us consider the example where a son/daughter, living abroad, loses the ATM card; the son/daughter will go to an ATM, activate the method of the invention, give the mobile telephone number to the parents thereof by phone, the parent will activate the ATM procedure according to the indications above and upon receiving the confirmation code transmit or indicate it to the son/daughter, who will be able to withdraw the amount by entering this code. According to a variant of the described method, the payment data in electronic format may be sent to the first credit cards management company 34 not by the transferor 30, but by the transferee 42 with the consent of the transferor 30.

This for example may occur in the case wherein the transferor is at the supermarket till, or any other commercial activity and in case of need to pay through credit card.

In this case, all the transferor 30 has to do is indicate the mobile telephone number thereof and the name of the company credit card company thereof to the cashier. The latter, who will operate as a transferee subject 42, may use the received data for starting the method described above, with the variant that, first and foremost, a debit order consent request regarding the amount is sent to the cellular telephone of the transferee subject.

When the transferor 30 gives his/her consent, the payment method is carried out as described in the present description.

The data transmitted by the transferor 30 to the transferee 42 at the beginning of the method can be transmitted in various ways depending on the cases: by voice, via Bluetooth or any other procedure available on the cellular telephone.

The invention has several advantages.

As happened in 1989 in Italy with the dematerialization of securities, whose printing is no longer made (except on request), but only accounted for, the various embodiments of the invention allow to do the same for the currency or at least for the majority of emissions.

This is because, thanks to the connection of the application 92 with the server 90 of the first credit card company, the presence of a current account and/or a credit and debit account and/or a clearing house between the two credit cards management companies and of the push technology notification of the accreditation of the money to the transferee, this latter immediately receives the availability of the money.

The dematerialization of money allows significant cost savings, given the fact that paper money has a life span of 7 years.

It must also be considered the fact that the dematerialization of money will no longer allow the development of evasion, corruption and any illegal activity that base their existence on paper money.

In countries like the United States where there is widespread use of credit cards for small amounts, paper money continues to circulate normally with all the consequences mentioned above.

The proposed system allows a great simplification and is not only a substitute for money, but it extends its usability.

The system described has a high degree of safety: in addition to the pairing described above, for which the transfer may take place only from that particular device with that SIM, in addition to the personal code that the customer can enter to validate each individual transfer, it will provide additional levels of security, such as:

• replacement of the SIM causes the block of the application

• replacement of the device (eg: smartphone) causes the block of the application

· the application can be blocked remotely.

The application can also be used by minors, provided that the amount is credited by one of the parents.

In addition to the above-described advantages of a general nature, the invention also has specific benefits for the private sector.

The invention allows to transfer and/or receive payments and transfers on a sort of virtual credit card.

Thanks to the application 92 is also possible to check at any moment the user's financial position and all movements also expressed as a debit/credit format or in scalar form.

It is further possible to make payments abroad, and enable transactions for single nations.

The invention ensures privacy by using only the mobile phone number as identification code of the subjects.

A plurality of virtual credit cards can be used on the same mobile device.

The invention allows the possibility of exceeding the limits on transaction relative to cash.

The invention also has benefits for the credit cards management companies.

It allows to handle a much greater dematerialized money quantity.

The invention makes it impossible, or at least significantly reduce, the theft of cash.

The invention can lead to a cost reduction of commissions in favour of the customer.

The invention has advantages for citizens, including, reduced costs of transferring money and/or of payment of services, availability at all times of day the system, ease of use in any location that is served by the mobile phone network, when a WI-FI connection or similar is not available.

The invention has advantages for businesses, including lower cost and immediacy of available funds.

Last but not least, the invention provides advantages for the State, namely: greater control over money transfers, absence or reduction of corruption, absence or reduction of tax avoidance, reduction of criminal activity related to the use of paper money.

Obviously the invention as described may be subjected to numerous modifications and improvements with the aim of meeting contingent and particular requirements, without departing from the scope of protection of the invention as claimed below.

Claims

1. A method of money transfer using electronic data transmission between a transferor (30), a client of a first credit cards management 5 company (34), and a transferee (42), a client of a second credit cards management company (38), by means of an application (92) associated to a portable electronic device (70,80) of the transferor (30), the method comprising a step of:

- pairing uniquely the portable electronic device (70,80) of the transferor0 (30) to a server (90) associated with the first credit cards management company (34);

- issuing a credit order by means of sending money trasfer data in electronic format to the first credit cards management company (34), where said data comprise a first and a second alphanumeric code5 (72,82) each of which identifies a portable electronic device (70,80) respectively belonging to the transferor (30) and to the transferee (42) and the indication of the second credit cards management company (38);

- receiving - by the first credit cards management company (34) - the o money tranfer data in electronic format;

- identifying the transferor (30) according to the comparison between the first alphanumeric code (72) which identifies the portable electronic device (70) thereof and a first client database (22) of the first management company (34);

5 - forwarding a credit order of the amount to be subject of the credit order to the second credit cards management company (38), said order comprising the second alphanumeric code (82) which identifies the portable electronic device (80) of the transferee (42);

- identifying the transferee (42) according to the comparison between 0 the second alphanumeric code (82) which identifies the portable electronic device thereof (80) and a second client database (61) of the second management company (38); and

- transferring the money on the basis of the credit order and sending a money transfer confirmation message to the transferee (42).

2. Method according to claim 1 , wherein an unique pairing of the portable electronic device (80) of the transferee (42) with a server associated to second management company (38) is provided.

3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the money transfer confirmation message is sent with push technology to an application associated with the portable electronic device (80) of the transferee (42) where said confirmation message coincides with the availability of the money for subsequent money transfers by the transferee.

4. Method according to claim 1 , wherein the alphanumeric codes identifying portable electronic devices (70,80) of the transferor (30) and of the transferee (42) are telephone numbers.

5. Method according to claim 4, wherein the telephone numbers (70,80) of the transferor (30) and of the transferee (42) are associated to the IMSI code of the respective SIM and/or to the IMEI code of the respective portable electronic device (70,80).

6. Method according to claim 1 , wherein the unique pairing of the portable electronic devices (70,80) to the servers of the credit cards management companies (34,38) is performed by means of data structure that associates the identifying data of the portable electronic devices (70,80) to the respective telephone number.

7. Method according to claim 1 , wherein the money transfer data are encoded according to the encoding standard of the first credit card management company (34).

8. Method according to the preceding claims, wherein the first and the second credit card management companies (34,38) coincide.