Fraud prevention trading and payment system for business and consumer transactions

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 12/846,844, entitled “Fraud Prevention Trading and Payment System for Business and Consumer”, filed on Jul. 30, 2010, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/229,992, entitled “Time- and place related trade- and interests linking search- and auction system on the internet (world wide web)”, filed Jul. 30, 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Embodiments are related to fraud prevention trading and payment systems for businesses and consumers and can include a system for handling a contract between two or more contracting parties from the beginning to the conclusion of the contract including the safe handling of payments. Embodiments can be used for fraud prevention in business to business (B2B), consumer to consumer (C2C), and to business to consumer (B2C) transactions.

At the time being there exist business to business internet platforms and consumer to consumer internet platforms as well as business to consumer platforms. Many of the B2B internet platforms establish contacts between businesses, the transaction does not necessarily take place on the internet platform, that offers the possibility to contact other businesses. Other B2B, C2B and C2C internet platforms have the possibility of closing a deal and paying on the same internet platform. Different payment systems can be used, as outlined below.

In import/export letter of credit is a frequently used method of payment. The advantage is a high security standard, on the other hand there are high costs for the banks services for the contracting parties because of the high bureaucracy and usually quite a long duration of the whole settlement.

Another payment situation is represented by payment on account, in this case bank wire transfer or direct debit, also by online banking are frequently used payment methods in the domestic and also in the international market. Other payment possibilities are represented by credit card, debit card, e-wallet payment methods, any prepaid payment methods and money transfer with immediate cash payout systems. The buying party is clearly in advantage compared to the vendor, because it receives first the goods or services, can verify the quality and pay afterwards. The vendor party takes the risk of cash loss in case of fraud or insolvency.

Cash on delivery is a special case, because it does not give the buyer the possibility to verify the content and the quality of the goods he receives, since he has to pay on the spot even before opening the package.

One more payment situation is the payment in advance, in which all the payment systems that are also used for payment on account, like above mentioned, can be used. Clearly the advantage is in the case of payment in advance on the vendor's side, the buyer has the risk of cash loss in case of fraud or the risk that the goods or services he buys are not corresponding to the description given by the vendor.

All the above payment methods have in common that they can guarantee secure payment. Except for the letter of credit none of the above mentioned payment systems may be able to prevent fraud for both contracting parties or to solve the problem of insolvency. As far as the letter of credit is concerned, the control during the transaction is entirely in the hands of the banks of the two or more contracting parties, if any objection regarding the quality of the contracted goods occurs, there is no possibility for the contracting parties to take any action. The inventors have developed the present invention which overcomes the drawbacks of the existing payment systems, the “fraud prevention trading and payment system for business and consumer” solves all these problems. By using our invention none of the contracting parties has at the same time control over money and goods or over money and services. These embodiments, and others described in greater detail herein, give the contracting parties the possibility of following and control a contract step by step until the conclusion and pay-out in absolute security in every decisional situation without becoming a victim of fraud, insolvency or similar inconvenient cases. Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description.

A transaction may be bad for a vendor, if a buyer is a defrauder or insolvent and may be bad for a buyer, if the buyer pays the vendor, but the goods or services do not correspond to the description of the contracted goods or services. Accordingly, embodiments of the fraud prevention trading and payment systems for business and consumer described herein can be useful for everybody who wants to sell or buy goods or services. It is a non bureaucratic system that allows security and control for the contracting parties over the quality of the goods and the payment by freezing the complete purchase price on the buyers account and a deposit on the vendors account. The contracting parties keep control over every decisional step of the transaction. In case of a complaint, reverse transactions are possible.

One embodiment includes a system having a computer or electronic terminal. The system is able to interact with a bank and contracting parties (two or more). All contracting parties have their respective accounts at a same e-wallet firm or respective bank accounts at the same bank and a trading platform is combined with the bank or e-wallet firm.

The system of the present invention can be implemented on any existing or future terminal or device with the processing capability to perform the functions described herein. It will be appreciated that an embodiment is not limited by the type of terminal or device used. Further, reference to a single click of a mouse as a means for user input and interaction with the terminal display is an example of a single action of the user for illustration purposes.

While this describes one mode of interaction, an embodiment is not limited to the use of a mouse as the input device or to the click of a mouse button as the user's single action. Rather, any action by a user regarding one transaction (code/deal), whether comprising one or more clicks of a mouse button, the input of a code or other input device, can be considered a single action of the user for the purposes of an embodiment.

The system can be applied to two or more matching codes. Only when the specific transaction is confirmed by the designated number of persons by input of components of the code or by mouse clicks, the transaction is completed. Further details will be explained below in conjunction with the flow chart shown in.

Further details of the invention will be explained with the flow chart shown in. In the example methods described below, it is assumed that buyers and sellers have accounts at a financial institution or e-wallet connected to the computer implemented system as described herein.

According tothere are different alternative methods (or usage scenarios) using an embodiment:

Method 1

The key is split, buyer and vendor get each a code component of the key.

The key is split, buyer and vendor get each a code component of the key.

The key is split, buyer and vendor get each a code component of the key.

The key is split, buyer and vendor get each a code component of the key.

The key is split, buyer and vendor get each a code component of the key.

The key is split, buyer and vendor get each a code component of the key.

The key is split, buyer and vendor get each a code component of the key.

Step 30: The contracting parties go to court in order to obtain a decision on who is right

Method 8

The key is split, buyer and vendor get each a code component of the key.

The key is split, buyer and vendor get each a code component of the key.

is a diagram of an example server devicethat can be used for fraud prevention in accordance with at least one embodiment. The server deviceincludes a processor, operating system, memoryand I/O interface. The memorycan include a transaction engineand an application program for fraud prevention.

In operation, the processormay execute the applicationstored in the memory. The applicationcan include software instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations for fraud prevention in accordance with the present disclosure (e.g., performing one or more of steps described above).

The application programcan operate in conjunction with the transaction engineand the operating system.

The server (e.g.,) can include, but is not limited to, a single processor system, a multi-processor system (co-located or distributed), a cloud computing system, or a combination of the above.

The client device can include, but is not limited to, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a portable computer, a tablet computing device, a smartphone, a feature phone, a personal digital assistant, a media player, an electronic book reader, an entertainment system of a vehicle or the like.

The network can be a wired or wireless network, and can include, but is not limited to, a WiFi network, a local area network, a wide area network, the Internet, or a combination of the above.

The data storage, memory and/or computer readable medium can be a magnetic storage device (hard disk drive or the like), optical storage device (CD, DVD or the like), electronic storage device (RAM, ROM, flash, or the like). The software instructions can also be contained in, and provided as, an electronic signal.

Moreover, embodiments of the disclosed method, system, and computer readable media can be implemented in software executed on a programmed general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, or the like.

It is, therefore, apparent that there is provided, in accordance with the various embodiments disclosed herein, systems, methods and computer readable media for fraud prevention.

While the invention has been described in conjunction with a number of embodiments, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations would be or are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the applicable arts. Accordingly, Applicants intend to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, equivalents and variations that are within the spirit and scope of the invention.