Patent ID: 8156228
Filing Date: 2012-04-10
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of facilitating a blind referral, comprising: producing a referral communication for referring a client computer from a connection with a first server to a second server, wherein the referral communication comprises first server information defining a location of the first server, wherein the referral communication refers the client computer to the second server to authenticate at least one of an identity, a source of funds, or an age of a user; generating a placeholder for the first server information in the referral communication, wherein the placeholder comprises at least one of a hash value, a client computer identification, a service identification, a proxy server, or a random alphanumeric character string, and wherein the random alphanumeric character string comprises a set of dummy characters or a dummy address; and replacing the first server information with the placeholder in communications with the second server during the referral communication to prevent the second server from learning an identity of the first server such that the second server receives the placeholder instead of the first server information.