Method of verifying proper payment of postage

A method is disclosed for ensuring proper payment by a mailer for postage indicia printed by the postage meter of a mailing machine operated by the mailer. The method includes a series of steps carried out by the mailer in connection with the preparation of a discrete quantity of mail by use of a mailing machine which has the capability of determining and recording in a database various characteristics of the mail that affect the postage required for a postal facility to handle the mail, and generates a product usage profile of the mailer's history of mailing. The Post Office counts the mail, and then calculates an expected cost of the mailing using data from the mailer's product usage profile, and then compares that expected cost with the amount of postage credit funds remaining in the mailer's postage meter to determine whether it is likely that any fraud has occurred in the preparation of the mailing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates generally to the field of handling metered 
mail by the U. S. Postal Service, and more particularly to a system for 
ensuring proper payment by mailers for the amount of postage that is 
printed in the form of postage indicia printed on envelopes and labels 
during operation of their mailing machines. 
Mailing machines which include postage meters that print a postage indicia 
on a mail piece or label have long been well known and have come into 
extremely widespread use throughout virtually all forms of commercial 
establishments, professional offices, publishing and financial 
institutions, public utilities, and many other business operations that 
generate mail, even in relatively small volume. Well over half a century 
of experience has convincingly demonstrated that the advantages of using 
mailing machines far outweigh the tedious and time consuming practice of 
moistening postage stamps and applying them to mail pieces, not to mention 
the inherent possibility of loss of money from unscrupulous employees and 
others who steal the stamps. The use of mailing machines greatly increases 
the rate at which large volumes of mail can be processed through other 
forms of automated mail handling machines, since the postage franking 
process can keep pace with the normal flow of mail through these machines. 
Thus, there is little if any doubt at the present time that mailing 
machines have become an indispensable item of office equipment in any of 
the forms of business operations mentioned above. 
Unfortunately, as is the case in many types of commercial operations, there 
are those unscrupulously creative individuals who devise various schemes 
for defeating the basic purpose of the postage meter, the end result being 
that mailers could print, or otherwise duplicate the printing of, postage 
indicia on mail for which proper payment had not been made. This illegal 
activity was recognized very early in the development of the postage 
meter, and in an effort to prevent it, postage meters were provided with 
some form of lockout mechanism which prevented them from operating after 
the amount of postage paid for had been printed. Thus, a mailer took his 
meter to a Post Office where a clerk opened it, reset it to print a 
predetermined amount of postage, e.g., $100.00, and resealed it, for which 
the mailer paid the $100.00. Thus, the concept was that the postage used 
by the mailer was purchased and paid for in advance, and appropriate means 
were provided in the postage meter to disable further operation of it when 
that amount of postage had been printed. 
The concept was sound in theory, and to a large extent it worked very well 
in practice, since in the early stages of postage meter use, the volume of 
use did not justify either the difficulty of achieving fraudulent use of 
the meter, or the risk of being caught in the commission of a federal 
crime. However, during the last several decades there has been such a 
dramatic increase in the volume of mail that various fraudulent practices 
for avoiding payment of postage used have become far more prevalent than 
heretofore. Several factors have contributed to the increase in mail 
volume, one in particular being the advent of credit cards which generate 
enormous quantities of mail in monthly bills to cardholders. Mail order 
purchasing is another significant factor contributing to the increase in 
mail volume. Further, mail volume in general has increased over the years 
as the general level of business activity has grown. Also, the present 
methods for detecting fraud require personal attention and investigation 
by postal officials, with the result that the high manpower required 
limits the use of audits or reviews to cases of suspected fraud and make 
routine audits impractical. Thus, despite the development over the years 
of various devices and methods which make postage fraud through the use of 
mailing machines more and more difficult, it would still be desirable for 
the postal authorities to have a cost efficient way to audit postage meter 
funds. 
Two significant events in the development of postage meter technology 
played a major part both in enhancing the ability of dishonest mailers to 
devise new methods of printing, or otherwise duplicating the printing, or 
postage indicia for which proper payment had not been made. One was the 
development of electronic postage meters in which the former mechanical 
devices for monitoring the amount of postage indicia printed and 
preventing further operation of the meter when the amount of postage for 
which payment had been made was exhausted were replaced by far more 
sophisticated and intelligent electronic devices, including a 
microprocessor, which enabled the postage meter to generate and store for 
future retrieval a variety of information in the form of databases. Thus, 
these meters were now capable not only of monitoring the amount of postage 
used and locking out the meter when the postage for which payment had been 
made was exhausted, but also generating and storing various forms of data 
relating to the operation of the meter, such as volume of mail by class, 
weight, destination, period of time, etc., which could be used to verify 
operation of the postage meter over that period time. 
Another event was the development of the technique of remotely resetting 
postage meters via telephone communication with a Post Office, in which a 
mailer could set up a postage account with the Post Office, pay into the 
account to establish sufficient credit to cover an order for an amount of 
postage, and then, when additional postage is required, establish a 
telephone communication between the Post Office and his mailing machine 
through which a computer could reset the meter for the designated amount 
of postage utilizing TOUCH TONES.RTM. telephone signaling technology. This 
system offered a tremendous convenience to the mailer in avoiding the 
necessity of carrying a postage meter to the Post Office. 
Thus, the more that postage meter technology created the ability and the 
incentive for increased use of postage meters with consequent increase in 
the volume of metered mail, the more became the incentive for unscrupulous 
mailers to devise various schemes for illegally obtaining postage. Thus, 
the fundamental problem faced by Post Offices in connection with this 
technology, that of verifying that proper payment has been made for each 
piece of metered mail passing through the Post Office, becomes 
increasingly difficult. 
The only 100% verification method available consisted of examining every 
piece of mail arriving at the Post Office from all mailers utilizing 
postage meters, and looking at the printed postage indicia to determine 
whether it was fraudulently created, whether it had a valid serial number 
for the meter, and scanning the envelopes to enter such information as the 
amount of postage, the date, the identification of the mailer, and 
possibly other information, into a database. The Post Office would then 
have to initiate a verification procedure to compare the amount of postage 
printed by the mailer's postage meter over a specified period of time, or 
for a specified amount of mail, with the amount of money paid by the 
mailers for the postage printed for the same or a comparable period of 
time, or for the same amount of mail. It should be apparent that the time 
and effort required to initially audit all the metered mail arriving at 
the Post Office and then perform the correlation of the results of the 
audit with the amount of money paid by the individual mailers for the 
postage printed by their postage meters renders the entire verification 
process virtually impossible, not only from a practicality standpoint but 
also because it would be prohibitively expensive. 
Thus, there is a need for a system for that produces the results of the 
100% audit of incoming mail coupled with correlation of the amount of 
postage indicia printed with the amount funds paid by mailers for postage 
meter use without going through the arduous, time consuming and 
intolerably expensive system just described. 
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The method of the present invention greatly obviates if not entirely 
eliminates the problems and disadvantages inherent both in prior art 
devices and techniques for dealing with the problems of postage meter 
fraud, as well the problems presently recognized in trying to achieve 
total elimination of postage meter fraud by the above described system. 
The basic concept of the method of the invention is that substantially the 
same beneficial results as those inherent in the system just described can 
be obtained through the use of the technique of statistical inference, 
often referred to as sampling, provided sufficiently accurate information 
can be obtained to generate statistically valid samples. The concept of 
sampling, of course, is well known and has been applied to an infinite 
variety of situations to generate various conclusions, especially 
numerical conclusions, and is based on the theory that the behavior of a 
large system or data stream can be predicted with a high degree of 
certainty by the correct examination of statistically significant, 
properly chosen samples. 
In the method of the present invention, this concept of statistical 
inference is applied to the mailing function, and is predicated on the 
theory that if sufficient knowledge can be obtained of the patterns of 
creating mail of a particular mailer to establish a statistical mailing 
profile for that mailer, and then determining the predicted cost of a 
particular mailing delivered to the Post Office based on the mailer's 
statistical mailing profile, it is then a relatively simple procedure to 
ascertain whether or not it is likely that fraud has occurred by comparing 
the predicted cost of the mailing with the amount of money actually paid 
to the Post Office by the mailer for postage credit in his meter. 
Thus, the method of the present invention provides a reltively simple 
technique of comparing what a mailer should have paid for postage used 
over a specified period of time, or a specified amount of mail, against 
what he actually paid for postage over that period of time, or for that 
amount of mail, by utilizing an accurate profile of the mailing patterns 
of that mailer. This is accomplished by a series of steps which are 
carried out both at the mailer's site utilizing an intelligent mail 
preparation system to prepare mail, and at the Post Office which utilizes 
data generated by the mailer's mail preparation system to verify that the 
mailer has properly paid for postage which he has used. The mailer's mail 
preparation system has the capability of determining various 
characteristics of mail which cause the postage rates to be different from 
one mail piece to an other, such as weight, size, class and sometimes even 
destination, and generating and storing data pertaining to these 
characteristics. This information is stored in suitable databases in the 
mailing machine that is part of the mail preparation system, and can be 
retrieved as needed to establish the mailing profile, also called product 
usage profile, of the mailer, and this profile is available to the Post 
Office for use in a unique verification process based on the 
aforementioned statistical inference of the postage that should have been 
paid by the mailer, which is then compared with the amount of money 
actually paid by the mailer. 
There are two embodiments of the method of the present invention. In the 
basic version, the verification process is a series of steps carried out 
by the mailer at his location in connection with the preparation of mail, 
either for a predetermined period of time or for a predetermined number of 
mail pieces, referred to as a batch. Regardless of which practice is used, 
the collection of mail that is to be the subject of the verification 
process at any given time is hereinafter referred to as the "discrete 
mailing." Another series of steps is carried out at a Post Office after 
the mail for the predetermined period of time or that in the batch is 
delivered to the Post Office. The latter series of steps are directed to 
determining whether or not, based on the statistical inference from the 
mailer's product usage profile, it is likely that the mailer did not have 
sufficient postage credit funds in the form of postage credit in his 
postage meter to cover the amount of postage actually printed for the mail 
he created during the predetermined period of time, or in the particular 
batch, whichever unit is being used for the verification being carried 
out. If it is determined that it is likely that the mailer did not have 
such sufficient postage credit funds, a fraud alert is generated and 
various inspections may be undertaken to ascertain with assurance whether 
any fraud has occurred or whether other events have caused the likelihood 
thereof to appear. Thus, in the basic version, the verification process is 
an individual event for the mailer. 
In an enhanced version of the method of the invention, the verification 
process includes a further series of steps by which it can be carried out 
on an ongoing basis by the Post Office, which has the unique advantage 
that the Post Office is afforded constant assurance that all applicable 
funds for postage credit to mailers are being paid for by the mailers. In 
order to accomplish this, the Post Office also maintains, in addition to 
the database of the actual funds paid to the Post Office by the mailer 
over an extended period of time, a database of the forecast amount of 
postage that it is expected the mailer will use over that extended period 
of time based on his product usage profile, which is periodically 
communicated by his mailing machine to the Post Office. If, at any time, 
it is likely, based on the above procedure, that the mailer does not have 
sufficient postage credit funds in his meter to cover the cost of a 
particular discrete mailing, then the same alert is given. If, on the 
other hand, no such likelihood exists, then the mailer can arrange with 
the post Office for a transfer of further funds to his postage meter to 
permit continued use. 
In a variation of the foregoing process, a third party may be utilized to 
provide the necessary computer equipment and maintain the necessary 
database of the expected or forecast amount of postage that the mailer 
will use during the extended period of time, thereby relieving the Post 
Office of the burden of maintaining the necessary computer hardware and 
databases for this purpose, and the manpower to operate this portion of 
the system. 
Thus, the present invention, basically, is a method of ensuring proper 
payment by a mailer for postage indicia printed by the postage meter of a 
mailing machine operated by the mailer. In this invention, the method 
comprises the steps of, at the mailer's location, preparing a discrete 
mailing for which the expected cost of mailing thereof is to be audited, 
the preparation of the discrete mailing including printing with a postage 
meter a postage indicia on each piece of mail in the discrete mailing to 
evidence payment by the mailer to a postal facility for handling that 
piece of mail, and delivering the discrete mailing to the postal facility. 
At the postal facility, the discrete mailing is counted to determine a 
piece count of the number of pieces of mail in the discrete mailing. A 
determination is then made as to whether or not it is likely that there 
was insufficient postage credit funds in the mailer's postage meter to 
cover the expected cost of the discrete mailing, and if it is so likely, a 
fraud alert is generated to indicate an apparent discrepancy between the 
expected cost of the discrete mailing and the amount of funds actually 
received by the postal facility for the postage credit used by the mailer 
in preparing the discrete mailing. By this procedure, the postal facility 
is afforded an opportunity to statistically monitor the amount of funds 
paid by a mailer for postage meter credit without performing a 100% audit 
of his mailings. 
In some of its more limited aspects, in the basic version of the invention, 
the step of preparing the discrete mailing includes the steps of 
determining various characteristics of each piece of mail in the discrete 
mailing that may affect the amount of postage required by the postal 
facility for handling that piece of mail, and maintaining a data record of 
the characteristics which is updated with each successive piece of mail 
that is prepared. In addition, a running piece count of each piece of mail 
that is prepared is maintained, and a record of the running piece count is 
also maintained. 
At the postal facility, the step of ascertaining whether it is likely that 
there was insufficient postage credit funds in the mailer's postage meter 
to cover the expected cost of the discrete mailing includes the steps of 
calculating the expected cost of the discrete mailing based the piece 
count and on mailing characteristic data obtained from the mailer, then 
comparing the expected cost of the discrete mailing with the amount of 
postage credit funds known by the postal facility to be in the mailer's 
postage meter, to determine whether it is necessary to generate the fraud 
alert. 
In the enhanced version of the invention, the mailer prepares his mail in 
the same manner as with the basic version, except that the data relating 
to the various characteristics of the discrete mailing is compiled in a 
database in the mailer's mailing machine as a product usage profile, the 
data from which is periodically communicated, typically by telephone, to 
the postal facility. Again, the expected cost of the discrete mailing is 
calculated and is compared with the amount of postage credit funds 
obtained from the mailer's product usage profile, and if the comparison 
fails to show that there was insufficient postage credit funds in the 
mailer's postage meter, the postal facility can then automatically 
transfer additional postage credit funds directly to the mailer's postage 
machine. 
In a variation of the enhanced version of the invention, the mailer's 
product usage profile is communicated both to the postal facility and to a 
third party that maintains a database of the expected or forecast amount 
of postage that the mailer is expected to use for discrete mailings that 
will be monitored over an extended period of time. 
Having briefly described the general nature of the present invention, it is 
a principal object thereof to provide a method for ensuring proper payment 
by a mailer for postage indicia printed by the postage meter of a mailing 
machine operated by the mailer. 
Another object of the present invention to provide a method as set forth 
above which provides postal facilities with a verification process that 
produces substantially the same results as 100% physical audits of 
incoming mail heretofore carried on without the great time and effort 
consuming inconvenience and expense of the former process. 
Still another object of the present invention to provide a method as set 
forth above which relies on predicting an accurate estimate of the 
expected cost of discrete mailings by a mailer utilizing data generated by 
the mailer relating to his mailing history. 
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method as set 
forth above which is relatively simple, can be carried out with known 
computer technology, and does not interfere with the normal mailing 
operations of the mailer. 
These and other features and advantages of the method of the present 
invention will become more apparent from an understanding of the following 
detailed description of the best modes presently contemplated of carrying 
out the principles of the invention, when considered in conjunction with 
the accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Referring now to the drawings, and particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, the 
method of the basic version of the present invention is illustrated by a 
series of interconnected boxes which represent the steps that are carried 
out at the mailer's location in conjunction with the operation of his 
mailing machine to prepare mail and generate the data related thereto, and 
at the Post Office in conjunction with utilizing the data generated by the 
mailer in carrying out the verification process to ensure that the mailer 
is properly paying for the postage he is using. The boxes in the left 
column headed MAILER represent the steps carried out by the mailer, while 
the boxes in the right column headed POST OFFICE represent those carried 
out by the Post Office. 
Thus, the first step in the method, represented by box 10, is that the mail 
is prepared, which means that the mail pieces are created by appropriate 
printing or otherwise and are put into envelopes which are sealed. This 
mail preparation may be carried out by hand or by appropriate computer 
controlled, automated mail preparation machines which can print the mail 
pieces, insert them into envelopes and seal the envelopes. 
In the next step, represented by the box 12, the mail is franked, i.e., 
passed through a mailing machine which includes a postage meter which 
prints a postage indicia on each envelope representative of the amount of 
postage required for the Postal Service to handle that piece of mail. As 
is well known in the art, the postage meter includes either mechanical or 
electronic input means for entering an amount of postage that is required 
for the Postal Service to handle the mail piece, and either mechanical or 
electronic ascending and descending registers which maintain, 
respectively, a running account of the amount of postage that has been 
printed by the postage meter and the amount of postage still available for 
printing before the postage meter exhausts its credit and locks out. Thus, 
when the appropriate amount has been entered into the postage meter, the 
ascending register is incremented and the descending register is 
decremented. 
Substantially simultaneously with this step, the mailer's product usage 
profile in the mailing machine is updated, as indicated by box 14. Certain 
modern mailing machines, such as the AGON.RTM. mailing machine marketed 
by Pitney Bowes Inc., have the capability of generating and maintaining 
databases containing information relating to various characteristics of 
each piece of being processed, such as physical characteristics such as 
the dimensions and weight, mail classification and destination code, a 
piece count number, the date and time of processing, the serial number of 
the postage meter, the settings of the ascending and descending registers, 
and other possible data. All of this data is entered into the product 
usage profile. Perhaps the most important item of information, along with 
the amount of postage printed on each envelope, is the count, which is 
simply the number of mail pieces which are processed within a discrete 
batch of mail pieces which will form the basis for statistical inference 
that will be used in determining whether the mailer has properly paid for 
the amount of postage he is printing, as explained in further detail 
below. It should be noted that the mailer's product usage profile is 
communicated to the Post Office, as indicated by the broken line 15, in a 
manner and for a purpose further explained below. 
As indicated by box 16, when the postage meter recognizes in known manner 
that appropriate information has been entered, and that there is 
sufficient postage credit remaining in the meter to cover the amount of 
postage required for the mail piece being created, the indicia is printed 
on the mail piece. 
As indicated by box 18 and the broken line 19, the mail pieces are then 
delivered to the Post Office, either in undetermined amounts from time to 
time over a predetermined period of time or in predetermined batches, the 
latter being the typical practice in that the mailer's mail pieces for a 
given period of time, usually a day, are delivered in a tray or some other 
batch mode. This step completes the activities carried on by the mailer at 
his location utilizing his mailing machine in preparing the discrete 
mailing. 
Referring now to the right side of FIG. 1, box 20 indicates merely that the 
mail pieces, prepared as described above, are received at the Post Office, 
where they are counted. Counting is carried out by any of a number of 
automated techniques which are known in the art for obtaining a rapid and 
accurate count of the number of mail pieces in a batch. 
As indicated by box 22, generally at substantially the same time that the 
number of mail pieces in the batch are counted, the count is added to a 
database of the mail piece count that is maintained by the Post Office for 
mailers, either indefinitely or at least during the period of time that 
the mailers are being monitored to verify the accuracy of their payments 
for postage used. 
As indicated by box 24, the next step is that the expected or forecast cost 
of the discrete mailing, i.e., the number of mail pieces delivered to the 
Post Office as per the piece count of step 22, is now predicted. This is 
accomplished in the Post Office computer by multiplying the piece count by 
the mailer's product usage profile which the Post Office has obtained, as 
indicated by the broken line 15, in any convenient manner, such as in hard 
copy form or electronically in a manner more fully described in connection 
with the procedures carried out in FIG. 2. For example, the mailer's 
product usage profile might indicate that typically 10% of his mail, that 
he prepares at a certain time of the month, is first class, 32.cent. mail; 
20% is first class, 64.cent. mail, and other percentages may represent 
still further types or categories of mail. Also, the profile itself may 
change according to the time of the month or the number of pieces in the 
batch. For example, the profile may show that on the 1st and 15th of the 
month, the mailer is more likely to send first class envelopes with 
invoices which weigh less than one ounce, while at all other times, 90% of 
his mail weighs between two and three ounces. But in carrying out this 
step, the Post Office predicts the cost of the discrete mailing by this 
mathematical calculation, which is derived from the mailer's product usage 
profile and the piece count. 
It should be noted at this point that the product usage profile, as created 
in the step described in connection with box 14, is the current best 
estimate of how the mailer prepares his mail. In connection with preparing 
this profile, there is a statistical judgment made as to whether the 
mailer's product usage profile is constant, and therefore has a high 
degree of predictability, or whether it is variable and therefore can't be 
used for an accurate forecast. If the only type of mail prepared by the 
mailer is first class, 32.cent. mail, that is a constant profile with a 
high degree of predictability, and all that has to be done at the Post 
Office is simply to count the number of mail pieces in a batch. On the 
other hand, if, for example, every month the mailer has a different kind 
of mail preparation, then that presents a variable product usage profile 
with a low degree of predictability, which cannot be relied upon to 
predict an accurate cost of discrete mailing, and which, therefore, 
necessitates that the probable cost of mailing must be calculated as 
described in the preceding paragraph. 
As indicated by box 25, the next step is to compare the expected cost of 
the discrete mailing, as determined by the step in box 24, with the actual 
funds that have previously been transferred to the mailer's postage meter. 
This step is also carried out in the Post Office computer which maintains 
a database of all funds that have been transferred from the Post Office to 
the mailer's postage meter. 
As, indicated by box 26, the next step is that a decision is made as to 
whether it is likely that the mailer had sufficient postage credit funds 
in his postage meter to cover the expected cost of the discrete mailing 
that is being considered. Thus, an assessment is made as to the likelihood 
that fraud has occurred by subtracting the calculated expected cost of the 
discrete mailing from the current estimate of postage credit funds in the 
mailer's postage meter, and if the answer is less than zero, the question 
of fraud is raised, and further investigation may be undertaken. This step 
further includes a determination as to whether it is likely that the 
mailer's postage meter has properly printed the correct indicia, and that 
the correct funds have been decremented in the descending register. 
As indicated by box 28, if it is likely that the mailer did not have 
sufficient postage credit funds to cover the expected cost of the discrete 
mailing, a suitable "fraud alert" signal is generated by the computer 
system which indicates that there is a discrepancy between the expected 
cost of the discrete mailing and the amount of money the mailer actually 
paid for the postage he used in preparing the discrete mailing. As a 
result, and 
As indicated by box 30, the Post Office would now go to a higher level of 
inspection to ascertain the cause of the discrepancy, and an inspection of 
the mailer's mailing machine would be carried out, together with 
questioning procedures of the mailer himself and his account status. 
If, on the other hand, it appears that the mailer had sufficient postage 
credit funds in his postage meter to cover the expected cost of the 
discrete mailing, no fraud alert signal is generated, and, as indicated by 
box 32, the Post Office updates the mailer's talley, which is the forecast 
of the postage available and used. The mailer's talley is an estimate kept 
by the Post Office of the ascending and descending registers of the 
mailer's postage meter, and when a new amount of postage credit is put 
into the meter, or if for some reason the meter is inspected, this talley 
is corrected to agree with the actual funds paid by the mailer. 
Thus, it will be seen from the foregoing series of steps that the basic 
method of the present invention has afforded a relatively simple and 
inexpensive may of permitting the Post Office to monitor the mailing 
procedures of mailers on a one time event basis for ensuring that mailers 
are properly paying for the postage used in their mailing machines in the 
course of periodic mailings. If the total objective of the invention were 
merely to make this determination on a one time basis, even if it were 
done repetitively from time to time, there would be no need for any 
further steps to be carried out, since the procedure set forth thus far 
can be carried out as a stand alone procedure. 
However, an enhanced version of the method of the present invention 
provides a way of accomplishing a significant feature of the invention, 
which is that the verification process can easily be carried out on an 
ongoing basis. This benefits the mailer in that he does not have to 
generate a new product usage profile at periodic intervals when the Post 
Office decides it wants to implement an audit. Further, it benefits the 
Post Office in that it can maintain ongoing verification that the mailer 
is properly paying for the postage that he is using. An ancillary benefit 
to the Post Office is that the method also enables the Post Office to 
exercise a degree of control to ensure that the mailer is properly paying 
for the postage he is using by integrating the mailer audit function with 
the process of downloading funds to a postage meter through the now well 
known system of reloading postage meters with postage credit via telephone 
link directly with the Post Office. 
Thus, with reference now to FIG. 2, it will be seen that the left hand 
column of boxes under the heading MAILER is identical to the boxes 10 
through 18 in the corresponding column of FIG. 1, since in the enhanced 
version of the method of the invention, the mail is prepared in the same 
manner as in the basic version. Although not shown with a broken line, 
mail is still delivered to the Post Office in the same manner as in the 
basic version. One significant difference for the mailer in this version 
of the method is that after the mail has been created and the mailer's 
product usage profile has been updated in his mailing machine, as 
previously explained in connection with FIG. 1, the information in the 
profile is communicated to a database server, indicated by box 38, in the 
manner further explained below. 
As seen in FIG. 2, the steps carried out in accordance with the enhanced 
version of the process are divided between two entities other than the 
mailer. One is the Post Office, which functions much the same as it did in 
connection with the basic version of the method, with certain differences 
described below. The other entity is a third party, such as the 
manufacturer of the postage meter used by the mailer, although it may also 
be the Post Office depending on the circumstances mentioned below. The 
distinction between the functions of the Post Office and the third party, 
regardless of whether the third party is in fact a third party or is the 
Post Office, is that the Post Office of necessity maintains a database of 
information relating only to actual funds received from the mailer for 
postage credit he has purchased for his postage meter. The third party, on 
the other hand, maintains a database of information relating to the 
mailer's product usage profile, i.e., it stores the data relating to the 
nature of the mail created by the mailer. Thus, in short, the distinction 
between the Post Office and the third party is that of actual funds 
vs.forecast funds, that is, the Post Office has the database of actual 
funds received, used and available for the purchase of postage credit by a 
mailer, whereas the estimate of such funds or forecast database can be 
computed and maintained by the third party. Again, the database for the 
forecast funds may be maintained by the Post Office if it desires to 
acquire and maintain the computer equipment necessary to maintain this 
database and the manpower to operate it. In the discussed that follows, it 
is assumed that the database maintained for funds forecasting is 
maintained by a third party. 
Thus, as indicated by boxes 38 and 40, and the line 39 in FIG. 2, the 
mailer's mailing machine periodically communicates with the computer 
database server maintained by the third party. As previously mentioned in 
connection with the calculation of the cost of mailing in box 24 of FIG. 
1, this is the method of providing the Post Office with the mailer's 
product usage profile in the enhanced version of the method. This 
communication can occur on some regular basis, or whenever the mailer 
decides to have additional postage credit added to his postage meter, or 
in the course of making a periodic inspection of the postage meter. Also, 
the communication can occur via an electronic network, via mail pieces by 
being printed as a bar code on actual mail, a memory chip, a computer chip 
or via other electronic means. The preferred method is some form of 
electronic communication which greatly simplifies the data transfer 
process. 
As indicated by box 42, the product usage profile data received from the 
mailer's mailing machine is analyzed by the third party's computer to 
ascertain a number of things relating to the mailer's postage meter, for 
example, whether the postage meter has malfunctioned, whether it has been 
tampered with, whether some kind of fraud has occurred, whether the 
interlocks have been tampered with, etc. This is, in effect, a check of 
these characteristics of the mailer's meter, and represents one of the 
data utilization services performed by the third party. If it appears that 
a problem does exist, the third party will notify the postal facility so 
that it can take such action as is deemed necessary. 
The next step, as indicated by box 44, is another utilization step that is 
performed by the third party, which is that the data relating to the 
mailer's product usage profile is retrieved, so that the third party 
database server contains the information relating to which mail has been 
prepared and when by the mailer since the last upload of information. 
Since the third party provides the service of maintaining the mailer's 
trusted product usage profile for use by the Post Office, it must be 
updated periodically as discrete mailings are produced. The Post Office 
can audit the product usage profile database at any time to make sure that 
it is accurate and up to date. 
Now that the mailer's product usage profile information is available, since 
it has been retrieved from the mailer's mailing machine, the next step, as 
indicated by box 46, is to update the mailers product usage profile in the 
database server of the third party. Since this is a profile, which is a 
statistical representation of the characteristics of mail produced by the 
mailer, the actual data can be reduced down, i.e., sampled, to update the 
profile. In other words, since the profile is actually a series of running 
averages of the mail characteristics, based on the size and frequency of 
discrete mailings, a sample size can be selected that will yield 
statistically significant forecasts. The profile can be considered to a 
running average of the mailer's activity, in that it provides a record 
what kind of mail has he produced on a periodic basis during this recent 
period of time. 
As indicated by box 48, with the information from the mailer's product 
usage profile, the database server and the processor connected to it can 
calculate the expected cost of the discrete mailing that the mailer has 
brought to the Post Office, and this is done in the same manner as that 
described in connection with box 24 in the FIG. 1. i.e., we are 
calculating how much postage it is anticipated that the mailer has used 
based on his product usage profile and the piece count in connection with 
this discrete mailing. 
As indicated by box 50, the next step is to compare the expected or 
forecast cost of the discrete mailing, as determined by the step in box 
48, with the actual postage credit funds that have been transferred from 
the Post Office to the mailer's postage meter, and, again, this is carried 
out in the same manner as that described in connection with box 25 in FIG. 
1. As indicated by the line 52, it will be seen that the Post Office 
database server, indicated by the box 54, in which the record of the funds 
actually paid by the mailer from time to time for postage credit is 
maintained, either periodically or on request, transfers this information 
to the third party database server, so that the comparison just mentioned 
can be carried out to determine whether there is sufficient postage credit 
funds in the postage meter to support the cost of the discrete mailing, as 
indicated by box 51. If the results of the comparison indicate that there 
is sufficient postage credit in the mailer's postage meter to cover the 
cost of the discrete mailing, then apparently there is no problem, and the 
mailer's talley is then updated, as indicated by box 53, in the same 
manner as previously described in connection with box 32 in FIG. 1. On the 
other hand, if the results of the comparison indicate that the mailer's 
postage meter does not have sufficient postage credit funds for the amount 
of postage credit that it is expected he will use, then it is likely that 
the postage credit in his mailing machine is exhausted. If this is the 
case, a fraud alert is generated by the computer, as indicated by box 56, 
which indicates a problem exists somewhere since it appears that the 
mailer's postage meter has printed more postage indicia for the discrete 
mailing than was available to cover the expected cost thereof. In response 
to the alert, the Post Office may initiate an inspection of the mailer's 
mailing machine, as indicated by box 57, to ascertain, for example, if it 
has been tampered with, or review his meter registers. This enables the 
Post Office to cause a physical inspection or an audit of the mailer's 
accounts when there is some indication that there is a need for such an 
audit. This is a substantial improvement over requiring a 100% audit of 
all mailers within the jurisdiction of the particular Post Office. 
As indicated by box 58, at the Post Office, inspection data is analyzed in 
the same manner as described above in connection with the corresponding, 
step indicated by box 42, that is carried out by the third party database 
server. Thus, as indicated by the line 59, the mailer's mailing machine 
communicates with the Post Office database server, and the Post Office 
computer then analyzes the product usage profile data to ascertain the 
same circumstances relating to the mailer's postage meter as was 
ascertained by the third party, as previously explained in connection with 
box 42. 
As indicated by the box 60, the question of whether the inspection reveals 
that any of the conditions set forth above relating to the inspection 
performed by the third party, as in box 42, such as fraud, tampering, 
malfunction, etc., is resolved, and if any such conditions exist, a fraud 
alert is issued as indicated by the line 61, and the same procedure is 
then followed that was described above in connection with the results of 
the determination of sufficient postage credit funds by the third party as 
shown in box 51. 
On the other hand, as indicated by box 62, if the inspection is 
satisfactory, i.e., it does not reveal any unexpected causes for concern, 
then, as indicated by the line 63, funds are transferred to the mailer's 
postage meter in various manners known in the art, such as manual 
reloading of the meter at the Post Office or through a telephone link up 
between the Post Office and the mailer's mailing machine. 
The last step in the process is that when the Post Office is downloading 
funds into the mailer's postage meter in either of the methods just 
mentioned, there is an opportunity to reconcile the third party database 
server forecast data with actual funds data by downloading the mailer's 
new balance of funds paid to the third party database server, as indicated 
by the line 66 connecting box 64 to box 40. This corrects the third party 
database server's forecast of the amount of postage to be used with the 
actual amount of postage that has been used since the previous downloading 
from the Post Office database, to thereby reconcile the third party 
database server funds forecast with the Post Office database server actual 
funds. This step is necessary because any system which relies on a 
statistical inference to determine if something is working well or not 
requires some way of periodically correcting the forecast so that it 
doesn't get out of line with the actual, with the result that even though 
there is very likely to be some small error in any forecast system of this 
kind, that error will be perpetually under control and small, since every 
time funds are downloaded to the mailer's postage meter, the third party 
forecast database server is reconciled and corrected. 
It is to be understood that the present invention is not to be considered 
as limited to the specific embodiment described above and shown in the 
accompanying drawings, which is merely illustrative of the best mode 
presently contemplated for carrying out the invention and which is 
susceptible to such changes as may be obvious to one skilled in the art, 
but rather that the invention is intended to cover all such variations, 
modifications and equivalents thereof as may be deemed to be within the 
scope of the claims appended hereto.