METHOD FOR ONLINE PURCHASING WITH HIGH OPERATING SECURITY

Abstract: A method for online purchasing with high operating security, comprising the steps of: purchasing a card which bears a code and with which a PIN for enabling the card is associated; creating, by communicating the code and the PIN, a virtual account (3) which is univocally associated with the card; when the owner of the card wished to make a purchase online, entering the code of the card and the PIN in order to activate the card; receiving, following the activation, a virtual credit card code and a specific expiry date of the virtual credit card; entering the virtual credit card code online to make the purchase, the virtual credit card code being canceled immediately after the owner of the card has made the purchase.

Description: METHOD FOR ONLINE PURCHASING WITH HIGH OPERATING SECURITY Technical field The present invention relates to a method for online purchasing with high operating security. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for online purchasing with high operating security such as for example purchasing over the Internet. . Background art It is known that trade with online payments and purchases performed by using a credit card is developing more and more, especially thanks to the diffusion of data communications networks such as the Internet, which hosts a very large number of companies which can offer their products at competitive prices and promote purchases performed directly online by using a credit card. However, a limitation to the growth of such electronic commerce is the very fact that the user, in order to be able to make the purchase, must enter his credit card number online in order to complete the purchase. The fact of having to transmit one's credit card number over data communicati n networks raises considerable doubt among users, who fear, sometimes justifiably, that their credit card number can be intercepted fraudulently and used by ill-intentioned people to make unauthorized purchases, charging them to the current account of the legitimate user who owns the card. Therefore, when the user is faced with the need to enter his credit card number in an electronic form prepared by the service operator or goods retailer over a data communications network, he is not encouraged by unshakable confidence in the encryption system that the operator can offer, and therefore, even if he makes his purchase, he does not feel sufficiently protected as regards the secrecy of his data. However, the basic tool for being able to make purchases online is certainly the credit card, owing to its method of use, and therefore the growth of electronic commerce and online commerce in general is increasingly linked to this tool. Furthermore, even if the operator of the service proposes a data encryption system, so that the data cannot be read by third parties, it is known that encryption by means of any public or private key is subject to decryption, even though this requires a significant amount of time. All the systems currently used to protect transactions performed online by using the code of a credit card entail, in the best cases, an encryption which however does not ensure absolute inviolability of the data. Disclosure of the Invention The aim of the present invention is to provide a method for online purchasing with high operating security which allows to ensure the substantial inviolability of the data of the transaction performed by the user. Within this aim, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for online purchasing with high operating security which allows to render unusable, after a preset period of time, any data of the transaction that might be intercepted fraudulently by third parties. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for online purchasing with high operating security which allows to ensure the anonymity of the purchase made online. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for online purchasing with high operating security which is highly reliable, relatively simple to provide and at competitive costs. This aim and these and other objects which will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by a method for online purchasing with high operating security, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: — purchasing a card which bears a code and with which a PIN for enabling said card is associated; ~ creating, by communicating said code and said PIN, a virtual account which is univocally associated with said card; -- when the owner of the card wishes to make a purchase online, entering the code of said card and said PIN in order to activate said card; ~ receiving, following said activation, a virtual credit card code and a specific expiry date of said virtual credit card; ~ entering said virtual credit card code online to make the purchase, said virtual credit card code being canceled immediately after the owner of the card has made said purchase. Brief description of the drawing Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become better apparent from the description of preferred but not exclusive embodiments of the method according to the invention, wherein the only figure is a block diagram of the architecture of the system used to implement the method according to the present invention. Ways of carrying out the Invention With reference to the figure, the method according to the present invention provides for the following steps. First of all, a first card is provided which bears a code which, together with the entry of a PIN (Personal Identification Number), allows to activate said card. Substantially, the issuer of said cards, which is designated by the reference numeral 1 in the figure, by way of a connection to the banking network 2, generates a virtual account 3 which the user has available for making online purchases by means of said card. The method uses a second card, of the disposable type, which contains a secret code which allows to transfer onto the virtual account 3 a monetary value which corresponds to the sum paid by the user to purchase the disposable card. The method then entails a first step, in which the user purchases a card, which bears a code applied thereto in a visible manner and with a security PIN, and a second card, of the disposable type, which bears a secret code and allows to recharge the virtual account 3 of the user. The second step of the method according to the invention entails activating the card with the security PIN and transferring a monetary value selected by the user onto his virtual account by means of the disposable card that contains the secret code. At this point, when the user has to make an online purchase, for example from the Internet, and therefore already knows the amount to be spent, he contacts the card issuer 1 for example by means of the following systems: « by opening a new window, designated by the reference numeral 5, on the personal computer 4; ~ over a telephone 6; ~ over a cellular telephone 7 (for example with SMS-type messages); ~ over terminals 8 connected to the telephone network (for example over the POS circuit). Once the user has contacted the card issuer 1, he enters the number provided on the card in a visible manner and the corresponding PIN. Upon receiving these data, the system confirms them and reports the residual credit available on the virtual account 3 in the name of the user who entered the card number. At this point the user enters the amount that he intends to spend to purchase the goods or service, which must therefore be deducted from the virtual account 3. The system compares the amount (on the virtual account) with the amount that the user has entered, which corresponds to the amount of the goods or service that he wishes to spend. Once the operation has been confirmed, the user is sent over the banking network 2 a virtual credit card code with a very specific expiry date which is generally very close. This information is provided to the user, for example, if requested, in encrypted form. The secret virtual credit card number is decrypted on the user's personal computer before being able to proceed with the purchase by using the secret code sent by the banking network. In the final operation, the user enters the virtual credit card code received from the banking network in the specific online purchase screen. The site then performs the purchase transaction toward the user's bank for verification and approval. At this point the user can print a copy of the purchase to be used as a receipt of payment. Shortly after the user has entered on the network the virtual credit card code sent to him over a data communications system in encrypted form, said code is automatically canceled, thus rendering useless any interception of the code on the part of ill-intentioned persons. Practically, the user first of all does not report his personal data, such as his name and surname, on the network, thus achieving complete anonymity of the purchase, and secondly the code that he enters on the network is not the code that is present on the card that he physically owns, which actually must be activated by knowing the PIN, but is a code which is sent to the user by the banking network 2 and which, in addition to being encrypted, has a very specific limited duration. In any case, the cancellation of the code sent by the banking network immediately after the purchase made by the user makes said code unusable. 1 The method according to the invention thus allows to perform absolutely inviolable online payment transactions, since the user no longer sends his credit card number as occurs at present, but sends instead a code which allows to "generate" an additional code which is then sent in encrypted form to the user. Therefore, differently from known payment systems, in which the user has to enter his credit card code and it is this code that allows direct access to his personal account, the method according to the invention entails entering a code which allows to generate an additional code, of a temporary type, which allows access to the virtual account. In each instance, i.e., for each individual transaction, the code that gives access to the virtual account of the user is changed and sent in encrypted form to the user. Accordingly, from what has been described above it is evident that the method according to the invention ensures absolute inviolability of the data of the transaction, particularly rendering useless the fraudulent knowledge of the code issued by the banking network following the entry of the card code by the user. It is possible to provide that a different card, with a code and a PIN which are new every time, must be used for each different purchase. In this manner the user's security is guaranteed even further. In practice it has been observed that the method according to the invention fully achieves the intended aim and objects, since it allows to perform transactions with an extremely high level of security, directly online, without having to send a credit card number and therefore actually with no need to own a credit card. The method thus conceived is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the appended claims; all the details may further be replaced with other technically equivalent elements. The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. MI2000A001642 from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by reference.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A method for online purchasing with high operating security, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: — purchasing a card which bears a code and with which a PIN for enabling said card is associated; -- creating, by communicating said code and said PIN, a virtual account which is univocally associated with said card; ~ when the owner of the card wishes to make a purchase online, entering the code of said card and said PIN in order to activate said card; — receiving, following said activation, a virtual credit card code and a specific expiry date of said virtual credit card; — entering said virtual credit card code online to make the purchase, said virtual credit card code being canceled immediately after the owner of the card has made said purchase. 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of activating said card by sending said code and said PIN comprises a step of confirming said code and said PIN and a step of reporting the residual credit that is available on said virtual account. 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that said virtual account can be recharged by using a second card with a secret code. 4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that said second top- up card for said virtual account performs a recharging for a value equal to the purchase value of said card. 5. The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said virtual credit card code, sent to the owner of the card over a data communications network by the banking network, is sent in encrypted form. 6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that it comprises the step of decrypting said encrypted secret code sent by the banking network at the terminal of the owner of the card. 7. The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that immediately before performing said purchase the owner of the card is asked to enter the amount that corresponds to the goods or service to be purchased, said amount being compared with the balance of said virtual account. 8. The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that in order to perform the step of entering the code and said PIN that are provided on said card, the owner of the card connects to the Internet. 9. The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the step of entering said code and said PIN of said card is performed by means of a keypad of a telephone. 10. The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the step of entering said code and said PIN of said card is performed by means of voice recognition. 11. The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the step of entering said code and said PIN of said card is performed by means of a POS terminal. 12. The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that after the step of entering said virtual credit card online, the following steps are performed: -- performing the purchase transaction with respect to the bank serving said user, for verification and approval; and ~ printing a copy of the purchase made online, as receipt of payment.

Inventors: TARABBO FRANCESCO, TARABBO, FRANCESCO
Applicants: D T E SOLUTIONS B V, TARABBO FRANCESCO, D.T.E. SOLUTIONS B.V., TARABBO, FRANCESCO
Application year: 2001
Main classification: G07F19
IPC codes: G06Q20, G07F7