Abstract:
A digital proof of delivery for digital goods items purchased online includes methods and systems for authenticating online purchases for helping to prevent and mitigate fraud. A unique download identification (ID) is created and associated with the digital goods download and purchase. Additionally, third parties may readily be allowed to view the download status of a digital goods item by providing the unique download identification (ID) of the item, which may be useful for aiding third party fraud investigations. In response to an item of digital goods purchased by a customer for download from a merchant having reached a specific stage of downloading, but the download is not complete, download is suspended and a dialog box is sent over a network for presentation to a customer, and, in response to a confirmation received via the dialog box, the download is completed with a download ID that is unique to the completed download.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application is a continuation of and claims benefit of priority of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/435,209, filed Mar. 30, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,070,153 issued Jun. 30, 2015, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    1. Technical Field 
         [0003]    Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to methods and systems for facilitating e-commerce and, more particularly, for enabling merchants to provide proof of delivery of digital goods items for preventing or reducing fraud. 
         [0004]    2. Related Art 
         [0005]    In today&#39;s media market, it is not at all uncommon to sell and deliver digital content such as files, software, art, photographs, music, and movies through a number of electronic sources. This is usually referred to as digital e-commerce or digital download delivery. Digital goods is a general term that may be used in e-commerce to refer to any goods that are stored, delivered, or used electronically and may be used in a variety of industries, such as gaming, online content, and premium video. Examples of digital goods include e-books, music files, games, video, news articles, media content, software, digital images, website templates, manuals in electronic format, or any item which can be electronically stored in a file or multiple files. People also purchase digital goods in all sorts of online applications ranging from social networking apps (applications) and games to massively multiplayer online games. Some of the most popular items of these digital goods include virtual goods such as virtual money and virtual weapons. Free-to-play games, where one can start playing for free and then buy items in the game as one needs them, also account for a large amount of virtual goods transactions. 
         [0006]    Digital goods may be delivered electronically to the consumer through e-mail, for example, or by download from the Internet. Usually when purchasing digital goods online, after the merchant has received payment the merchant may provide the digital goods item as an e-mail attachment or may provide the purchaser with a secure link where the purchaser can download the item. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0007]    According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, methods and systems for digital proof of delivery facilitate authenticating online purchases for helping to prevent and mitigate fraud on purchase of digital goods items. With the aid of one or more embodiments, merchants can authenticate the purchase when, for example, a customer makes a claim for an “item not received for digital goods purchase”. Additionally, third parties may be readily allowed to view the download status of a digital goods item by providing a unique download identification (ID) of the item. The unique download identification (ID) of the item also may be useful for aiding third party fraud investigations. 
         [0008]    In one or more embodiments, a system includes: a processor for communication over a network with a customer and a merchant, the processor executing a process that provides an intermediary between the customer and the merchant, in which, in response to an item of digital goods purchased by the customer for download from the merchant having reached a pre-determined stage of downloading, and the download of the item of digital goods is not complete, the processor suspends the download and communicates a dialog box over the network for presentation to the customer, and in which, in response to a confirmation received via the dialog box, the processor completes the download of the item of digital goods and provides a download ID that is unique to the completed download. 
         [0009]    In another embodiment, a method includes: in response to a download over a network of an item of digital goods purchased by a customer for download from a merchant having reached a pre-determined stage, and the download of the item of digital goods is not complete, suspending the download and communicating a dialog box over the network for presentation to the customer; and in response to a confirmation received via the dialog box, completing the download of the item of digital goods and providing a download ID that is unique to the completed download. 
         [0010]    In a further embodiment, a computer program product comprises a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable and executable code for instructing a processor to perform a method that includes: in response to a download over a network of an item of digital goods purchased by a customer for download from a merchant having reached a pre-determined stage, and the download of the item of digital goods is not complete, suspending the download and communicating a dialog box over the network for presentation to the customer; and in response to a confirmation received via the dialog box, completing the download of the item of digital goods and providing a download ID that is unique to the completed download. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0011]      FIG. 1  is a system diagram illustrating a system for digital goods commerce in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0012]      FIG. 2  is a flow chart illustrating a method for digital goods commerce in accordance with an embodiment. 
           [0013]      FIG. 3  is a flow diagram illustrating flows of information, goods, and payments for digital goods commerce in accordance with an embodiment. 
           [0014]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart illustrating a method for digital goods commerce in accordance with an embodiment. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0015]    Embodiments of the present invention relate to providing solutions to help merchants provide proof of delivery of digital goods items for preventing and reducing fraud. In one embodiment, a customer may buy a digital goods item from a merchant website; then, once the merchant receives payment through, for example, a payment gateway, the merchant may provide a secure connection to deliver the digital goods to the customer from a digital goods store (which may be the same or separate from the merchant website). A unique download identification (ID) is created and associated with the digital goods download and purchase. With this solution, merchants can authenticate the purchase when, for example, a customer files a charge back for an “item not received for digital goods purchase”. Additionally, any third party can view the download status by providing the unique download identification (ID), which may aid third party fraud investigation. 
         [0016]    In one example of an embodiment, the parties or entities involved when a customer (also referred to as a “user” of the system or services) purchases some digital goods item from a merchant website may include: 1) a merchant website; 2) a payment gateway; and 3) a store that sells digital goods (e.g., where the actual digital item resides). The payment gateway may include an online payment service and may be a service provided by a financial service provider (FSP)—such as PayPal, Inc. of San Jose, Calif.—in which a user of the service may have an account with the FSP (referred to as an “FSP account). In one or more embodiments, various mechanisms may be provided for sending digital goods including, for example, using the sender&#39;s FSP account and a sender&#39;s digital goods “locker” provided by the FSP, using a receiver&#39;s digital goods locker provided by the FSP, using email, or providing for the receiver to receive the digital goods directly from the seller, e.g., a merchant or a digital goods store. Once the user (customer) decides to purchase some digital goods item on the merchant website then the user may be asked to pay the amount specified as the price of the particular digital goods item. The merchant website may establish a secure connection to the payment gateway by which to receive proceeds for the purchase of the digital goods item. The gateway may, for example, provide a channel for payment from the customer to the merchant or to the store that sells the item. Once the merchant website receives from the payment gateway an indication of payment success, then the merchant contacts the store or stores to provide a secure connection (e.g., a link) for delivering the digital goods to the user. For security, the link for the secure connection may, for example, be available to the user on a time limited basis. 
         [0017]      FIG. 1  illustrates a system  100  for digital goods commerce according to one embodiment. A customer  102  (also referred to as a user of FSP services) may communicate via a device  104  (e.g., a computer, cell phone, computing tablet, or other consumer electronic device) with financial service provider  120  via a network  106 , such as the Internet. Customer  102  may also communicate via network  106  with a merchant website  108  that may be a seller of digital goods (e.g., digital goods  116 ). Merchant website  108  may sell digital goods online and may communicate with customer  102 , for example, by operating a server  110  (e.g., a computer processor) that presents a website for selling digital goods, the server  110  responding to client devices (e.g., device  104 ) by communicating over network  106 . Merchant website  108  may also communicate (for example, using server  110 ) with FSP  120  through FSP server  122  over network  106 . 
         [0018]    For example, merchant website  108  may communicate with FSP  120  in the course of various services offered by FSP  120  to merchant website  108 , such as payment intermediary (referred to as payment gateway  124 ) between customers (e.g., customer  102 ) of merchant website  108  and merchant website  108  itself. Similarly, a digital goods store  112  may communicate using a server processor  114  over network  106  with any of customer  102 , merchant website  108 , and FSP  120 , each of which also may communicate with digital goods store  112  using network  106  via server  114 . FSP server  122  may execute various application programming interfaces (APIs) that may enable various different types of relationships between FSP  120  and the different parties shown in  FIG. 1 . For example, merchant website  108  may use an API that allows it to offer sale of goods in which customers are allowed to make payment through FSP  120 , while customer  102  may have an account with FSP  120 , managed by a different API, that allows customer  102  to use the FSP  120  for making payments to sellers that allow use of payment gateway  124  of FSP  120  as a payment intermediary. Also as shown in  FIG. 1 , FSP  120  may provide electronic data storage in the form of database  130 . Database  130  may be used to keep track of user&#39;s accounts with FSP  120 , merchant&#39;s accounts with FSP  120 , and transactions between customers, merchants, and stores including payments between the various entities, for example. 
         [0019]      FIG. 2  illustrates a method  200 , according to one embodiment, showing a process flow for one or more digital goods transactions involving sending and receiving digital goods with digital proof of delivery in a system such as system  100  for digital goods commerce. 
         [0020]    At step  201 , a user of services provided by FSP  120 , such as customer  102  who may have an FSP account with FSP  120 , may be shopping online, for example, at a merchant website  108  of a merchant who sells digital goods. The user  102  may decide whether or not to buy a particular item of digital goods (e.g., digital goods  116 ), and if so, the customer (user)  102  may buy the digital goods item  116  from the merchant website  108 . 
         [0021]    At step  202 , FSP  120  may provide a service to the user (e.g., customer  102 ) that allows the user to buy the item from the merchant website. For example, FSP  120  may provide a mouse click button on the merchant website  108  that allows the user to pay the merchant website  108  from the user&#39;s account with the FSP  120  via the payment gateway  124 . The FSP  1210  may also provide a service to the merchant website  108  that allows the merchant website  108  to receive payment directly from the FSP  120  on behalf of customer  102  without needing to know any financial information of customer  102 . Once the merchant website  108  receives payment for digital goods  116  through the payment gateway  124 , the merchant website  108  may provide a secure connection to deliver digital goods  116  to customer  102  from digital goods store  112 . Digital goods store  112  may be separate from merchant website  108 , and merchant website  108  may provide a payment to digital goods store  112  for the digital goods  116 . In other examples, digital goods store  112  and merchant website  108  may be commonly owned, may be parts of the same entity, or may be the same entity. 
         [0022]    At step  203 , the digital goods  116  may be delivered to customer  102  from digital goods store  112  using the secure connection provided, for example, by the merchant website  108 . A secure connection may also be provided, for example, by the FSP  120 . Delivery of the item of digital goods  116  may also include a unique download identification (ID) that corresponds only to this particular download, e.g., the combination of the digital goods item downloaded, the IP address to which the item was downloaded, the store or merchant that provided the download, and the time of the download. For example, customer  102  may download the digital goods  116  directly from digital goods store  112  using the secure link provided by merchant website  108  and that particular download occurrence may have a unique ID associated with it that identifies that occurrence and only that occurrence and may be stored (e.g., using an electronic data storage device in communication with the processor on which the unique ID is created) by digital goods store  112  for future reference by, for example, digital store  112 , FSP  120 , customer  102 , or other party of interest. In another example, merchant website  108  may download the digital goods  116  from the digital goods store using a secure connection, then provide the digital goods to the customer  102  over the secure link, and keep a record of the unique download ID. 
         [0023]      FIG. 3  sequentially illustrates flows of information, goods, and payments that may occur between a customer, a merchant, and a financial service provider for digital goods commerce in accordance with an embodiment. At purchase request  301 , for example, a merchant (e.g., merchant website  108  or digital goods store  112 ) may receive a purchase request  301  from a customer (e.g., customer or user  102 ). At storage  302 , a web server (e.g., web server  110  of merchant website  108  or server  114  of digital goods store  112 ) may store a user ID for customer  102  and a digital goods item ID for the digital goods  116  item bought. The merchant website  108  may, for example, store the user ID and digital goods item ID in an electronic information storage or hardware memory accessible by server processor  110 ; the user ID and digital goods item ID may also be stored in database  130  by FSP  120 . A payment request  303  may then be sent to the payment gateway  124 . 
         [0024]    Payment gateway  124  may process the payment request  303 . Examples of processing include checking the customer&#39;s account, checking the merchant&#39;s account, transferring payments between accounts, and declining payment if funds are not available. Thus payment success may or may not be achieved. If payment success is achieved, payment success  304  may be sent to merchant  108 , indicating that payment success has been achieved. 
         [0025]    Once the merchant  108  receives payment success  304  (e.g., a payment success message) from the payment gateway  124 , then the merchant  108  (e.g., web server  110 ) may create a unique download ID (that is unique for each download  305 , for example, a random number) from the user ID and digital goods item ID. For example, the unique download ID may be an identifier that uniquely corresponds to the combination of an identification of the digital goods item purchased, an identification of the customer, an identification of a device to which the digital goods item is download, and an identification of the particular instance of downloading the digital goods item. Once the unique download ID has been created and stored, the server processor  110  (operated by, e.g., merchant  108 ) may trigger the download  305 . 
         [0026]    The uniqueness of the download ID for each download  305  may enable providing a proof of delivery for each download  305 , for example, by allowing each item of downloaded digital goods to be tracked, identified and accounted for. Triggering the download  305  may include, for example, contacting the digital goods store  112  to provide a secure connection (e.g., a link) for delivering the digital goods  116  to the user. A secure link may be encrypted, for example, and may be available to the user  102  on a time limited basis. Triggering the download  305  may also include, for example, providing a mouse click button on the merchant website  108 , by which customer  102  can start the download  305  when the customer is ready. At customer start  306 , the customer  102  may start the download  305 , and at download start  307 , the secure download  305  having the unique download ID corresponding to the user ID, the digital goods item ID, and the particular download  305  itself may begin over the secure connection (e.g., link) provided by the merchant  108  to the customer  102 . 
         [0027]    When download  305  has reached a pre-determined stage such as being nearly complete, e.g., download nearly complete event  308 , web server  110  may initiate a series of events. Download nearly complete event  308  may use any desired threshold for determining that download  305  has reached the pre-determined stage, e.g., nearly complete. In the example illustrated in  FIG. 3 , download nearly complete event  308  may be triggered when the download  305  is 99.9% complete, as shown; other criteria for a threshold, however, could be defined beforehand, such as 50% completion of download  305 , and the threshold could, for example, be based on the size (e.g., data bytes) of the digital goods item  116  or the estimated time to complete at the data rate of the secure link provided by the merchant  108  to the customer  102 . 
         [0028]    Download nearly complete event  308  may initiate dialog box  309  in which merchant web server  110  throws (e.g., using a java script “throw” statement) a confirmation dialog box to user  102  asking user  102  to confirm the download.  305 . The confirmation dialog box can be thrown, for example, using java script which may reside in web server  110  and may be monitoring the download  305 . In response to dialog box  309 , the user  102  may select “OK” to proceed for download completion, for example, by clicking on a confirmation button provided in the confirmation dialog box. If response  310  is a confirmation (e.g., “OK”), download completion  311  may proceed. If response  310  is not a confirmation, download completion  311  may be aborted. 
         [0029]    At confirmation  312 , the server  110  may update the download  305  status and IP address against the unique download ID for download  305  (for example, update database entries keyed to the unique download ID for download  305  in a database kept by merchant website  108  or in database  130 ). Also, at confirmation  312 , the server  110  may trigger an email with the download  305  status and unique download ID to be sent to user  102 . Email  313  may then be sent to user  102  about the user&#39;s download request status, and the email may provide the unique download ID for future reference by the user. For example, the user  102  may wish to check the status of download  305  on the merchant web site  108 . In addition, the unique download ID stored at storage  302  may be used by the download provider (e.g., merchant website  108 , digital goods store  112 , or FSP  120 ) for various purposes such as showing the information to third parties or customers when customers file charge backs (e.g., return or refund for guaranteed items). 
         [0030]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart illustrating a method  400  for digital goods commerce in accordance with an embodiment. 
         [0031]    At step  401  of method  400 , a user (e.g., customer  102 ) may start purchasing a digital goods item (e.g., digital goods  116 ) on a merchant website (e.g., merchant website  108 ). 
         [0032]    At step  402 , the merchant website may contact a payment gateway (e.g., payment gateway  124  of FSP  120 ) for payment. 
         [0033]    At step  403 , once the payment is successful (e.g., a payment success message is received from the FSP  120 ), the merchant website may create a unique download ID associated with the user (customer) ID and the digital goods item. This unique download ID may be tied to this item for this user, for example, by cross-referencing in a database into which the unique download ID is stored. The download ID may uniquely correspond, for example, to a combination of factors, such as an identification of the digital goods item purchased, an identification of the customer, an identification of a device to which the digital goods item is download, and an identification of the particular instance (e.g., timestamp) of downloading the digital goods item 
         [0034]    At step  404 , as the purchase is a success, the user may start downloading the digital goods item from the item provider, e.g., merchant website  108  or digital goods store  112 . For example, the user may click on a “start download” button provided on the merchant&#39;s webpage. 
         [0035]    At step  405 , merchant web server (e.g., web server  110 ) may trigger a download request (this download request may be tied to the unique download ID; for example, the download request may correspond to and be cross-referenced to the unique download ID at storage  302 ). The download request, for example, may be sent to the digital goods store  112  from merchant website  108  and may contain information sufficient to provide a secure download to customer  102 . 
         [0036]    At step  406 , when the download reaches a certain stage of completion, e.g., progresses to 99.9%, the merchant web server may throw a confirmation dialog box to the user asking to confirm the download. The confirmation dialog box can be thrown, for example, using a java script throw statement; java script may reside in the web server (e.g., web server  110 , web server  114 , or web server  122 ) monitoring the download corresponding to the download request. 
         [0037]    At step  407 , if the user desires the download to complete, the user may select “OK” in the confirmation dialog box, confirming the user&#39;s dialog (this may be regarded as being similar to the user physically signing a courier receipt after a delivery in the physical world). At step  408 , the merchant web server may transfer the remaining bytes and complete the download. 
         [0038]    At step  409 , the merchant web server may gather the IP address of the download request (e.g., IP address of customer  102 ) and may update a database (e.g., merchant&#39;s database, digital goods store database, or FSP database  130 ) with the status of the download and the IP address, cross-referenced against the unique download ID. 
         [0039]    At step  410 , the merchant web server may trigger an email to the user about the user&#39;s download request status and provide the unique download ID so that the user can definitively refer to the particular download by its unique download ID. At step  411 , for example, having the unique download ID for future reference, the user can go to the merchant web site and, using the definitive reference provided by the unique download ID, can check the download status. 
         [0040]    At step  412 , the merchant can show relevant information (e.g., download status) to third parties or customers when customers file charge backs. With the unique download ID used as a cross-reference, for example, merchants can authenticate when customers file charge backs, e.g., claims for “item not received on order for digital goods item”. Also, in one or more embodiments, any third party can view the download status by providing the unique download ID, and the unique download ID can be crucial for third party fraud investigation. 
         [0041]    In implementation of the various embodiments, embodiments of the invention may comprise a personal computing device, such as a personal computer, laptop, PDA, cellular phone or other personal computing or communication devices. The payment provider system may comprise a network computing device, such as a server or a plurality of servers, computers, or processors, combined to define a computer system or network to provide the payment services provided by a payment provider system. 
         [0042]    In this regard, a computer system may include a bus or other communication mechanism for communicating information, which interconnects subsystems and components, such as a processing component (e.g., processor, micro-controller, digital signal processor (DSP), etc.), a system memory component (e.g., RAM), a static storage component (e.g., ROM), a disk drive component (e.g., magnetic or optical), a network interface component (e.g., modem or Ethernet card), a display component (e.g., CRT or LCD), an input component (e.g., keyboard or keypad), and/or cursor control component (e.g., mouse or trackball). In one embodiment, a disk drive component may comprise a database having one or more disk drive components. 
         [0043]    The computer system may perform specific operations by processor and executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in a system memory component. Such instructions may be read into the system memory component from another computer readable medium, such as static storage component or disk drive component. In other embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement the invention. 
         [0044]    Logic may be encoded in a computer readable and executable medium, which may refer to any medium that participates in providing instructions to the processor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. In one embodiment, the computer readable medium is non-transitory. In various implementations, non-volatile media includes optical or magnetic disks, such as disk drive component, volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as system memory component, and transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire, and fiber optics, including wires that comprise bus. In one example, transmission media may take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radio wave and infrared data communications. 
         [0045]    Some common forms of computer readable and executable media include, for example, floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, ROM, E2PROM, FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, carrier wave, or any other medium from which a computer is adapted to read. 
         [0046]    In various embodiments, execution of instruction sequences for practicing the invention may be performed by a computer system. In various other embodiments, a plurality of computer systems coupled by a communication link (e.g., LAN, WLAN, PTSN, or various other wired or wireless networks) may perform instruction sequences to practice the invention in coordination with one another. 
         [0047]    Modules described herein can be embodied in one or more computer readable media or be in communication with one or more processors to execute or process the steps described herein. 
         [0048]    A computer system may transmit and receive messages, data, information and instructions, including one or more programs (i.e., application code) through a communication link and a communication interface. Received program code may be executed by a processor as received and/or stored in a disk drive component or some other non-volatile storage component for execution. 
         [0049]    Where applicable, various embodiments provided by the present disclosure may be implemented using hardware, software, or combinations of hardware and software. Also, where applicable, the various hardware components and/or software components set forth herein may be combined into composite components comprising software, hardware, and/or both without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure. Where applicable, the various hardware components and/or software components set forth herein may be separated into sub-components comprising software, hardware, or both without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, where applicable, it is contemplated that software components may be implemented as hardware components and vice-versa—for example, a virtual Secure Element (vSE) implementation or a logical hardware implementation. 
         [0050]    Software, in accordance with the present disclosure, such as program code and/or data, may be stored on one or more computer readable and executable mediums. It is also contemplated that software identified herein may be implemented using one or more general purpose or specific purpose computers and/or computer systems, networked and/or otherwise. Where applicable, the ordering of various steps described herein may be changed, combined into composite steps, and/or separated into sub-steps to provide features described herein. 
         [0051]    The foregoing disclosure is not intended to limit the present invention to the precise forms or particular fields of use disclosed. It is contemplated that various alternate embodiments and/or modifications to the present invention, whether explicitly described or implied herein, are possible in light of the disclosure. Having thus described various example embodiments of the disclosure, persons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the scope of the invention. Thus, the invention is limited only by the claims.