Patent Publication Number: US-2015081547-A1

Title: Method for protecting online transaction safety between buyers and sellers

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to an online transaction method, especially an online transaction method to ensure that virtual goods, software registration code or card, or point card verification password won&#39;t be maliciously used, and the buyers and sellers are able to get virtual goods and money respectively. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     According to  FIG. 1 , the conventional online transaction system  1  for providing game goods includes a first terminal device  11 , a second terminal device  12  and a third-party server  13 . The third-party server  13  is set with a transaction platform, such as Treasure Transaction 8591 Website, for users to view the contents of goods on the transaction platform through the displays of the first terminal device  11  and second terminal device  12 . The third-party server  13  is set with an account data  131  and a money data  132 . The account data  131  includes a plurality of accounts, and the money data  132  includes a plurality of moneys. Each of the accounts corresponds to each of the moneys. To be specified, each account is the account that a user registered on the third-party server  13  in advance, and the user is able to store value in the third-party server  13  so that the registered account can correspond to the money added for subsequent transactions. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1  again, when the seller wants to sell a point card, a good selling information can be sent to the third-party server  13  through the first terminal device  11 , the good selling information includes the account information of the seller, such as the account name or an identification code representing the account, the name of the point card and a selling price. The third-party server  13  displays the point card selling information on the transaction platform after receiving the good selling information for others to search virtual goods through the transaction platform. When the buyer views the contents of the transaction platform though the second terminal device  12  and wants to buy the point card, a good purchasing message can be transmitted to the third-party server  13  through the transaction platform. The good purchasing message includes the buyer&#39;s account, the name of the point card and a purchasing price. When the third-party server  13  receives the good purchasing message, it will first determine whether the money corresponding to the buyer&#39;s account is sufficient to pay the purchasing price or not. If it is sufficient, the third-party server  13  deducts the purchasing price from the buyer&#39;s without paying the purchasing price the seller but freezing the money of the purchasing price and sending a notification to the first terminal device  11 . Thereby, the seller knows that the point card has been sold. The seller can mail the point card to the buyer or directly gives the serial number on the point card to the buyer. When the buyer receives the point card, a transaction completed message will be sent to a third-party server  13  through the second terminal device  12 . After the third-party server  13  receives the transaction completed message, the frozen money of the purchasing price is added to the buyer&#39;s account to make sure the buyer receives the seller&#39;s goods successfully. 
     However, referring to  FIG. 1 , the aforementioned online transaction method still has many problems. First of all, as for point card, once the buyer receives the physical card or the serial number of the point card, the transaction completed message will be sent directly through the second terminal device  12 . Therefore, if the seller sold and received the money and uses the serial number of the point card online, it would lead to the buyer can&#39;t use the serial number of the point card. Furthermore, the buyer doesn&#39;t want to transmit the transaction completed information after a physical card or the serial number of the point card has been received after a long time, the seller can&#39;t receive the money, which results in many trade disputes. Therefore, how to design a better online transaction method to fix the aforementioned drawbacks has become an important topic for related online industries. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     One objective of the present invention is to provide a method for protecting online transaction safety between buyers and sellers. The method is applied to an online transaction system, wherein a third-party server receives a good transaction information (including a first account information, a first good code and a selling price) from a first terminal device. Then, the third-party server sends the first good code to the verification unit to verify whether a good corresponding to the first good code is in a state which means the good has been used. If no, the first good code is locked in a locked state. The third-party server displays the good transaction information on a transaction platform and, when receiving a good purchasing message (including a second account information and the first good code) from a second terminal device through the transaction platform, the third-party server deducts the selling price from the money corresponding to the second account information and sends a good transaction completed message to the verification unit. The verification unit generates a second good code to replace the first good code and transmits the second good code to the third-party server according to the good transaction completed message. Finally, the third-party server transmits the second good code to the second terminal device and adds the selling price paid from the money corresponding to the second account information to the money corresponding to the first account information. The whole online transaction is safely completed. 
     The second objective of the present invention is to provide a method for protecting online transaction safety between buyers and sellers. The method is applied to an online transaction system. The third-party server receives a good transaction information (including a first account information, a good information and a selling price). The third-party server sends the good information to a verification code unit to verify whether the good corresponding to the good information is correct or not. If yes, the good information is locked in a locked state, and a good code is generated according to the good information and sent to the third-party server. The third-party server displays the good transaction information on a transaction platform after receiving the good code. The third-party server deducts the selling price from the money corresponding to the second account information and sends a good code to the game company server. The game company server executes a shipping process according to the good code. The third-party server adds the selling price paid from the money corresponding to the second account information to the money corresponding to the first account information. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic of the conventional online transaction system; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic of the online transaction system of the first embodiment in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is the schematic of the account data and the money data of the first embodiment in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a flow diagram of the first embodiment in accordance with the present invention and is divided into  FIG. 4A  and  FIG. 4B  connected to each other with circle A and circle B; 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic of the online transaction system of the first embodiment in accordance with the present invention; and 
         FIG. 6  is a first part of flow diagram of the first embodiment in accordance with the present invention and is divided into  FIG. 6A  and  FIG. 6B  connected to each other with circle A and circle B. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     In the first embodiment of the present invention, please refer to  FIG. 2 . The method is applied to an online transaction system  2 . The online transaction system  2  comprises a first terminal device  21 , a second terminal device  22 , a third-party server  23  and a verification unit  24 . The verification unit  24  is located in the third-party server system  23 . Referring to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the third-party server  23  can be connected to the terminal devices  21 ,  22 , respectively, over Internet. The terminal devices  21 ,  22  are set with an account data  25  and a money data  26 . The account data  25  includes a plurality of accounts  251 , such as a1˜a4. The money data  26  includes a plurality of moneys  261 . For example: 1000, 1000, 2000, and 5000. Each of the accounts  251  corresponds to each of the moneys  261 . For example, the a1 account  251  corresponds to the 1000 dollars money  261  and the a2 account  251  corresponds to the 1000 dollars money  261 , etc. Furthermore, when a seller wants to sell the online game cards, a good transaction information is sent through the first terminal device  21 . The good transaction information includes a first account information, a first good code (such as the serial number 123456 of the online game point card) and a selling price (such as 500 dollars). The first account information can be either the account  251  (a1 in this embodiment) registered by a seller or an identification code standing for the account  251  registered by the seller. Then, after the third-party server  23  receives the good transaction information transmitted from the first terminal device  21 , the first good code will be sent to the verification unit  24 . 
     The verification unit  24  can verify whether the good (i.e., the online game cards) corresponding to the first good code is in the state which means the good has been used yet. If no, the first good code is locked in the locked state, which means no one can use the good corresponding to the first good code before the first good code hasn&#39;t been unlocked. This is to ensure that the seller can not maliciously use the good during selling. The verification unit  24  sends a locking completed message to the third-party server  23  after locking the first good code. The third-party server  23  receives the locking completed message and then displays the good transaction information on a transaction platform, such as YAHOO auction, treasures transaction 8591, eBay, etc. The transaction platform is provided by third-party server  23  for the terminal devices  21 ,  22  to view the goods via the transaction platform. Furthermore, in other embodiments of the present invention, after the third-party server  23  receives the locking completed message, the first good code of the good transaction information is replaced with a first good name, such as point card, and then the good transaction information is displayed on the transaction platform. This avoids the situation that others may have obtained the first good code before the transaction hasn&#39;t completed and that the third-party server  23  are still capable of removing the first account information of the good transaction information and then displaying the good transaction information on the transaction platform. 
     When a buyer browses the good transaction information on the transaction platform and wants to buy the online game point card, a good purchasing message can be sent to the third-party server  23  by the second terminal device  22  through the transaction platform. The good purchasing message includes a second account information (i.e. the account  251  registered by the buyer. In this embodiment, it is a2 or the identification code standing for the account  251  registered by the buyer) and the first good code. After the third-party server  23  receives the good purchasing information, the money  261  corresponding to the second account information (the account  251  registered by the buyer, namely a2) is determined if it is enough to pay the selling price according to the account data  25  and the money data  26 . Since the second account information (i.e. a2) corresponds to the money  261 , which is 1000 dollars, so that the third-party server  23  will deduct the selling price from the money  261  corresponding to the second account information. It means that the money  261  corresponding to the second account information (i.e. a2) is changed to 500 dollars, and a good transaction completed message is sent to the verification unit  24 . However, in other embodiments, if the first good code has been replaced with the first product name, the good purchasing message includes the second account information and the first good name. 
     The verification unit  24  generates a second good code, such as the serial number 654321 of the online game point card, to replace the first good code according to the good transaction completed message, and sends the second good code to the third-party server  23 . The third-party server  23  sends the second good code to the second terminal device  22  and adds the selling price paid from the money corresponding to the second account information to the money  261  corresponding to the first account information. In other words, the money  261  corresponding to the first account information (the account  251  that the seller registered, namely a1) is changed to 1500 dollars in order to safely complete the entire online transaction. Therefore, although the seller can know first good code, the first good code will be in the locked state when the seller puts the good on sale. The first good code is later replaced by a second good code, and therefore, the seller can&#39;t maliciously use the first good code ensuring buyer can safely use the good (online game cards) corresponding to the second good code. In addition, the seller can get money quickly without waiting for the buyer sending the transaction completed message to a third-party server  23 , and this effectively guarantees the online transaction rights for both buyers and sellers. 
     The processing procedures of the online transaction system  2  of the present invention are described below and please refer to  FIGS. 2˜4A ,  4 B. 
     ( 301 ) the third-party server  23  receives the good transaction information transmitted from the first terminal device  21 , proceeds to the step ( 302 ); 
     ( 302 ) the third-party server  23  sends the first good code to the verification unit  24 , proceeds to step ( 303 ); 
     ( 303 ) the verification unit  24  verifies whether the good corresponding to the first good code is in a state which means the good has been used, if no, proceeds to step ( 304 ), otherwise goes to step ( 313 ); 
     ( 304 ) the verification unit  24  locks the first good code in the locked state, proceeds to step ( 305 ); 
     ( 305 ) the verification unit  24  sends a locking completed message to the third-party server  23 , proceeds to step ( 306 ); 
     ( 306 ) the third-party server  23  displays the good transaction information on the transaction platform, proceeds to step ( 307 ); 
     ( 307 ) the third-party server  23  receives a good purchasing message from the second terminal device  22  through the transaction platform, proceeds to step ( 308 ); 
     ( 308 ) the third-party server  23  determines whether the money  261  corresponding to the second account information is sufficient enough to pay the selling price or not, and if yes, proceeds to step ( 309 ), otherwise, proceeds to step ( 313 ); 
     ( 309 ) the third-party server  23  deducts the selling price from the money  261  corresponding to the second account information, proceeds to step ( 310 ); 
     ( 310 ) the third-party server  23  sends a good transaction completed message to the verification unit  24 , proceeds to step ( 311 ); 
     ( 311 ) the verification unit  24  generates a second good code to replace the first good code and transmits the second good code to the third-party server  23 , proceeds to step ( 312 ); 
     ( 312 ) the third-party server  23  transmits the second good code to the second terminal device  22  and adds the selling price paid from the money corresponding to the second account information to the money  261  corresponding to the first account information; 
     ( 313 ) the transaction process ends. 
     The method of the present invention can be applied to goods similar to point card, such as coupons, software serial number, and other commodities. The second good code which the buyer gets is different from the first good code, but the second good code still correspond to the good of the first good code. Therefore, the buyer doesn&#39;t have to worry if the seller maliciously uses the good and the buyer can&#39;t get the normal usage right of the good after the transaction is completed. Meanwhile, the seller can get the money of the selling price of the good successfully. In addition, the verification unit  24  can also generate a second good code after locking the first good code and saves it to the third-party server  23 . Thereby, the third-party server  23  can provide the second good code to the buyer immediately after the buyer&#39;s money is obtained without having to wait for subsequent conversion steps of the verification unit  24 . The waiting time for transactions between buyers and sellers is shortened. After the third-party server  23  obtains the second good code, the second good code is not shown but the first good code (or the first good name) of the good purchasing message is displayed instead. 
     In addition to the aforementioned goods, the seller can also sell the good which doesn&#39;t have a good code, such as the game character of the online game. In the second embodiment of the present invention, as shown in  FIG. 5 , the online transaction system  4  includes a first terminal device  41 , a second terminal device  42 , a third-party server  43  and a game company server  44 A. The game company server  44 A is set with a verification unit  44 . The third-party server  43  can be connected to the terminal devices  41 ,  43  and the game company server  44  through Internet, respectively. The terminal devices  41 ,  43  are set with an account data  25  and a money data  26 . The account data  25  includes a plurality of account  251  as shown in  FIG. 3 . When the seller wants to sell the game character, a good transaction information will be sent through the first terminal device  41 . The good transaction information includes a first account information (i.e. the account  251  registered by the seller, which is a3 in this embodiment, or an identification code standing for the account  251  registered by the seller), a good information, such as the game character&#39;s name, level, equipment, etc., and a selling price, such as 2000 dollars. When the third-party server  43  receives the good transaction information transmitted from the terminal device  41 , the good information will be sent to the game company server  44 A for the verification unit  44  to verify whether the good corresponding to the good information is correct or not. This means to determine whether the good information, such as the game character&#39;s name, level, equipment, etc., which was input by the seller matches with the information of the selling game character information or not. If yes, a good code is generated according to the good information, and the good corresponding to the good information is locked. 
     The verification unit  44  sends the good code to the third-party server  43  after locking the good information. The third-party server  43  displays the good transaction information on the transaction platform. When the buyer browses the good transaction information through the second terminal device  42  on the transaction platform and wants to buy the game character, a good purchasing message can be sent through the second terminal device  42  via the transaction platform to the third-party server  43 . The good purchasing message includes a second account information (i.e. the account  251  registered by the buyer, it is a4 in the second embodiment, or the identification code standing for the account  251  registered by the buyer) and the good information. After the third-party server  43  receives the good purchasing message, the third-party server  43  further determines whether the money  261  corresponding to the second account information (the account  251  registered by the buyer, namely a4) is sufficient enough to pay the selling price or not according to the account data  25  and the money data  26 . Since the money  26  corresponding to the second account information (i.e. a4) 5000 dollars, the third-party server  43  will deduct the selling price from the money  261  corresponding to the second account information and add the selling price to the money  261  corresponding to the first account information. At the same time, the good code would be sent to the game company server  44 A. The game company server  44 A executes a shipping process according to the good code. For example, the game company server  44 A would unlock the good, such as a game character, corresponding to the good information and convert it to the buyer&#39;s game account. 
     The processing procedures of the online transaction system  4  of the present invention are described below and please refer to  FIGS. 3 ,  5 ,  6 A,  6 B. 
     ( 501 ) the third-party server  43  receives a good transaction information from the first terminal device  41 , proceeds to step ( 502 ); 
     ( 502 ) the third-party server  43  sends the good information to the verification unit  44  of the game company server  44 A, proceeds to step ( 503 ); 
     ( 503 ) the verification unit  44  verifies that the product corresponding to the information system of the product whether it is correct, if so, proceeds to step ( 504 ), otherwise goes to step ( 512 ); 
     ( 504 ) the verification unit  44  generates a good code according to the good information and locks the good corresponding to the good information in a locked state, proceeds to step ( 505 ); 
     ( 505 ) the verification unit  44  transmits the good code to the third-party server  43 , proceeds to step ( 506 ); 
     ( 506 ) the third-party server  43  displays the good transaction information on the transaction platform, proceeds to step ( 507 ); 
     ( 507 ) the third-party server  43  receives the good purchasing message transmitted from the second terminal device  42  through the transaction platform, proceeds step ( 508 ); 
     ( 508 ) the third-party server  43  determines whether the money  261  corresponding to the second account information is sufficient enough to pay the selling price or not, and if yes, proceeds to step ( 509 ), otherwise, proceeds to step ( 512 ); 
     ( 509 ) the third-party server  43  deducts the selling price from the money  261  corresponding to the second account information, proceeds to step ( 510 ); 
     ( 510 ) the third-party server  43  transmits the good code to the game company servers  44 A and adds the selling price paid from the money corresponding to the second account information to the money  261  corresponding to the first account information, proceeds to step ( 511 ); 
     ( 511 ) the game company server executes a shipping procedure; 
     ( 512 ) the transaction process ends. 
     With the aforesaid second embodiment, the virtual good bought by the buyer can be safely used for sure. For example, the game character&#39;s equipment will not be removed. This also ensures that the seller can get the required money after providing the virtual good. The online transaction rights of both the buyers and the sellers are effectively protected. Furthermore, before the game company server  44 A executes the shipping procedure, the verification unit  44  can still verify the good code to ensure that the good code is correct. This avoids the situation that the good code is tampered with during the transmission. Secondly, the third-party server  43  is still capable of removing the first account information of the good transaction information and then displays the good transaction information on the transaction platform. 
     While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention set forth in the claims.