Patent ID: 8856024

Claim:
A method for detecting potential misuse of a primary account number (PAN) associated with a handheld media in a transit system having one or more access points, the method comprising: creating a user account for managing transactional information, the user account comprising a transit product; enrolling the handheld media for use as fare media for the transit product, wherein the PAN is stored in the user account, wherein the handheld media is issued by an issuing party that is different than the transit system; receiving, from the one or more access points of the transit system, a plurality of fare transaction records, wherein each fare transaction record in the plurality of fare transaction records comprises: the PAN associated with the handheld media; and a transaction counter; determining, by the transit system, a potential misuse of a handheld media associated with the PAN, wherein the determination is based, at least in part, on: a sequence of a plurality of transaction counters corresponding to the plurality of fare transaction records; and a use profile that includes an expected gap in the sequence of the plurality of transaction counters, the expected gap representing non-fare transactions involving the issuing party, wherein the determining compares one or more gaps in the sequence of the plurality of transaction counters to the expected gap in the use profile; and taking an action related to using the handheld media as fare media for using the transit product.