Patent ID: 8701170

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: assigning a unique merchant identifier to each of a plurality of participating online merchants; maintaining a database storing a plurality of verification data items for a plurality of consumers, each verification data item being associated with a merchant identifier of a merchant and a username of a consumer enrolled at the merchant; generating, by one or more computer processors, a random password associated with each verification data item; receiving, by the one or more computer processors, a verification request to verify a consumer, the request including a first merchant identifier and a first username; and in response to the verification request: confirming, by the one or more computer processors, with the merchant associated with the first merchant identifier that the verification request is initiated by the merchant, instructing the consumer associated with the first username, on behalf of the merchant, to perform a scan from a scanning device operated by the consumer, receiving, by the one or more computer processors, a scanning result from the consumer, determining, by the one or more computer processors, whether the scanning result matches the verification data item associated with the first merchant identifier and the first consumer username in the database, and in response to the scanning result matching the verification data item, transmitting, by the one or more computer processors, the previously generated random password associated with the verification data item to the merchant as a verification of the consumer.