Patent ID: 8180687

Claim:
A computer system configured to selectively block a remote purchase in which a purchaser attempts to use a card number to purchase one or more of an item from a vendor's system, the computer system comprising: one or more processors configured to execute one or more computer subsystems, the one or more computer subsystems comprising: a data input subsystem configured to receive information included in a first purchase request information set that corresponds to a first purchase request to the vendor's computer system, wherein the first purchase information request set includes (i) an origin of the first purchase request, the origin representing either a telephone number or internet address, (ii) a card number for the first purchase request, (iii) a requested item identification for an item requested in the first purchase request, the requested item identification being associated with a first merchandise category, and (iv) a number of requested items in the first purchase request for the requested item identification; a memory subsystem configured to manage storage of the received information from the first purchase request information set, wherein the memory subsystem is further configured to manage storage of previously received purchase request information sets corresponding to a plurality of previous purchase requests, the stored previously received purchase request information sets including a second purchase request information set corresponding to a such purchase request received previously by the vendor's computer system from the same origin as the first purchase request, and wherein a requested item identification from the second purchase request information set is also associated with the first merchandise category; a logic subsystem configured to automatically determine whether a number of items associated with the first merchandise category that are requested in purchase request information sets corresponding to the origin of the first purchase request exceeds a preset threshold number of items associated with the first merchandise category, wherein the number of items associated with the first merchandise category that are requested in purchase requests corresponding to the origin of the first purchase request comprises at least the number of items associated with the first merchandise category requested in the first purchase request and the number of items associated with the first merchandise category requested in the second purchase request, and wherein the logic subsystem is further configured to transmit instructions to the vendor's computer system to block the purchase associated with the first purchase request responsive to a determination that the number of items associated with the first merchandise category that are requested in purchase request information requests corresponding to the origin of the first purchase request exceeds the preset threshold number of such items.