Patent ID: 7447302

Claim:
A fraud prevention system for preventing affiliate fraud in the referral of a customer by an affiliate via a computer network, the fraud prevention system comprising: a customer sign-up program on a computer readable memory accessible via the computer network and functioning to receive an inquiry from the customer that includes a phone number; a phone number database on the computer readable memory of valid phone numbers that may only be used once and are then designated as invalid; and a validation program on the computer readable memory functioning to perform the following steps: confirming that the phone number is valid by referencing the phone number database; generating a validation page having a PIN; calling the phone number to establish phone communication with the customer; receiving an inputted PIN via the phone communication; confirming that the inputted PIN matches the PIN of the validation page; updating the phone number database so that the phone number is no longer valid; and providing credit to the affiliate for referring the customer.