Patent ID: 7748616

Claim:
A method for implementing an anonymous Mail Order Telephone Order (“MOTO”) credit card transaction between a user and a merchant, comprising the steps of: establishing a user account between a credit source and the user which Is associated with a fictitious account name, a user account number, a user key and a user settlement mechanism through which the user can pay the credit source for charges and fees billed to the user account; providing the user with an electronic card that is comprised of: a card base; a storage medium affixed to the card that can be read by a card reader but is not readable by a human eye; a computer affixed to the card; an input mechanism for providing input to the computer; a display controlled by the computer; and a power source for supplying power to the computer; wherein the electronic card has the fictitious account name stored in a memory device accessible by the computer, the computer is capable of causing data to be stored in the storage medium and the electronic card is sized such that a standard magnetic stripe reader can read the magnetic storage medium; completing a MOTO credit card transaction between the user and the merchant in which the user is charged a monetary value by the merchant, comprising the following steps: entering the user key into the input mechanism; executing an algorithm by the computer that uses the user key and a card number stored in the electronic card as input variables to generate a valid personal charge number; visually reading the valid personal charge number from the display; providing the valid personal charge number and the fictitious account name to the merchant; sending the monetary value, the valid personal charge number and the fictitious account name to a credit approval center that verifies that the valid personal charge number is valid for the fictitious account name and approves the MOTO credit card transaction; and sending an approval of the transaction from the credit approval center to the merchant.