Patent ID: 8396747

Claim:
A method for protecting against theft of personal identity information during purchase transactions, said method comprising the steps of: registering an individual subscriber as a member of an identity protection system and obtaining personal identity information from the subscribing member, including the subscribing member's name and account information for at least one financial account of the subscribing member, the at least one financial account being preexisting to and independent of membership, and being issued by a credit issuer that is external to the identity protection system, the identity protection system further performing: receiving the personal identity information obtained from each subscribing member as storable computer data; encrypting the entered personal identity information data by a computer; fragmenting the encrypted data by a computer; storing portions of the fragmented encrypted data, by at least one computer, independently at separate computer data storage locations; preventing third party access to the fragmented encrypted data; allowing the subscribing member to conduct at least one purchase transaction with a merchant, and allowing the subscribing member to select the at least one financial account from which funds will be used for indirect payment of the purchase transaction; requesting credit authorization of the credit issuer for a monetary purchase value amount to be charged against the at least one financial account of the subscribing member; obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the monetary purchase value amount; assigning the monetary purchase value amount to a temporary card number selected from a plurality of pre-approved card numbers at the time of obtaining approval of the credit issuer for the purchase value amount of the purchase transaction, and assigning the card number to an anonymous card for exclusive use by the subscribing member to conduct the at least one purchase transaction with the merchant, the anonymous card having no traceable connection outside the identity protection system to any financial account of the subscribing member including the at least one financial account presenting the anonymous card to the merchant when the subscribing member is conducting a purchase transaction with the merchant; and allowing the merchant to obtain credit approval and payment for the purchase transaction against the anonymous card in an amount not exceeding the approved monetary purchase value amount and without revealing any personal identity information of the subscribing member.