Patent ID: 8566255

Claim:
A method of authenticating a physical address in an online communication, the method comprising: receiving, from a first entity, at a processing facility, a request for information verifying identity of a second entity; generating, by a processor, a verification identification (VID) in response to the request for the information, the VID including information identifying the second entity, and the VID being associated with a defined geographic area; electronically transmitting the VID to the first entity; receiving, at the processing facility, a physical embodiment of a transaction verification document (TVD) comprising an indicia indicative of the VID and information related to a location from which the physical embodiment of the TVD was dispatched, the physical embodiment having been dispatched by an entity, the entity being other than the first entity, from a location within the defined geographic area and remote from the processing facility; extracting, by a processor, the VID from the physical embodiment of the TVD; generating verification data based on the extracted VID and the location from which the physical embodiment of the TVD was dispatched; and transmitting the verification data to the first entity.