Patent ID: 8639930

Claim:
A verification system comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with an executable program stored thereon, said program for performing a two-step verification to verify an entity at an online service provider when said entity has registered an account at the online service provider, wherein said program instructs a microprocessor of the verification system to perform sets of instructions for: receiving a request comprising at least one identifier for identifying said entity; matching said identifier to a particular data structure comprising verified identification information and contact information for said entity; generating, by the verification system, a first sequence of alphanumeric characters as a first code and a second sequence of alphanumeric characters that is different than the first sequence as a second code, the first code required to complete a first step of the two-step verification of the entity and the second code required to complete a second step of the two-step verification of the entity; disseminating, from the verification system, the first code and the second code, wherein disseminating the first code comprises disseminating the first code to the account that the entity has registered at the online service provider using a messaging format of the online service provider, wherein disseminating the second code comprises disseminating the second code in a communication to the entity according to contact information from the particular data structure, wherein said disseminating of said second code is contemporaneous with said disseminating of said first code, and wherein said contact information is not provided by said entity as part of said request comprising the at least one identifier; verifying said entity at the online service provider when the verification system (i) receives the first code completing the first step of the two-step verification and (ii) receives the second code completing the second step of the two-step verification wherein said verifying comprises modifying said non-transitory storage medium to store verification status of said entity.