Patent ID: 8175889

Claim:
A method, for performance by a computer system, of identifying a potential new address for at least one customer of a service-provider, the method comprising: receiving, by a computer system that comprises one or more processors, data about a first set of consumers comprising individual customers of at least one service-provider, said customers having submitted a service disconnect request to the at least one service-provider, requesting that their service be disconnected, wherein the data about the first set of consumers comprises, for each individual customer, at least a customer name, a service disconnect date, and a service disconnect address at which the service is to be disconnected; receiving, by the computer system, data about a second set of consumers comprising individual customers of at least one service-provider, said customers having submitted a service connect request to the at least one service-provider requesting that service be connected, wherein the data about the second set of consumers comprises, for each individual customer, at least a customer name, a service connect date, and a service connect address at which the service is to be connected; programmatically comparing, by the computer system, the data about the individual customers in the first set of consumers and the data about the individual customers in the second set of consumers; identifying, by the computer system, at least one individual customer in the first set of consumers who is also possibly a member of the second set of consumers; assessing a level of confidence that the identified at least one individual customer in the first set of consumers is in fact the same customer in the second set of consumers, said confidence assessment comprising calculating a likelihood that the compared data reflects a change of address for the identified at least one individual customer, said likelihood being based, at least in part, on at least two of a set of factors, the set comprising: geographical proximity of a service connect address and a service disconnect address, similarity of names associated with a service connect request and a service disconnect request, proximity of a service connect date and a service disconnect date, uniqueness of a name associated with a service connect request and a service disconnect request, and similarity of service plan details associated with a service connect request and service plan details associated with a service disconnect request; and if the assessed level of confidence is above a threshold amount, storing, in computer readable storage, an indication of the service connect address for the identified at least one customer.