Patent ID: 7325727

Claim:
A transaction card security system, comprising: a transaction card having a magnetized strip, protection icon, account number, name, and expiration date displayed visually on an external portion of the card, wherein the protection icon, account number, name, and expiration date are recorded on the magnetized strip; a personal identification number having at least three characters and recorded on the magnetized strip; a computerized terminal having a display that shows a symbol representative of each character in the personal identification number; a keypad disposed on the computerized terminal; wherein the personal identification number, account number, name, and expiration date are adapted for uploading to the computerized terminal; wherein the computerized terminal is adapted to recognize the protection icon and is adapted to activate a digital lock in the computerized terminal that disables any transfer of the account number, name and expiration date if one or more of the symbols representative of the characters of the personal identification number are present in the display; a processor disposed inside the computerized terminal and adapted to delete each of the characters of the personal identification number from the computerized terminal and each symbol from the display; and a digital key that enables transfer of the account number, name, and expiration date from the computerized terminal if all characters of the personal identification number have been entered on the keypad and the symbols representative of the characters have been deleted from the display.