Patent ID: 8577744

Claim:
An auction buyer payment support system comprising: an open network interface configured to communicate electronic data messages with other computers over an open network; a seller database having a processor and memory in which data associated with a seller are stored; and one or more computers operatively connected to the open network interface and the seller database, the one or more computers being programmed with instructions stored on at least one hard drive associated with at least one computer of the one or more computers to enable: a buyer manager software module executing on the one or more computers to verify a merchant terminal communicating with the buyer manager through the open network interface is registered with the auction buyer payment support system, and to verify auction purchase data for a concluded auction purchase received from the merchant terminal, the auction purchase data being associated with an auction buyer of the concluded auction purchase and communicated in a data message sent from the merchant terminal to the one or more computers through the open network interface; an auction site manager software module executing on the one or more computers to communicate with an auction server associated with the concluded auction purchase through the open network interface to verify that auction transaction data in the auction purchase data received from the merchant terminal corresponds with auction transaction data for the concluded auction purchase stored in a memory associated with the auction server; and a transaction payment service manager software module executing on the one or more computers to communicate data messages with an auction payment service server through the open network interface to transfer funds from an account associated with a merchant associated with the merchant terminal to an account associated with the seller for payment of the concluded auction purchase corresponding to the verified auction transaction data without identifying financial account data associated with the auction buyer.