Patent ID: 7899753

Claim:
A method for authenticating a finance related transaction for a customer, the customer being a person, comprising: providing a token which contains a token counter, the token counter periodically advancing to generate a changing token value, the token counter being synchronized to a base counter that generates an authenticating value; transforming, by the token, the token value into a token output sequence using logic; outputting, by the token, at least part of the token output sequence to the customer, such outputting to the customer consisting of the at least part of the token output sequence; inputting from the customer, by an authenticating authority, the at least part of the token output sequence, such inputting from the customer consisting of the at least part of the token output sequence, the authenticating authority having access to the authenticating value, the authenticating authority constituted by a processing system, the at least part of the token output sequence being input by the authenticating authority via a merchant; and verifying, by the authenticating authority, the validity of the transaction based on the token output sequence and the authenticating value, from which the authenticating authority obtains a verification sequence using the logic, the verifying the validity including the authenticating authority comparing the token output sequence to the verification sequence to determine if there is a match between the token output sequence and the verification sequence; and the method further including: generating a time stamp value at a time of the transaction: and the authenticating authority inputting the time stamp value, and the base counter, which is in the authenticating authority determining the value of the authenticating value based on the time stamp value.