Patent ID: 7469233

Claim:
A method for facilitating a purchase transaction for an item anonymously over a computer network, said method comprising: transmitting, to a second e-commerce website associated with a merchant, a purchase value and an account code for an authorization, by an account provider system, of said purchase transaction for said item, wherein said account code is purchased by: transmitting, to said account provider system and via a first e-commerce website, an account code purchase request for a purchase of said account code; transmitting, to said account provider system and via said first e-commerce website, a load request for associating a monetary load value with said account code; transmitting payment information to obtain authorization of said payment information and to cause an association of said monetary load value with said account code; receiving, from said account provider system and via said first e-commerce website, said account code for providing to said merchant, via said second e-commerce website, as a form of anonymous payment for said item, wherein information sufficient to identify a user of said account code is not provided to said merchant; receiving a challenge based on said purchase transaction, wherein said challenge is passed to an intelligent token for processing said challenge, wherein said intelligent token generates a response to said challenge; sending a response based upon said challenge to said account provider system, wherein said account provider system processes said response and verifies said intelligent token and assembles credentials for said request for an authorization at a first server, said credentials comprising at least one key; receiving a portion of said assembled credentials; and, sending a second request to said account provider system, said second request including said portion of said assembled credentials, wherein said account provider system validates said portion of said assembled credentials with said key of said assembled credentials to facilitate a purchase of said item using said account code and determines when said account code is equal to one of a plurality of valid account codes; and, wherein when said account code is equal to one of said plurality of valid account codes, said account provider system compares said purchase value to said monetary value associated with said account code to determine when said monetary value exceeds said purchase value and, wherein when said monetary value exceeds said purchase value, said account provider system sends a purchase authorization message authorizing said purchase transaction and, wherein said account provider system subtracts said purchase value from said monetary value associated with said account code to obtain a first updated monetary value associated with said account code.