Patent ID: 8924295

Claim:
A system, comprising: a processor; and a computer-readable memory comprising computer-program instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: receiving credit-card-transaction information concerning a prospective credit-card transaction determining whether a purchaser initiating the prospective credit-card transaction is identified in available data as being a user for only a single mobile communication device or for multiple mobile communication devices; determining, in response to determining that the purchaser is identified as being the user of only the single mobile communication device, whether the single mobile communication device is within a pre-determined proximity of a credit-card-transaction terminal; determining, in response to determining that the purchaser is identified as being the user of multiple mobile communication devices, whether each one of the multiple mobile communication devices is within the pre-determined proximity of the credit-card-transaction terminal; initiating, in response to determining that the single mobile communication device is not within the pre-determined proximity of the credit-card-transaction terminal, a first authentication process; initiating, in response to determining that the multiple mobile communication devices are not each within the pre-determined proximity of the credit-card-transaction terminal, a second authentication process; and generating authorization information for the prospective credit-card transaction in response to any of (a) determining that the single mobile communication device is within a pre-determined proximity of the credit-card-transaction terminal, (b) determining that each one of the multiple mobile communication devices is within the pre-determined proximity of the credit-card-transaction terminal, (c) a positive result from the first authentication process, and (d) a positive result from the second authentication process.