Patent ID: 8224727

Claim:
A method implemented on a data processing system, the method comprising: receiving, at a server computer of a mobile phone exchange, a request from a first user authenticated by a social networking website of a social networking system; identifying a first phone number of the first user; communicating by the server computer of the mobile phone interchange with the social networking website of the social network system to identify a second user based on data stored in a social network database of the social network system coupled to the social networking database, the data including a social distance between the first and second users; communicating by the server computer of the mobile phone interchange with a mobile phone at the first phone number to confirm the request; determining whether the second user is within a predetermined social distance from the first user; in response to the request being confirmed via the mobile phone at the first phone number, processing, by the server computer of the mobile phone interchange to the request using funds associated with the mobile phone at the first phone number, wherein the processing of funds is in response to a determination that the second user is within a predetermined social distance from the second user in the social network of the second user; Wherein the social distance is the smallest number of direct connections between the two users in a collection of connections stored in the social network database; and Wherein said direct connections are friend connections.