Patent ID: 7149296

Claim:
A method for predicting fraudulent identification usage, comprising: responsive to detecting authentication of an identity of a user via a communication line into a same identification used to singly represent said user within a network environment comprising a trusted telephone network and a packet switching network communicatively connected via a secure channel to said trusted telephone network, detecting a context for use of said identification by a context inference service executing within said packet switching network, wherein said context inference service is enabled to detect use of said same identification in association with a plurality of purchases within said network environment comprising at least one of an in-store purchase, an internet purchase, and a telephone purchase and in association with a plurality of non-purchase uses of said network environment comprising at least one of a phone call and an internet service access; detecting, at said fraud protection service, said context for use of said identification via said communication line from said context inference service; analyzing, at said fraud protection service, said context for use of said identification in view of a plurality of entries for use of said identification each previously received by said fraud protection service from said context inference service, wherein each of said plurality of entries comprises a previously detected context for use of said identification for one from among said plurality of purchases and said plurality of non-purchase uses within said network environment; and specifying, by said fraud protection service, a level of suspicion of fraudulent use of said identification according to said analysis of said context.