Patent ID: 8819789

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a computing device, from a user purporting to act on behalf of an entity, login credentials for at least one website, wherein the at least one website is a social networking website, and the login credentials relate to at least one account on the social networking website that is purported to be an account associated with the entity; retrieving, using the computing device, using the login credentials, social data relating to the entity from the at least one website, the social data comprising a plurality of social connections, each of the plurality of social connections reflecting a respective relationship between the entity and a respective third party; determining, using the computing device, a plurality of relevant social connections, the plurality of relevant social connections comprising at least a first subset of the plurality of social connections, each social connection of the first subset of the plurality of social connects reflecting a relationship to a respective third party that is deemed to be reliable; and determining, using the computing device, a reliability rating of the entity based on the plurality of relevant social connections.