Methods and systems for providing an electronic account to a customer

摘要

An electronic account is provided to a customer to enable the customer to access electronic services, such as e-mail and electronic transactions. The electronic account links an electronic address of the customer to a physical address of the customer. Using the electronic account, electronic services can be provided to the customer at either the electronic or physical address, or both. The services can be both secure and non-secure and can be provided by any service provider, such as an online merchant, a government agency, or a bank.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for processing electronic mail services over a network using an electronic account, the method comprising:
providing a user interface over the network to establish the electronic account; receiving from a user by way of the user interface an identification of a physical address and an electronic address; linking the electronic account to the physical address of the user using a delivery point identification key; linking the electronic account to the electronic address of the user; receiving a request from a service to access the electronic account over the network; receiving a request from the user to access the service over the network via the electronic account, the request including an identification of a preferred service delivery option; providing the service access to the electronic account; receiving from the user by way of the user interface an identification of a temporary address different from the physical address and the electronic address, the temporary address being an address at which the user is to be provided the service for a period of time defined by the user; linking the electronic account to the temporary address of the user; and limiting access to the electronic account from access to the physical address and electronic address to access to the temporary address until the user-defined period of time elapses.