Financial fraud prevention method and system

摘要

According to an embodiment of the present invention a method for detecting fraudulent use of credit cards is herein described. In the case when possible fraudulent use is detected the issuer or other responsible party, such as a third-party mediator, temporarily blocks the credit card account. This can be accomplished, for example, by making an artificial excess of credit limit of the credit card or otherwise temporarily closing a credit card account. In some embodiments an issuer or responsible party may send a warning message and/or alert to a client's mobile phone informing of an upcoming temporary block of client's credit card.

主权项

1. A method comprising performing actions on a server computer system that communicates with at least one telecommunications network, the method comprising:
performing communications relating to a potentially fraudulent transaction, the potentially fraudulent transaction involving at least one specific payment vehicle of a client and a mobile communications device, the communications device having at least one address, wherein the at least one specific payment vehicle and the at least one address are associated with the client, wherein the performing communications comprises:
receiving and/or determining information pertaining to the potentially fraudulent transaction,generating a message to be sent based on the information on the potentially fraudulent transaction, causing the generated message to be sent to the mobile communications device's address from a first reply address, wherein, prior to sending the generated message, a plurality of currently available reply addresses is determined, a reply address is selected for the generated message from the plurality of currently available reply addresses, and the selected reply address is used as the first reply address, receiving a response from the mobile communications device's address; positively validating the response from the mobile communications device's address only if the response was sent to the first reply address, which was selected from the plurality of possible reply addresses; determining if the content of the positively validated response to the first reply address confirms a suspicion of fraudulent activity, and temporarily limiting usability of the payment vehicle until the suspicion of fraudulent activity is removed.