SYSTEMS AND METHODS ENABLING ANONYMOUS CREDIT TRANSACTIONS

摘要

The system and method of the present invention enables consumers to purchase goods and services from merchants, using credit cards, wherein the consumers can maintain the confidentiality of their credit card numbers and identity without disclosure to the merchants, so that an anonymous credit transaction can take place. The system and method takes blocks of consumer credit card numbers and creates dynamic mappings of the card numbers to account numbers or even other card numbers, such as pseudo-random credit card numbers. The system and method of the present invention generates pseudo-random credit cart attributes, which are presented to merchants at the time or purchase for Internet, telephone, or mail order purchases. Because pseudo-random attributes are transmitted to the merchant, the transaction between the consumer and merchant will be anonymous. Pseudo-random attributes include the card number, name, billing zip code, expiration date, and purchase amount, each of which can be used singularly or in combination to authenticate a transaction according to consumer preferences, which are captured when the consumer establishes the agent relationship with system of the present invention.