COMBINED OFFLINE AND ONLINE VERIFICATION OF USER LEGITIMACY FOR ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

摘要

A method and system for verification of the legitimacy of a prospective customer by an E-commerce organization or E-commerce service provider. Identification information identifying a prospective customer is supplied by the prospective customer using an electronic interface, such as the Internet. Address information supplied as a portion of the identification information is verified by the E-commerce organization and a prospective customer supplying a valid address is entered in a database as a provisional user. Subsequently, the E-commerce organization sends a postcard including a PIN generated for the provisional user and contact information for the provisional user to again contact the E-commerce organization in order to complete the registration process. When the provisional user contacts the E-commerce organization in order to complete the registration process, and supplies the PIN sent to the provisional user via the postcard, the E-commerce organization activates the provisional user as a fully active registered user. An active registered user may supply the active registered user's PIN to other individuals who may supply the PIN to the E-commerce organization during registration process in order to direct referral credits to the active registered user. Only active registered users may receive referral rewards from the E-commerce organization.