Processing transactions in offline mode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10366378-B1
Application number	US-201615199466-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 30, 2016
Priority date	Jun 30, 2016
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

In some examples, methods and systems may process one or more payment transactions between a merchant and a buyer by detecting buyer's communication device as an instrument to approve or reject a payment transaction in offline mode. The method includes detecting at least one transaction activity associated with a payment system, establishing a communication channel between the POS terminal an RF communication device in proximity to the POS terminal to obtain at least one device characteristic of the communication device, related to the operational or physical features of the communication device; generating a digital fingerprint based in part on the obtained device characteristic and the information related to received payment object; determining whether the digital fingerprint substantially compares to an existing fingerprint in a database and if the existing fingerprint is substantially similar to the digital fingerprint, rejecting the payment transaction through presence of the communication device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of processing a payment transaction between a buyer and a merchant, the method comprising:
detecting at least one transaction activity associated with a point-of-sale (POS) device, of the merchant, in an offline mode in response to interaction of a payment object with a payment object reader associated with the POS device, wherein the offline mode prevents network connectivity between the POS device and a payment processing system;
detecting at least one communication device within a communication range of the payment object reader, wherein the communication range is based on a short-range communication protocol;
obtaining, by the POS device, at least one device characteristic corresponding to the communication device, wherein the at least one device characteristic is associated with an operational or physical feature of the communication device;
obtaining, by the POS device and from the payment processing system, risk data including previous payment transactions that satisfied decline criteria;
determining whether the at least one device characteristic corresponds to the risk data; and
at least partly in response to determining that the at least one device characteristic corresponds to the risk data, either declining the payment transaction or generating a notification for the merchant to attempt the transaction in an online mode.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one device characteristic is selected from a group of characteristics including timing parameters, radiated performance, wireless performance, quality of communication links, radio frequency response, transmission measurements, receiver measurements, and engineering tolerances.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one transaction activity includes at least one of: (a) the payment object being introduced in proximity to the POS device; (b) accessing a payment account associated with the buyer; (c) retrieving a transaction history; (d) approving authenticity of an action; or (e) detecting the payment transaction.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
establishing a communication channel between the POS device and the communication device on an RF communication protocol to obtain the at least one device characteristic;
generating a digital device fingerprint based at least in part on the at least one device characteristic and information related to the payment object;
determining whether the digital device fingerprint is substantially similar to an existing device fingerprint stored in the memory of the POS device, wherein the existing device fingerprint includes an association of a previously obtained device characteristic with information identifying a previously received payment object;
if the digital device fingerprint is substantially similar to the existing device fingerprint, declining the payment transaction in the offline mode on account of established presence of the communication device; and
if the digital device fingerprint is not substantially similar to the digital device fingerprint, processing the payment transaction in the offline mode.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising generating a request to store the digital device fingerprint in the memory if the digital device fingerprint does not exist in the memory, wherein storing enables use of the communication device as an authentication instrument in subsequent payment transactions between the buyer and the merchant.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein establishing the communication channel between the POS device and the communication device includes:
detecting a list of available communication ports of the communication device; and
selecting a communication port from amongst the available communication ports for communicating with the communication device.

7. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
establishing one or more communication channels between a plurality of components within the POS device and the communication device through the selected communication port;
obtaining, by each of the plurality of components, the at least one device characteristic corresponding to the communication device;
generating, by each of the plurality of components, instances of the digital device fingerprint corresponding to the communication device based at least in part on the at least one device characteristic; and
comparing the instances of the digital device fingerprint to determine whether the combination and/or order of the instances of the digital device fingerprint match the risk data.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprises:
receiving a notification by an integrated circuit of the payment object, wherein the notification indicates a preliminary authorization of the payment transaction in the offline mode based on pre-stored criteria in the integrated circuit;
obtaining at least one payment identifier associated with the payment object;
generating profiles, wherein the profiles include a merchant profile, a transaction profile, a profile of the communication device, and a customer profile based on the payment identifier;
comparing the profiles with risk data; and
generating, based at least in part on the comparing, a final authorization of the payment transaction in the offline mode.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein authorizing further comprises:
detecting another communication device within the communication range of the payment system POS device;
obtaining, from the other communication device, a device characteristic corresponding to the other communication device;
generating a combined device fingerprint based at least in part on the at least one device characteristic obtained from the communication device and in part on the device characteristic obtained from the other communication device; and
declining the payment transaction based on the combined device fingerprint.

10. The method of claim 4 , wherein if the digital device fingerprint is substantially similar to the existing device fingerprint, further determining whether the existing device fingerprint has associated thereto:
device characteristics from a cluster of communication devices besides the communication device, or
another device profile known to be fraudulent.

11. The method of claim 4 , further comprising storing, the digital device fingerprint, within a secure enclave in the POS device, wherein the digital device fingerprint is retrieved from the secure enclave during the payment transaction involving the buyer.

12. The method of claim 1 , further including:
receiving a request for fulfillment of the authorized payment transaction on a most proximate POS device in response to a determination of a current geographical location of the communication device and a proximate POS device based on a current geographical location of neighboring POS devices with respect to the communication device;
establishing one or more communication links with the communication device and through the POS device to send a confirmation message to the buyer, the confirmation message including a confirmation link; and
sending, to the payment processing system, an indication of buyer engagement with the confirmation link, wherein the buyer engagement includes an additional identifier selected from a group of a buyer name, a buyer address, a buyer email address, a buyer phone number, a social security number, a passcode set at the time of registration of the communication device, and a transaction detail, wherein the transfer of the money transfer amount is authorized in response to the received indication of the buyer engagement.

13. The method of claim 4

Assignees

• Square Inc

Inventors

• Han Koun
• White Michael Wells
• Botros Paul Abraham

Classifications

• G06Q20/208

  Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing · CPC title

• G07G1/009 Primary

  the reader being an RFID reader · CPC title

• G06K7/0004

  Hybrid readers · CPC title

• G06Q20/4014

  Identity check for transactions · CPC title

• G06Q20/202

  Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR · CPC title