Systems and methods for setting spend limits and counteracting fraud in gas station transaction

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11348113-B2
Application number	US-202016879112-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 20, 2020
Priority date	May 20, 2020
Publication date	May 31, 2022
Grant date	May 31, 2022

Abstract

The disclosed technology relates to Spend Limit Systems for gas-station refuel transactions. An exemplary system may receive vehicle information identifying a customer's vehicle and identify associated vehicle characteristics (e.g., gas tank size). The system may identify a known gas-station transaction geographic region for the customer. When the customer (or a fraudster) attempts to purchase gas, the system may receive a transaction request and, in response, set a single transaction limit sufficient to fill the gas tank size with gas and an associated spend limit. The system may also determine whether the merchant location falls within the known gas-station transaction geographic region. When it does, the system may approve the transaction request up to the spend limit. Otherwise, the system may perform one or more fraud prevention actions to authenticate the customer and either approve or deny the transaction request up to the spend limit and/or selectively perform fraud mitigation action(s).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A Spend Limit System for gas-station transactions, the system comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory in communication with the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, are configured to cause the system to:
receive, from a database, customer vehicle information identifying a first vehicle associated with a customer having a customer financial account;
identify first vehicle characteristics associated with the first vehicle, the first vehicle characteristics comprising a first gas tank size;
algorithmically identify, using a machine learning model trained to recognize similar customer behavior patterns based on past purchase data, a known gas-station transaction geographic region for the customer based on prior gas-station transactions associated with the customer;
receive, via a network, an electronic transaction request to complete a gas-station transaction using the customer financial account, the transaction request comprising a merchant location;
identify a local gas price based on the merchant location;
calculate, with the one or more processors, a single transaction limit by multiplying the first gas tank size by the local gas price;
set a spend limit based on the single transaction limit;
determine whether the merchant location falls within the known gas-station transaction geographic region;
when the merchant location falls within the known gas-station transaction geographic region, approve the transaction request up to the spend limit; and
when the merchant location falls outside of the known gas-station transaction geographic region:
perform one or more fraud prevention actions to authenticate the customer, comprising:
determining, with the machine learning model, whether the customer is travelling as indicated by previous purchase transaction information;
determining, with the machine learning model, a recent geographic location of the customer based on one or more recent non-gas-station transactions associated with the customer; and
determining, with the machine learning model, whether the recent geographic location of the customer is within a predetermined distance threshold of the merchant location;

responsive to authenticating the customer within a predetermined time threshold, approve the transaction request up to the spend limit and monitor a predetermined number of subsequent transactions associated with the customer financial account for fraud; and
responsive to not authenticating the customer within the predetermined time threshold, deny the transaction request and perform one or more fraud mitigation actions.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein performing the one or more fraud prevention actions to authenticate the customer further comprises:
when the recent geographic location of the customer is within the predetermined distance threshold of the merchant location, authenticating the customer; and
when the recent geographic location of the customer is outside of the predetermined distance threshold of the merchant location:
cause a mobile device associated with the customer to prompt the customer to perform a secondary authentication process;
responsive to receiving, from the mobile device, an indication that the customer failed the secondary authentication process, not authenticating the customer; and
responsive to receiving, from the mobile device, an indication that the customer completed the secondary authentication process, authenticating the customer.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the secondary authentication process comprises one or more processes of a facial-recognition process, a fingerprint scan, and a password entry.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, are configured to cause the system to:
receive customer input indicative of a trip to an unusual geographic destination from the customer; and
update the known gas-station transaction geographic region based on the customer input.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, are configured to cause the system to:
receive customer input to adjust the single transaction limit from the customer; and
update the single transaction limit based on the customer input.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein performing the one or more fraud mitigation actions further comprises sending a fraud alert message to a mobile device associated with the customer.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein performing the one or more fraud mitigation actions further comprises denying one or more subsequent transaction requests to complete another gas-station transaction outside of the known gas-station transaction geographic region and using the customer financial account.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transaction request further comprises a transaction date and the instructions further comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, are configured to cause the system to:
generate a daily transaction amount limit for the customer based at least in part on the first vehicle characteristics, the identified local gas price, and the prior gas-station transactions associated with the customer;
determine a daily remainder for the transaction date;
determine whether the single transaction limit exceeds the daily remainder for the transaction date; and
when the single transaction limit exceeds the daily remainder for the transaction date, update the spend limit to zero to deny the transaction request.

9. A Spend Limit System for gas-station transactions, the system comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory in communication with the one or more processors and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, are configured to cause the system to:
receive customer vehicle information identifying a first vehicle and a second vehicle each associated with a first customer having a customer financial account;
identify first vehicle characteristics associated with the first vehicle, the first vehicle characteristics comprising a first gas tank size;
identify second vehicle characteristics associated with the second vehicle, the second vehicle characteristics comprising a second gas tank size;
receive, via a network, an electronic transaction request to complete a gas-station transaction using the customer financial account, the transaction request comprising a merchant location and a transaction date;
identify a local gas price based on the merchant location;
determine whether the transaction request is associated with the first vehicle or the second vehicle by:
receiving one or more short range contactless connections between a mobile device of the first customer and a connected vehicle; and
determining whether the connected vehicle is the first vehicle or the second vehicle;

when the connected vehicle is the first vehicle, associating the transaction request with the first vehicle; and
when the connected vehicle is the second vehicle, associating the transaction request with the second vehicle;
responsive to determining that the transaction request is associated with the first vehicle:
set a first single transaction amount limit sufficient to fill the first gas tank size with gas at the identified local gas price; and
approve the transaction request up to the first single transaction amount limit; and

responsive to determining that the transaction request is associated with the second vehicle:
set a second single transaction amount limit sufficient to fill the second gas tank size with gas at the

Assignees

• Capital One Services Llc

Inventors

• Benkreira Abdelkader
• Bhusri Nimma
• Gibilterra Kaylyn

Classifications

• G06Q20/405

  Establishing or using transaction specific rules · CPC title

• G07F15/10

  with alarm or warning devices, e.g. indicating the interrupting of the supply · CPC title

• G06Q20/3224

  Transactions dependent on location of M-devices · CPC title

• G06Q20/40155

  for triggering transactions · CPC title

• G06Q20/4015

  using location information · CPC title