Money transfer in a forum using a payment proxy

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016125368-A1
Application number	US-201514754362-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 29, 2015
Priority date	Oct 31, 2014
Publication date	May 5, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Described is a technology for executing financial transactions, e.g., payment transfers, by enabling a sender to trigger a money transfer by specifying, in any communication message, a payment proxy having a particular syntax, the syntax including a currency indicator preceding one or more alphanumeric characters. The payment proxy having the syntax indicates an intent of the sender to transfer money to a recipient associated with that payment proxy. The technology can include systems and methods of transferring money by use of a payment proxy within the context of a forum (e.g., social networking platform, microblog, blog, application, etc.). Messages of users in the forum can be monitored to detect for any user's intent to transfer money to a recipient. For example, forum messages can be parsed to identify the syntax carried by a user input in a forum message.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of transferring money to a recipient, the method facilitated by a payment service system associated with a payment service, comprising:
monitoring, by a computer system associated with a forum, user messages on the forum to detect an indication of an intent to transfer money to a recipient, the indication of the intent detected based on a parsing of the user messages to identify a syntax, wherein the syntax includes a monetary indicator preceding an alphanumeric character; receiving, by the payment service system and from the computer system associated with the forum, a user message from the user messages on the forum, that includes a first string of characters having the syntax, the first string of characters including the monetary indicator preceding one or more alphabetic characters, the first string of characters representative of a payment proxy, wherein the payment proxy is included in the user message by a sender to indicate an intent to transfer money to a recipient associated with the payment proxy; identifying, by the payment service system, the payment proxy based on the first string of characters having the syntax, said identifying including accessing a database associated with the payment service system to identify the payment proxy corresponding to the first string of characters; identifying, by the payment service system, based on a stored association between the identified payment proxy and the recipient financial account, a recipient financial account associated with the identified payment proxy, the stored association established in a registration of the identified payment proxy with the payment service system; and initiating, by the payment service system, a transfer of a payment amount from a sender financial account associated with the sender to the recipient financial account.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the payment service system, the payment amount based on a parsing of the received user message to identify a second string of characters having the syntax, the second string of characters including the monetary indicator preceding one or more numeric characters.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the payment service system and from the forum, a sender identifier associated with the sender who has created the user message, the sender identifier derived from a user account registered with the forum, wherein the sender identifier is any of an email address or a phone number; sending, by the payment service system, a confirmation message to the sender by using the sender identifier, the confirmation message including a confirmation link to prompt the sender to confirm the intent to transfer money to the recipient associated with the payment proxy that is indicated by the first string of characters; and receiving, by the payment service system, an indication of user engagement with the confirmation link, wherein the transfer of the payment amount is initiated in response to the received indication of user engagement.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the payment service system and from the forum, a sender identifier associated with the sender who has created the user message, the sender identifier derived from a user account registered with the forum, wherein the sender identifier is any of an email address or a phone number; identifying, by the payment service system, the sender financial account based on a stored association between the sender financial account and the sender identifier, wherein the stored association is established in a registration of the sender financial account with the payment service system.

5 . A method of transferring money by use of a payment proxy, comprising:
detecting, by a payment service system via a data communications network, based on a parsing of the user message to identify a first string of characters having a syntax, an intent to transfer money in a user message of a user on a forum, the syntax including the monetary indicator preceding an alphanumeric character; identifying, by the payment service system, a payment proxy based on the first string of characters having the syntax, wherein the payment proxy indicates the intent to transfer money to a recipient associated with the payment proxy; and initiating, by the payment service system, a transfer of a payment amount from a sender financial account associated with the user to a recipient financial account associated with the payment proxy.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
identifying the recipient financial account based on a stored association between the recipient financial account and the identified payment proxy, wherein the stored association is established in a registration of the identified payment proxy with the payment service system.

7 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
identifying, by the payment service system, an identifier associated with the user based on the user message, wherein the identifier is any of an email address or a telephone number.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving, by the payment service system, the identifier from the forum, wherein the identifier is derived from a user account registered with the forum.

9 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising receiving the payment proxy in a form field of the user message.

10 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
identifying, by the payment service system, the sender financial account based on a stored association between the sender financial account and the identifier, wherein the stored association is established in a registration of the sender financial account with the payment service system.

11 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
transmitting, by the payment service system, a confirmation message to the sender by using the identifier, wherein the confirmation message includes a confirmation link; and receiving, by the payment service system, an indication of user engagement with the confirmation link.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the indication of user engagement includes submission of sender financial account information associated with the sender financial account.

13 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
identifying, by the payment service system, the payment amount based on a parsing of the user message to identify a second string of characters having the syntax, the second string of characters including the monetary indicator preceding one or more numeric characters.

14 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the first string of characters includes the monetary indicator preceding one or more alphanumeric characters.

15 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the first string of characters includes the monetary indicator preceding one or more alphabetic characters.

16 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the forum comprises any of a social network, a micro-blog, a blog, a website.

17 . A payment service system comprising:
a processor; a communications module; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing a set of instructions comprising:
instructions to detect, via the communications module, an intent to transfer money in a user message of a user on a forum, based on a parsing of the user message to identify a first string of characters having a syntax, the syntax including the monetary indicator preceding an alphanumeric character;
instructions to identify a payment proxy based on the first string of characters havi

Assignees

• Square Inc

Inventors

• Grassadonia Brian
• Wilson Jesse
• Omojola Ayokunle
• Andersen Robert

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06Q20/16

  Payments settled via telecommunication systems · CPC title

• G06Q20/34

  using cards, e.g. integrated circuit [IC] cards or magnetic cards · CPC title

• G06Q20/10

  specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems · CPC title

• G06Q20/3223

  Realising banking transactions through M-devices · CPC title