Method and System to Verify the Identity of a User

Abstract

A method and system to verify the identity of a user are described. The system may include a communications module to receive a billing telephone number and a private data segment associated with a user; an address detector to obtain a street address associated with the user; a private data processor to obtain one or more identification records, utilizing the obtained street address and the private data segment; and a matching module to compare the one or more identification records with the private data segment associated with the user to generate a match result.

1 . An identity verification system provided to verify the identity of a user associated with a phone bill that can be used as a payment method, the system comprising:
 a processor; and   memory to store instructions which cause the processor to implement:   a communications module to receive, at a verification computer system, a billing telephone number and a user-supplied private data segment, wherein the billing telephone number indicates that a user has selected an associated phone bill as a payment method;   a private data processing module to obtain, from a personal data computer system, one or more identification records; and   a matching module to compare the one or more identification records obtained from the personal data computer system with the user-supplied private data segment to generate a match result, the address service computer system and the personal data computer system being third party computer systems.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the private data segment comprises at least one of a date, a zip code, and a portion of an address. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the memory also stores instructions which cause the processor to implement a subscriber line verification module to determine whether the particular phone bill may be used to make purchases from third party merchants. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a business rules engine to determine whether the match result corresponds to a positive authentication of the user. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the business rules engine is in communication with a configuration module, the configuration module configured to identify authentication criteria. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the authentication criteria comprises a partial match. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising an authentication response generator to generate an authentication message based on the match result. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the authentication message is indicative of positive authentication, the positive authentication being based on a partial match of a record from the one or more identification records with the data segment corresponding to the date of birth of the user. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the authentication message is indicative of a failed authentication. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the communications module is configured to initiate an alternative identity verification procedure in response to the failed authentication. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the alternative identity verification procedure comprises initiating a telephone call to the billing telephone number. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , further including a billing number validation interface to obtain validation of a telephone line account associated with the billing telephone number as a valid payment method for the user. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the address detector is to obtain the street address associated with the user from a third party provider, utilizing the billing telephone number. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the communications module is to receive the street address associated with the user and communicate the street address associated with the user to the private data processor. 
     
     
         15 . A machine-readable non-transitory storage medium having instruction data provided to verify the identity of a user associated with a phone bill that can be used as a payment method, wherein the instruction data, when executed by a machine to cause the machine to:
 receive, at a verification computer system, a billing telephone number and a private data segment, the user-supplied private data segment corresponding to a date of birth of a user, wherein the billing telephone number indicates that a user has selected an associated phone bill as a payment method;   obtain a street address associated with the user;   obtain one or more identification records, utilizing the obtained street address; and   compare the one or more identification records with the user-supplied private data segment corresponding to the date of birth of the user to generate a match result   
     
     
         16 . An identity verification system provided to determine whether a user is authorized to charge a purchase to a particular phone bill that can be used as a payment method, the system comprising:
 a communications module to receive a billing telephone number and a user-supplied private data segment, wherein the billing telephone number indicates that a user has selected a particular phone bill as a payment method;   a subscriber line verification module to determine whether the particular phone bill may be used to make purchases from third party merchants;   a personal data processing module to obtain a lookup result from a database of client profiles in response to the subscriber line verification module determining that the particular phone bill may be used to make purchases from third party merchants; and   a matching module to compare the user-supplied private data segment to the lookup result;   an authentication response generator to provide an authentication result in response to the comparison by the matching module.   
     
     
         17 . The identity verification system of  claim 16 , wherein the user-supplied private data segment includes at least one of a portion of a social security number, a street address, a zip code, a postal code, a password, an account number associated with the billing telephone number, and a date. 
     
     
         18 . The identity verification system of  claim 16 , wherein authentication result is one of an indication that the user is authorized to charge a purchase to the particular phone bill, an indication that the user is not authorized to charge a purchase to the particular phone bill, and an indication that further user-supplied private data is needed to complete a purchase. 
     
     
         19 . The identity verification system of  claim 16 , further comprising a transactions module to charge the particular phone bill with a purchase in response to the authentication response generator providing a response indicating that the user is authorized to charge the purchase to the particular phone bill.