System and method for securely transferring funds between persons

Abstract

A computer-based method includes receiving, at a computer-based authorization system, a request to authorize payment to a first party at an electronic payment device from an account with funds that have been paid by a second party. The request includes an encrypted indication of an account number that corresponds to the account and a cash card number entered by the first party at the electronic payment device. The method further includes deriving an unencrypted version of the account number from the encrypted indication; comparing the unencrypted version of the account number to one or more identification codes in an electronic database, where one of the identification codes corresponds to the account; and authorizing payment from the account at the payment device based, at least in part, on whether the comparing yields a match between the unencrypted version of the account number and the identification code that corresponds to the account.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, at an authorization system configured to authorize a fund transfer, a first request from a first person to send an amount of funds from the first person to a second person;   generating a random number at the authorization system in response to receiving the first request from the first person;   encrypting the random number to generate encrypted data at the authorization system;   hashing the encrypted data to generate hashed encrypted data at the authorization system;   storing the hashed encrypted data and the amount of funds associated with the first request in a database in the authorization system;   communicating the random number to the first person;   receiving, at the authorization system, a second request from the second person to receive the funds, the second request including an encrypted combination of the random number that the second person received from the first person and an identifier associated with the second person;   decrypting, at the authorization system, the encrypted combination extracted from the received second request to derive the random number;   comparing, at the authorization system, the derived random number to the random number associated with the first request and stored in the database in the authorization system based on the stored hashed encrypted data; and   authorizing payment of the amount of funds to the second person based on the comparison.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 receiving the first request from the first person after the first person pays the amount of funds in a first currency; and 
 receiving the second request from the second person to receive the amount of funds in a second currency. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 generating a key and a string at the authorization system; and 
 generating the encrypted data at the authorization system by encrypting the random number using the key and the string. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 receiving the second request including the encrypted combination generated using a private key; and 
 decrypting the encrypted combination extracted from the received second request using the private key to derive the random number. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising:
 re-encrypting, at the authorization system, the derived random number to generate encrypted derived random number, the re-encrypting performed using a key and a string used to encrypt the random number; 
 hashing, at the authorization system, the encrypted derived random number to generate a second hashed encrypted data, the hashing performed using a hashing function used to hash the encrypted data; and 
 comparing, at the authorization system, the derived random number to the random number associated with the first request by comparing the second hashed encrypted data generated based on the derived random number to the stored hashed encrypted data generated based on the random number. 
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 receiving, in the second request, the amount of funds; 
 comparing, at the authorization system, the amount of funds in the received second request to the amount of funds associated with the first request and stored in the database in the authorization system; and 
 authorizing the payment of the amount of funds to the second person based on the comparisons of the random number and the amount of funds. 
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising ensuring at the authorization system that the random number is not reused for a predetermined period of time.