Email-based transactions for e-commerce

A system for facilitating an e-commerce transaction by using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to improve security of the e-commerce transaction, the system comprising:

• a communication interface that is communicatively coupled to a device of a user;
• a memory;
• and
• one or more processors communicatively coupled to the communication interface and the memory, wherein the one or more processors are collectively configured to:
• generate a first message including a first mailto link and a second mailto link that are each associated with a respective non-visible indicia and visible indicia, each non-visible indicia including an SMTP email address of an email account of the system and one or more identifiers required for the e-commerce transaction, wherein at least one of the one or more identifiers identifies a vendor for the e-commerce transaction;
• transmit, using the communication interface, the first message to the user;
• receive, using the communication interface, an SMTP email message from an email address of the user via SMTP, wherein the SMTP email message was generated in response to activation of either the first mailto link or the second mailto link and using the SMTP email address of the email account of the system, wherein the SMTP email message includes the one or more identifiers included in the first message and an indication of whether the first mailto link or the second mailto link was activated;
• parse the received SMTP email message to extract the one or more identifiers and the indication;
• perform a validation procedure for the e-commerce transaction in response to the SMTP email message being received, wherein the validation procedure comprises:
• (i) verifying presence and format of the extracted identifiers,
• (ii) comparing the extracted identifiers with information stored in a database, and
• (iii) verifying that the email address of the user is from which the SMTP email message was received matches an intended recipient email address stored in the database for at least one of a campaign or product identified by the extracted identifiers, to confirm the e-commerce transaction should be executed;
• and
• cause the vendor to perform the e-commerce transaction in response to the validation procedure being successful.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors of an e-commerce system, cause the one or more processors to collectively execute a method for facilitating an e-commerce transaction by using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to improve security of the e-commerce transaction, the method comprising:

• generating a first message including a first mailto link and a second mailto link that are each associated with a respective non-visible indicia and visible indicia, each non-visible indicia including an SMTP email address of an email account of the e-commerce system and one or more identifiers required for the e-commerce transaction, wherein at least one of the one or more identifiers identifies a vendor for the e-commerce transaction;
• transmitting the first message to a user;
• receiving an SMTP email message from an email address of the user via SMTP, wherein the SMTP email message was generated in response to activation of either the first mailto link or the second mailto link and using the SMTP email address of the email account of the e-commerce system, wherein the SMTP email message includes the one or more identifiers included in the first message and an indication of whether the first mailto link or the second mailto link was activated;
• parsing the received SMTP email message to extract the one or more identifiers and the indication;
• performing a validation procedure for the e-commerce transaction in response to the SMTP email message being received, wherein the validation procedure comprises:
• (i) verifying presence and format of the extracted identifiers,
• (ii) comparing the extracted identifiers with information stored in a database, and
• (iii) verifying that the email address of the user from which the SMTP email message was received matches an intended recipient email address stored in the database for at least one of a campaign or product identified by the extracted identifiers, to confirm the e-commerce transaction should be executed;
• and
• causing the vendor to perform the e-commerce transaction in response to the validation procedure being successful.