Mechanism for fraud-resistant consumer transactions

A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing system to perform a method for conducting a financial transaction, the method comprising:

• receiving a purchase order identifying a customer and an amount of a payment to be made by the identified customer to a payee, the identified customer having an individual account;
• in response to receiving the purchase order, selecting an account from a pool of accounts designated as being shared by a plurality of customers including the identified customer, the shared pool not including the identified customer's individual account;
• transferring the identified amount from the identified customer's individual account to the selected account of the shared pool;
• and
• causing information identifying a credit card number for the selected account of the shared pool to be provided to the payee for use in effecting the payment.

A method in a computing system for conducting a financial transaction, comprising:

• receiving a purchase order identifying a customer and an amount of a payment to be made by the identified customer to a payee, the identified customer having an individual account;
• selecting an account from a pool of accounts designated as being shared by a plurality of customers including the identified customer, the shared pool not including the identified customer's individual account;
• transferring the identified amount from the identified customer's individual account to the selected account of the shared pool;
• and
• causing information identifying a payment card for the selected account of the shared pool to be provided to the payee for use in effecting the payment.

One or more hardware devices collectively providing a payment information data structure corresponding to a payment for a distinguished amount on behalf of a distinguished customer having an account for exclusive use of the customer, comprising:

• a credit card number having a one-to-one relationship with a distinguished one of a pool of accounts shared across a plurality of customers including the distinguished customer, the distinguished shared account having been randomly selected from shared accounts among the pool of shared accounts without regard for the specific identity of the distinguished user, the distinguished amount having been transferred from the distinguished customer's account to the distinguished shared account;
• and
• at least one piece of confirmatory information associated with the credit card number,
• such that the contents of the data structure may be submitted by a merchant to a credit card charge clearance network to obtain payment of the distinguished amount.

A method for conducting financial transactions, comprising:

• receiving a purchase order identifying a first customer and an amount of a first payment to be made by the first customer to a first payee, the first customer having an individual account;
• transferring the amount of a first payment from the first customer's individual account to a distinguished pay-through account;
• causing information identifying a payment card number for the distinguished pay-through account to be provided to the first payee for use in effecting the first payment;
• receiving a purchase order identifying a second customer and an amount of a second payment to be made by the second customer to a second payee, the second customer having an individual account;
• transferring the identified amount of the second payment from the second customer's individual account to the distinguished pay-through account;
• and
• causing information identifying a payment card number for the distinguished pay-through account to be provided to the second payee for use in effecting the second payment.