Methods and systems for using a co-located group as an authorization mechanism

A system comprising:

• a central payment processing server coupled to a network to enable communication with a mobile device, the central payment processing server including:
• a communication module configured to:
• receive, over the network, a group account configuration to define a group account hosted on the central payment processing server, the group account configuration including a membership list and a co-location requirement;
• and
• receive, over the network, a transaction authorization request associated with the group account;
• an account module configured to provision a group account according to the group account configuration;
• a location module configured to determine whether an identified user on the membership list satisfies the co-location requirement based at least in part on location data from the mobile device included in the transaction authorization request;
• and
• a validation module configured to:
• determine whether the transaction authorization request includes data identifying the identified user included in the membership list;
• and
• authorize payment from the group account if the identified user satisfies the co-location requirement.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed on a machine, cause the machine to:

• receive a group account configuration to define a group account hosted on the central payment processing server, the group account configuration including a membership list and a co-location requirement;
• define a group account according to the group account configuration;
• receive a transaction authorization request associated with the group account from a mobile device;
• determine whether the transaction authorization request includes data identifying an identified user included in the membership list;
• determine whether the identified user on the membership list satisfies the co-location requirement based at least in part on location data from the mobile device included in the transaction authorization request;
• and
• authorize payment from the group account in response to the identified user satisfying the co-location requirement.