Account mask identifier apparatus, method, and computer program product

A method comprising the steps of:

• at a computing device, obtaining access to a data structure comprising a plurality of valid customer account numbers for customers of a biller that utilizes or desires to utilize an electronic bill presentment and payment system;
• with said computing device, replacing each character of each of said valid customer account numbers with a wild card in accordance with a normalization scheme, to obtain a plurality of normalized valid customer account numbers;
• and
• designating at least one pattern of said wild cards in said plurality of normalized valid customer account numbers as a recommended account mask.

A system located in communication with an intermediate node in an electronic bill payment system, said system comprising:

• a memory;
• at least one processor operatively coupled to said memory;
• and
• a persistent storage device operatively coupled to said memory and storing in a non-transitory manner instructions which when loaded into said memory cause said at least one processor to be operative to:
• obtain access to a data structure comprising a plurality of valid customer account numbers for customers of a biller that utilizes or desires to utilize said electronic bill payment system;
• replace each character of each of said valid customer account numbers with a wild card in accordance with a normalization scheme, to obtain a plurality of normalized valid customer account numbers;
• and
• designate at least one pattern of said wild cards in said plurality of normalized valid customer account numbers as a recommended account mask.

An article of manufacture for use at an intermediate node in an electronic bill payment system, said article of manufacture comprising a computer program product, said computer program product in turn comprising:

• a tangible computer-readable recordable storage medium, storing in a non-transitory manner computer readable program code which, when loaded into a memory, configures at least one associated processor to be operative to:
• obtain access to a data structure comprising a plurality of valid customer account numbers for customers of a biller that utilizes or desires to utilize said electronic bill payment system;
• replace each character of each of said valid customer account numbers with a wild card in accordance with a normalization scheme, to obtain a plurality of normalized valid customer account numbers;
• and
• designate at least one pattern of said wild cards in said plurality of normalized valid customer account numbers as a recommended account mask.

An apparatus for use at an intermediate node in an electronic bill payment system, said apparatus comprising:

• means for obtaining access to a data structure comprising a plurality of valid customer account numbers for customers of a biller that utilizes or desires to utilize said electronic bill payment system;
• means for replacing each character of each of said valid customer account numbers with a wild card in accordance with a normalization scheme, to obtain a plurality of normalized valid customer account numbers;
• and
• means for designating at least one pattern of said wild cards in said plurality of normalized valid customer account numbers as a recommended account mask.