System and method for enhanced fraud detection in automated electronic credit card processing

An automated system for authorizing an electronic credit card transaction, comprising:

• inquiry means for requesting a user at a remote terminal to input the user's credit card information, address, and social security number;
• receiving means for collecting the information input by the user;
• comparing means for comparing the input information with information stored in a credit card information database provided by an issuer of the user's credit card to determine whether the input information is valid;
• retrieval means for accessing a social security number database of stored social security numbers having at least one address stored therewith corresponding to an address of an individual identified by the respective social security number and retrieving the at least one stored address associated with the social security number input by the user;
• processing means for comparing the input address with the at least one retrieved stored address from the social security number database and corroborating the information stored in the credit card information database;
• and
• authorizing means for authorizing the electronic credit card transaction when said input information is determined to correspond to the retrieved information stored in both the credit card information database and the social security number database.

A method of authorizing a credit card for transactions, comprising the steps of:

• receiving information input by a user, wherein said input information includes credit card information for a credit card being authorized, identifying information about the user, and information relating to a social security number of the user;
• validating the input information with information stored in a credit card database provided by an issuer of the user's credit card;
• accessing a social security number databases containing information about persons including a correspondence between stored social security number information and stored identifying information about persons, wherein each item of stored social security number information includes corresponding stored identifying information;
• retrieving the corresponding stored identifying information associated with the input social security number information;
• comparing the input identifying information with the stored identifying information corresponding to the input social security number information to corroborate the validity of the information stored in the credit card database with the information stored in the social security number database;
• and
• authorizing the credit card for transactions when said input information is determined to correspond to information stored in both the credit card database and the social security database.

An automated system for authorizing a credit card for transactions, comprising:

• receiving means for receiving information input by a user wherein said input information includes credit card information for a credit card being authorized, identifying information about the user, and information relating to a social security number of the user;
• comparing means for comparing the input information with information stored in a credit card information database provided by an issuer of the user's credit card to determine whether the input information is valid;
• retrieval means for accessing a social security number database containing information about persons including a correspondence between stored social security number information and stored identifying information about persons and retrieving the stored identifying information corresponding to the social security number information input by the user;
• processing means for comparing the input identifying information with the stored identifying information from the social security number database to corroborate the validity of the information stored in the credit card information database;
• and
• authorizing means for authorizing the credit card for transactions when said input information is determined to correspond to the retrieved information stored in both the credit card information database and the social security number database.

A computer-readable medium storing a program for authorizing a credit card for transactions, said program comprising the steps of:

• receiving information input by a user, wherein said input information includes credit card information for a credit card being authorized, identifying information about the user, and information relating to a social security number of the user;
• validating the input information with information stored in a credit card database provided by an issuer of the user's credit card;
• accessing a social security number database containing information about persons including a correspondence between stored social security number information and stored identifying information, wherein each item of stored social security number information includes corresponding stored identifying information;
• retrieving the corresponding stored identifying information associated with the input social security number information;
• comparing the input identifying information with the stored identifying information corresponding to the input social security number information to corroborate the validity of the information stored in the credit card database with the information stored in the social security number database;
• and
• authorizing the credit card for transactions when said input information is determined to correspond to information stored in both the credit card database and the social security number database.

A method of authorizing a credit card for transactions comprising the steps of:

• receiving information input by a user, wherein said input information includes credit card information for a credit card being authorized, information associated with the user, and information uniquely identifying the user;
• validating the input information with information stored in a credit card database provided by an issuer of the user's credit card;
• accessing an independent database containing information about individuals including a correspondence between stored information uniquely identifying individuals and stored information associated with individuals wherein a correspondence exists in said independent database for each individual between respective stored uniquely identifying information and respective stored information associated with each individual;
• retrieving the stored information associated with an individual which corresponds to the uniquely identifying information input by the user;
• comparing the input information associated with the user with the stored information associated with an individual corresponding to the input uniquely identifying information to corroborate the validity of the information stored in the credit card database with the information stored in the independent database;
• and
• authorizing the credit card for transactions when said input information is determined to correspond to information stored in both the credit card database and the independent database.