Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Credit or identification card systems
Reissue Patent
1999-06-03
2001-02-27
Lee, Michael G (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Credit or identification card systems
C235S382000, C235S436000
Reissue Patent
active
RE037067
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a payment system in which use is made of electronic payment cards, in particular “chip cards” or “smart cards”. Under consideration in the present application are, in particular, payment cards which can be used for paying call costs in public telephone terminals. However, other services and goods can also be paid for in this way. This development is in fact referred to as a so-called “electronic purse”. Under consideration in this connection is the payment of generally
none too large
small
amounts by means of electronic payment cards on which a balance is previously entered. Payment takes place by reducing the balance on the card. Of course, measures have to be taken in order to arrange for the balance reduction to benefit the supplier; systems for this purpose are still being developed and tests are taking place in that field. To place an initial balance on the card and increase the balance later, there must be an infrastructure of terminals and the like if this form of payment is to be accepted. It appears possible to use the public telephone terminals for this purpose. Such terminals act as “charging stations” for the electronic payment cards. Of course, the public telephone terminals remain suitable as means for conducting telephone calls and offering any other telecommunication facilities via the downstream central telephone system or telecommunication system. Payment of such telephone calls and any other facilities may, at the same time, take place by means of the “electronic purse”. Although the payment of telephone/telecommunication costs, in particular, is considered below, it is emphasized that the invention, as explained below, is not limited thereto and is equally applicable for payment for other services or goods by means of an “electronic purse”. The “charging” of payment cards need not occur via telephone terminals either, but can equally well occur via other terminals, for example, terminals which are now used for issuing cash (so-called “cash points”).
After a payment card has been provided with an initial balance, that balance is reduced by the telephone terminal in accordance with a rate for the telephone costs. The provision of an initial balance and the replenishment of the balance after the passing of time can also occur via the telephone terminal. To do this,
a
connection has to be made to a central administration system which,
onto
on
the one hand, enters the amount desired by the user on the card and, on the other hand, ensures that the amount can be received, for example, by sending an account to the user or via (after authorization) electronic reduction of the balance of a bank account belonging to the user.
The measures proposed according to the present invention are intended to combat errors and frauds in the processes mentioned (the use/payment process and the “balance process”).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The essence of the invention is that a “flag” is placed on the payment card during each balance process throughout the entire process time in order to indicate that the payment card is occupied with an indivisible action, i.e. a process which cannot be interrupted. After said indivisible action has taken place, the flag is removed. The placing and removal of the flag takes place by writing a certain first symbol (for example, “1”) or second symbol (for example, “0”) into a certain memory location of the payment card. The exploitation process and payment process (the use of the telephone facilities) can only be started after it has been confirmed that there is no flag at said certain memory location, which means that the last balance process was correctly concluded. If there is, in fact, a flag, no connection to the telephone system is set up. Instead thereof, a balance session is set up in which the incorrectly concluded previous session is repeated or is continued
and
correctly
and
finally concluded on
the
basis of the information still present
an the
in an
administration system.
In order to prevent the flag from being capable of being removed by fraud, for example by means of a PC and a card terminal (under consideration is the situation where the payment card is pulled out of the terminal during the balance process at the instant when the balance on the card has already been increased while preparation of the invoice (or automatic debit instruction) has not yet taken place) provision is preferably made that the flag can be removed only by the central system which is concerned with increasing the balance. The code signal for removing the flag is therefore, preferably also presented to the payment card, provided with a cryptographic code which the central system denotes as the origin of the code signal (message authentication code, MAC). If this appears to be correct, the code signal is converted into an instruction to replace the first symbol (“1”, “flag up”) into the second symbol (“0”, “flag down”). Preferably, if EEPROM cards are used, various instructions are used to set up the flag and to remove it. For the first action (“0”→“1”), the instruction “WRITE” is used and for the second action (“1”→“0”), the instruction “MODIFY” is used. The difference is:
bit in buffer
WRITE
→
bit in buffer
0
0
→
0
1
0
→
1
0
1
→
1
1
1
→
1
bit in buffer
MODIFY
→
bit in buffer
0
0
→
0
1
0
→
0
0
1
→
1
1
1
→
1
REFERENCES:
patent: 4845351 (1989-07-01), Hara et al.
patent: 4877945 (1989-10-01), Fujisaki
patent: 5155342 (1992-10-01), Urano
patent: 5175416 (1992-12-01), Mansvelt et al.
patent: 5401950 (1995-03-01), Yoshida
patent: 5504701 (1996-04-01), Takahashi et al.
patent: 42-30-866 (1994-03-01), None
patent: 0-563-997 (1993-10-01), None
patent: 2-689-662 (1993-10-01), None
patent: 9200857 (1993-12-01), None
patent: 89/02140 (1989-03-01), None
Koninklijke PTT Nederland N.V.
Lee Michael G
Michaelson Peter L.
Michaelson & Wallace
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