SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ISSUING CARD AND PROCESSING BLACKLIST USING WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS
DESCRIPTION
Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and method for issuing a card and processing a blacklist, using wireless communications, and more particularly, to a system and method for issuing a card and processing a blacklist, using wireless communications, in which card information and blacklist (B/L) information is stored in an internal memory of a mobile communications device such as a portable phone or a personal digital assistants (PDA) or in an external memory such as a detachable integrated circuit (IC) chip, at the time of a request for issuing or reissuing a financial settlement card and/or an identification (ID) card (which is hereinafter referred to as a financial/ID card), for the reasons of a stoppage of transaction (a suspension of use and a temporary stoppage) or a cancellation of card.
Background Art
Recently, magnetic cards or plastic integrated circuit (IC) cards convenient to use and handy to carry compared with cash are widely being used as settlement tools. The cards are classified into a credit card, a debit card, a cash card, a direct payment card, an advance payment card, a traffic card and so on according to a settlement method. Also, there are a health insurance card, an identification (ID) card having an ID function such as an entry admission card, a bonus card and a family card which can receive various additional services through an ID confirmation, as cards used for places requiring personal ID information. These cards are issued as a plastic card from a card issuance company and delivered to a card issuance applicant, which causes much cost to be incurred. Also, various merchandise bonds or coupons are widely used which cause
much cost incurred for issuance and delivery thereof.
Meanwhile, with the number of possessed cards are increasing and the use of cards is rising, loss or theft of cards frequently occurs, which increases the burden to suspend transactions on the cards. Also, if a card holder is registered has poor credit standing due to unpaid card transaction amounts, or undergoes a change in social standing (which is referred to as a transaction suspension reason), it is necessary to suspend transactions using those cards. For suspending such card transactions, there have been two kinds of methods used. According to one method, a card issuance company server stores and manages the card holders' information (which is called black list (B/L) information) with respect to poor credit standing cards. Here, the card issuance company server is accessed to check whether or not the card is a card registered on a blacklist and a card transaction should be suspended, if a card transaction approval request is received from a card affiliated shop for each transaction. According to the other method, a card reader installed in a bus or subway entrance gate downloads B/L information by wire from a card issuance company server, and compares input card information with the stored B/L information during use of cards in a bus or subway, to thereby check whether such a card is black-listed.
However, the above card dealing suspension methods have the difficulty that a card issuance company server should be accessed at the time of each transaction in the former case, which consumes much time to check whether the card has been blacklisted, and a massive amount of information should be stored in a card reader, which causes the operation of systems to be overloaded and difficult, and require much time to check whether the card has been blacklisted. Also, since there are no grounds of identifying a person as the right person who lost or got robbed of a merchandise bond or coupon, counter-measurement is needed.
However, since the above-described conventional card issuance and blacklist checking methods adopt plastic cards having no communications functions, the blacklist checking is not achieved on a real time basis. For this reason, a blacklist (B/L) is
managed at a receiving end such as a card issuance company server or a card reader in order to check whether or not a card is blacklisted. Thus, a blacklist checking will be performed only if card information is received.
Disclosure of the Invention
To solve the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a card issuance and blacklist processing system using wireless communications in which a mobile phone card is issued in place of a plastic card by storing financial settlement card information and/or ID card information (hereinafter referred to as financial/ID information) in a mobile communications device such as a mobile phone or personal digital assistants (PDA) both of which can perform mobile communications, to thereby perform blacklist checking in real time.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a blacklist processing method in which a blacklist is registered in a mobile communications device into which a financial/ID card has been issued using wireless communications, to thereby process a suspension of use with respect to the financial/ID card in the mobile communications device itself.
To accomplish the above object of the present invention, there is provided a card issuance and blacklist (B/L) processing system using wireless communication, in which a mobile unit can be used in place of a card and disabled for commercial transactions, the card issuance and blacklist processing system comprising: a card issuance company server for transferring card information containing a financial settlement card and/or identification (ID) card information to a mobile unit designated by a card issuance applicant and transferring blacklist (B/L) information for disabling card transactions to the mobile unit corresponding to a card number having a transaction stoppage reason; a mobile communications company for transmitting the card information and blacklist information transferred from the card issuance company server to the mobile unit; the mobile unit for receiving and storing the card information
transmitted via the mobile communications company, receiving the blacklist information and registering the stored card information as a blacklist, checking whether the card information has been registered as the blacklist at the time of identifying the financial settlement card and/or ID card information with the stored card information, to thereby disable the mobile unit for card transactions; and a mobile communications network for connecting between the mobile communications company and the mobile unit by wireless communications.
There is also provided a card blacklist (B/L) processing method using wireless communications in order to disable card transactions in a mobile phone or a personal digital assistants (PDA), the card blacklist processing method comprising the steps of: (a) transferring blacklist information to a mobile unit corresponding to card information of a card causing a transactions stoppage reason to occur; (b) receiving and registering the transmitted blacklist information; (c) judging whether or not a blacklist has been registered when a card incorporated in the mobile unit is used; and (d) rejecting the use of the card if the card has been blacklisted and the stored card information is transferred and used if the card has not been registered as a blacklist, in the result of the blacklist registration judgment.
Brief Description of the drawings The above object and other advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing the preferred embodiments thereof in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a configurational block diagram showing a financial/ID card issuance system using wireless communications according to the present invention; FIG. 2 is a configurational block diagram showing a blacklist (B/L) processing system using wireless communications according to the present invention;
FIGs. 3A and 3B show a card issuance information storage form in a mobile unit, respectively;
FIG. 4 is a flow chart view for explaining a blacklist (B/L) registration process in the FIG.2 system; and
FIG. 5 is a flow chart view for explaining a blacklist (B/L) checking process in the FIG.2 system.
Best Mode for Carrying out the Invention
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to FIG. 1, a card issuance system shown in FIG. 1 includes a card issuance company server 10 for transferring financial/identification (ID) card information which is issued by an application of a customer. A mobile communications company 20 transmits the financial/identification (ID) card information transferred from the card issuance company server 10 to a customer's mobile unit (MU) 40 via a mobile communications network 30. The mobile unit 40 receives the financial/identification (ID) card information at the state of wireless communications with the mobile communications company 20, and stores the received financial/identification (ID) card information, to thereby receive a financial/identification (ID) card wirelessly.
As shown in FIGs. 3A and 3B, a card information storage form of the mobile unit 40 can be divided into two types.
In FIG. 3A, financial/identification (ID) card information is stored in an internal memory 41 of a mobile unit 40. In FIG. 3B, financial/identification (ID) card information is stored in an integrated circuit (IC) chip 43 which can be attached to or detached from the mobile unit 40. Here, the detachable IC chip 43 can employ any of IC chips such as a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module), USIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module), UIM (User Identity Module) and EMV method, which can be loaded in a mobile phone. Also, the detachable IC chip can be implemented in a one-chip form or two-or-more-chip form.
The operation of the financial/identification (ID) card issuance processing system according to the present invention having the above-described configuration will be described in more detail.
A customer fills up an application for card issuance containing necessary information, through a document or through a wired Internet or wireless Internet, in order to use his or her own mobile unit 40 in place of various plastic card, and requests for issuance of a card with a card issuance company. The card issuance company examines the application and then if the card issuance has been approved, card information containing financial/identification (ID) card information such as a card number, valid date, card secret number, and personal identification information is transferred to the mobile communications company 20, a card issuance company server 10. The mobile communications company 20 has received the card information, and then transmits a card issuance notification to the mobile unit 40 designated by the customer through a mobile communications network 30. The customer confirms the card issuance notification through the mobile unit 40. Then, the customer manipulates a key pad on the mobile unit 40 and connects the mobile communications company 20 in wireless communications using the wireless Internet and a packet system. At the state of the wireless communications connection, the mobile communications company 20 transmits the card information received from the card issuance company server 10 to the mobile unit 40. The mobile unit 40 having received the card information stores the card information in an internal memory 41 of the mobile unit 40 as shown in FIG. 3 A, or stores the same in a detachable IC chip 43 mounted on the mobile unit 40 as shown in FIG. 3B, to thereby allow the card information to be used for the financial settlement and/or identification (ID) confirmation. In FIG. 3B, a card issuance company server 10 or a mobile communications company 20 distributes customers directly with IC chips 43 embedded with card information, to thereby make the customers load the IC chips 43 on the mobile unit 40. Through the above processes, the mobile unit 40 can be used as a device for various financial settlements and/or ID confirmation, in replace of a plastic
card. The specific examples using a mobile unit 40 which stores card information issued by the above-described processing for a financial settlement and/or identification (ID) confirmation device are disclosed in Korean Patent Layout Publication 2001-90485 on 18 October 2001 entitled "Optical payment transceiver and optical settlement system using the same" by the same applicant.
FIG. 2 is a configurational block diagram showing a financial/identification (ID) card blacklist (B/L) processing system using wireless communications according to the present invention. The FIG. 2 structure is same as that of a card issuance system of FIG. 1. That is, a blacklist (B/L) processing system of FIG. 2 includes a card issuance company server 10, a mobile communications company 20, a mobile communications network 30 and a mobile unit 40 including a portable phone card in place of a plastic card.
The card issuance company server 10 transmits blacklist (B/L) infoπnation for suspending dealings or transactions of a card undergoing a transactions stoppage reason. The mobile communications company 20 can transmit the blacklist (B/L) information transmitted from the card issuance company server 10 to the mobile unit 40 via the mobile communications network, by means of a wireless communications method such as a short message service (SMS), a long message service (LMS), and a WAP push. Here, a case of a SMS will be described for better understanding. The mobile unit 40 receives the SMS and registers his or her card as a blacklist
(B/L). Here, the mobile unit 40 registers the blacklist (B/L) infoπnation in an internal memory 41 as shown in FIG. 3 A, or registers the same in a detachable IC chip 43 as shown in FIG. 3B. A method of registering the blacklist (B/L) information in the mobile unit 40 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 4. In FIG. 4 for explaining a blacklist (B/L) registration process in the FIG.2 system, if a transaction stoppage reason occurs, that is, a customer's theft or loss declaration is received (step 401), or if it is judged that a card holder is of a poor credit in the result of self-examination of a card issuance company (step 402), the card
issuance company server 10 judges whether the poor credit card is a card stored in the internal memory 41 or the detachable IC chip 43 of the mobile unit 40 (step 403). When the poor credit card is a card stored in the internal memory 41 or the detachable IC chip 43 of the mobile unit 40 in the result of a judgment of step 403, the card issuance company server 10 identifies a telephone number of the mobile unit 40 containing a corresponding card, and transfers transaction suspension or stoppage information to the mobile communications company 20, together with the identified telephone number (step 404). The mobile communications company 20 wirelessly communicates with the mobile unit 40 of the received telephone number through the mobile communications network 30, and transmits transaction suspension information by means of a SMS (step 405). The mobile unit 40 having the transaction suspension infoπnation of the SMS registers the blacklist (B/L) information in an internal memory 41 or in a detachable IC chip 43 (step 406). Meanwhile, if the poor credit card is not a card incorporated in a mobile unit in the result of a judgment of step 403, the card issuance company server 10 processes same as usual (step 407). That is, a card transaction suspension or stoppage is registered in the card issuance company server 10 which approves card transactions.
The method of suspending transactions when the mobile unit 40 registered as a blacklist (B/L) is used in place of a plastic card will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a flow chart view for explaining a blacklist (B/L) checking process in the FIG.2 system.
In FIG. 5, a holder of a card substitute mobile unit 40 presses a financial/identification (ID) card use button on the mobile unit 40 in order to settle a payment of cost and/or ID confirmation, and transfers financial/identification (ID) card information (step 501), a main processor (not shown) in the mobile unit 40 confirms whether the mobile unit 40 has been registered as a blacklist (B/L) (step 502). If the mobile unit 40 has been registered as a blacklist (B/L), the main processor in the mobile unit 40 displays an error message on a display window in the mobile unit, to thereby
indicate a rejection process (step 504), and then terminate the program. If the mobile unit 40 is not registered as a blacklist (B/L) in the result of judgment of step 502, the mobile unit 40 transmits financial/identification (ID) card information stored in the internal memory 41 or the detachable IC chip 43 to a card information receiving end (step 503) and terminates the program.
Industrial Applicability
As described above, a system and method for issuing a card and processing a blacklist, using wireless communications according to the present invention controls an issuance and blacklist (B/L) processing of a financial/identification (ID) card, by using wireless communications, to thereby save overall cost and time. Also, a blacklist (B/L) check is performed in a mobile unit during use of a financial/identification (ID) card at low value transactions used without receiving an approval of transactions, that is, a traffic such as a toll-roads, buses, subways, parking lots, and so on, vending machines, or low value electronic commerce. As a result, the blacklist (B/L) processing speed in the mobile unit according to the present invention is faster than the case of comparing vast numbers of blacklists (B/Ls) downloaded in a bundle from the card issuance company server by cable in a card reader. Also, the present invention can save a system operation cost. The present invention is not limited in the above-described embodiments. It is apparent to one who is skilled in the art that there are many variations and modifications without departing from the spirit of the present invention and the scope of the appended claims.