RELAY HOLDINGS, LLC Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20120173410 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PAYING CITATIONS USING SMS TEXT MESSAGING - A system and method are provided for enabling the recipient of a citation to pay the associated fine using SMS text messaging. The system includes a server platform programmed to receive an SMS text from a customer, the SMS text including a citation number, a unique identifier for the municipality that issued the citation, and an RFID transponder number and/or a license plate number for the customer that is linked to a payment device, such as a credit card account. Upon receipt of the SMS text, the server platform validates the citation number and municipality unique identifier against a citation database, charges a percentage of the amount of the citation to the payment device linked to the RFID transponder number or license plate number (e.g., a credit or debit account on file), and transfers payment of the percentage of the citation amount to the municipality identified by the unique identifier. The server platform also sends confirmation of payment of the citation to the customer via an SMS text message. The server platform extracts a processing fee for processing payment of the citation. | 07-05-2012 |
20120173251 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENROLLING A CUSTOMER IN A SERVICE WHILE PROVIDING LIMITED REQUIRED PERSONAL INFORMATION - A customer is invited to enroll in a service offered by an entity by linking an invitation to enroll in the service with a customer's mobile phone number either before (when the customer's mobile phone number is known in advance) or after an enrollment is initiated from the customer's mobile phone number (the invitation response is matched to the customer after having been sent). Typically, the enrollment includes a simple request to activate their enrollment from their mobile phone (call/text). The customer's response to the enrollment from the mobile phone is logged, matched with a confidence score, and captured as a record of the customer's enrollment in the service. Enrollment services with the customer may proceed once the customer is enrolled. | 07-05-2012 |
20120172067 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VERIFYING A SENDER OF AN SMS TEXT MESSAGE - A system and method are provided for verifying a sender of an SMS text message. The SMS text message may be validated by texting or calling the verification server from any phone and providing the unique code as a validation code, by texting or calling from the recipient mobile phone (no unique code is needed as the phone number may be linked to the sent message), or by logging in to an in-box of the verification server where valid messages to the recipient are logged. For example, the verification server receives the received unique code from the recipient for verification by receiving an SMS text message including the received unique code, receiving the unique code from the recipient via an Internet browser, receiving the unique code from the recipient via a phone call, or receiving a trusted authentication short code based on the unique code. The verification server may also receive from the sender a copy of the SMS text message and the recipient's phone number when the SMS text message is sent to the recipient. Then, when the verification server receives a verification request from the recipient to verify the sender, the unique code received by the recipient and/or the recipient's mobile phone number may be compared to the unique code and/or recipient phone number stored with the message received by the verification server from the sender. The verification may include the verification server receiving the last SMS text message sent by the message sender and allowing the message recipient to verify the message sender by accessing the verification server by logging into the verification server or by calling in through an interactive voice response (IVR) unit to check for the presence of the last SMS text message from the message sender to the recipient. | 07-05-2012 |
20120169459 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PASSIVELY ACQUIRING EXISTING CUSTOMERS' MOBILE PHONE NUMBERS FROM CUSTOMER SERVICE LOGS - An entity passively acquires an existing customer's mobile phone number and links the customer's mobile phone number to the customer's account without requesting the customer to actively provide customer identifying information. This is accomplished by capturing the customer's mobile phone number when the customer uses a mobile phone to contact the entity and checking whether the captured mobile phone number is in a customer database. If the captured mobile phone number is not in the customer database, the customer using the mobile phone number may be validated by determining that the customer corresponds to a particular customer account and associating the captured mobile phone number with the particular customer account. For example, the validation of the customer may include analyzing entries in the service log to identify phone numbers, determining whether the identified phone numbers are mobile numbers or landline numbers, determining who the identified phone numbers belong to, and determining whether the identified person corresponds to an account in the customer database. If the captured mobile phone number is in the customer database, the customer using the mobile phone number may be validated against the corresponding customer account record to establish a confidence score. | 07-05-2012 |
20120010992 | Method for Activating A New Service Or Account - Business would like to electronically communicate with a customer but may not have the resources to actively acquire the customer's phone number. To passively acquire and link a customer's phone number to the customer's account, a unique code may be created for each customer. A proxy code for the unique code may also be created. The proxy code may be sent to the customer with an invitation to open a new account, receive a new service, or renew a service by returning the proxy code by phone call or text message. The proxy code may then be received from the customer by phone call or text message. The phone number from which the phone call or text message has been received may be authenticated. The phone number may then be linked to the unique code based on the proxy code. | 01-12-2012 |
20110206197 | Method and System of Enabling Electronic Communication Without Knowledge of Receiving Party's Electronic Contact Information - By providing identification information for a second party, a first party may access address profiles to send an electronic communication to the second party without knowing the electronic contact information for the second party. The address profiles are created by collecting electronic contact information from a plurality of public and private sources. A code may then be assigned to the information from each source for each party identified. Codes from respective sources may then be analyzed for similarities in order to identify codes that may correspond to the same party above a similarity threshold. When codes correspond above the similarity threshold for the same party, an address profile may be associated with the codes and may be associated with the same party. An internal identifier may then be assigned to the address profile to, for example, identify the address profile and/or the matched codes associated with the address profile so that the address profile may be accessed without knowledge of whose address profile is be accessed. | 08-25-2011 |