Patent Application Titled “Method and System for Preventing and Detecting Identity Theft” Published Online (USPTO 20240013309): Patent Application

2024 JAN 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Andringa, Mark (Vienna, VA, US); Glau, Lisa (Alexandria, VA, US); Slaton, Jonathan (Marshall, VA, US), filed on June 8, 2023, was made available online on January 11, 2024.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Today’s modern economy demands access to personal identifying information in order to provide such services as health insurance, loans, jobs and even cell phone service. Unfortunately, mining that information can also be an illegal, but often low-risk goal for thieves. A recent study by Gartner, Inc. found that the identity thieves’ risk of being caught is only 1 in 700. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in North America. Identity thieves can rob consumers of money, time, affordable credit, even their reputation and the consumer may not even realize it.

“Under reported for years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) now says that as many as one in every eight American adults and one in every four households has been victimized by identity thieves in the past five years. Reports indicate that there have been over nine million new victims of identity theft per year for two years running, with over 36 million new victims of identity theft in the past five years. Ten million Americans in the past year alone have fallen victim to this destructive crime. At the current rate of growth in identity theft, approximately 20 percent of active U.S. consumers of credit will be victims of identity theft by 2007. Identity theft has been the top consumer complaint to the FTC for five years in a row.

“While the rise of technology has been partly blamed for an increase in identity theft and fraud, many of the ways of identity thieves obtain personal information remain decidedly low-tech. In fact, the FTC estimates that 400,000 individuals have had their mail stolen and subsequently became the victims of identity theft just last year, ABC reported in February, 2004.

“The costs of identity theft to individuals and businesses are astronomical and rising. The FTC reports that direct out-of-pocket losses to consumers of five billion dollars during the last year alone and says businesses and financial institutions lost a staggering 48 billion during the same time period. Additionally, the repercussions of Identity theft go far beyond the wallet for many individuals and businesses. Americans now spend almost three million hours resolving problems related to identity theft each year. Many victims report ongoing problems beyond direct financial loss, including loan or Insurance rejection, failure of pre-employment screening, criminal investigation or harassment by creditors, as a result of the fraud.

“Identity theft is very difficult to prevent due to the myriad number of ways that identity thieves can access a consumer’s private information. Private information can be accessed by stealing an individual’s mail, wallet, etc. Additionally, online schemes are becoming much more prevalent. Phishing, pharming and tacking have become commonplace in the online world. Moreover, there have been numerous security breaches at large corporations, and not just data brokers and banks. Data on approximately 13.3 million consumers has been publicly reported by businesses, hospitals, universities and other organizations as lost or stolen in the first half of 2005. Additionally, a recent survey of 163 companies found that 75% of these companies reported that a serious security breach had occurred within the past twelve-month period.

“Although the loss of personal information is concerning, the critical damage occurs when that theft of personal information is used to defraud. Identity fraud is a multi-faceted and evolving problem. It may surface as internet fraud, synthetic ID fraud, credit card and mortgage application fraud, non-credit card transactional fraud, and many others. The creation of new accounts and the takeover of existing accounts are among the most damaging methods used by identity thieves.

“A large amount of information needs to be aggregated from disparate sources and then analyzed in order for an individual to prevent and/or detect the theft of their identity. Accordingly, there is need for a system and method to assist individuals in preventing or detecting identity theft.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Embodiments of the invention provide a system, method, and computer program product for preventing and/or detecting identity theft. Multiple layers of protection may be provided to prevent and/or detect potential identity theft. Identifying signs of identity theft early can help prevent thieves from committing fraud in an individual’s name. A set of screening tools may be provided to help monitor an individual’s personal profile and stop fraud in its tracks. With continuous electronic monitoring of an individual’s personal information, prompt alerts may be sent when changes that may indicate an individual’s identity has been compromised. The individual may then determine what actions to take in order to recover their identity quickly and minimize their financial loss.

“A method according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention includes receiving first information relating to a financial account of an individual from at least one first data provider; receiving second information relating to at least one of an identity theft expense reimbursement insurance policy of the individual, a public information relating to the individual, an identity theft risk score of the individual, a credit card registry of the individual, a backup data relating to the individual, a background information of the individual, and a business report relating to the individual, from at least one second data provider; and preparing a report relating to the individual’s identity theft based on the first and second information.

“In the exemplary embodiment, the first information may be related to a financial account of the individual, a financial account monitoring of the individual, a brokerage account of the individual, or a monitoring of a credit card of the individual. Also, in the exemplary embodiment, where the second information is related to a public information of the individual, the second data provider may include a public record report provider, a public record monitoring and/or notification, or an internet monitoring & notification.

“In a further exemplary embodiment, the method may further include receiving third information relating to the individual’s credit from at least one third data provider, where the preparing of the report is based the first and second information, the first and third information, or the second and third information. In a yet further embodiment, the third information may be related to a credit report of the individual, a credit score of the individual, a credit monitoring of the individual, or a credit update of the individual.

“A system according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention includes at least one first data provider, which may comprise a DDA (Direct Deposit Account) credit report, a DDA credit monitoring & notification, a brokerage account monitoring & notification, or a credit card transaction activity monitoring & notification; at least one second data provider, which may comprise an identity theft expense reimbursement insurance provider, a public record report provider, a public record monitoring & notification provider, an internet monitoring and/or notification provider, an identity theft risk score provider, a credit card registry, a data backup provider, a background screening provider, or a business report provider; and an identity theft engine which may receive information from the first and second data providers and create a report relating to an individual’s identity theft. In a further embodiment, the system may further include a third data provider, which may comprise a credit report provider, a credit score provider, a credit monitoring provider, or a credit update provider.

“A software program product according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention may perform a method that includes receiving first information relating to a financial account of an individual from at least one first data provider; receiving second information relating to at least one of an identity theft expense reimbursement insurance policy of the individual, a public information relating to the individual, an identity theft risk score of the individual, a credit card registry of the individual, a backup data relating to the individual, a background information of the individual, and a business report relating to the individual, from at least one second data provider; and preparing a report relating to the individual’s identity theft based on the first and second information. In a further embodiment, the method may further include receiving third information relating to the individual’s credit from at least one third data provider, where the preparing of the report is based the first and second information, the first and third information, or the second and third information. In a yet further embodiment, the third information may be related to a credit report of the individual, a credit score of the individual, a credit monitoring of the individual, or a credit update of the individual.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method comprising: sending, by a first computing system, content to be displayed via a first graphical user interface of a second computing system: financial monitoring data providers; public information data providers; and a cost amount associated with analyzing information obtained from the financial monitoring data providers and from the public information data providers; receiving, by the first computing system based on user interactions with the first graphical user interface: a first selection of the financial monitoring data providers and a second selection of the public information data providers; receiving, by the first computing system from a financial monitoring data provider corresponding to the first selection, financial information relating to a user of the second computing system and, from a public information data provider corresponding to the second selection, public information relating to the user of the second computing system; retrieving, from a storage, stored public information relating to the user received from the selected public information data provider; determining whether a difference between the received public information and the stored public information relating to the user, satisfies a threshold; sending, from the first computing system based on the determination of the difference satisfying the threshold, an alert to the second computing system; generating, by the first computing system based on the determination of the difference satisfying the threshold, a report relating to a risk threshold of the user; and causing, based on the report and via a second graphical user interface of the second computing system, display of the report.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the financial information relating to the user includes: a direct deposit account (DDA) of the user, a DDA monitoring of the user, a brokerage account of the user, and/or a monitoring of a credit card of the user.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first computing system comprises a server communicatively connected, via a network, to the second computing system.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the alert is sent via email, telephone, text message, regular mail, or facsimile.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: sending, by the first computing system, a first request to receive the financial information relating to the user from the selected financial monitoring data provider; and sending, by the first computing system, a second request to receive the public information related to the user from the selected public information data provider.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining the difference comprises: determining whether a first difference exists between the received public information and the stored public information; and determining, for the user, a user-selected threshold, wherein the determination is further based on the first difference and the user-selected threshold.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: periodically monitoring, for changes in information relating to the user, information from the selected financial monitoring data provider and the selected public information data provider.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the financial information relating to the user further comprises receiving credit information related to the user, the computer-implemented method further comprising: retrieving, from the storage, stored credit information relating to the user; and determining, based on the received credit information, whether a second difference between the received credit information and the stored credit information relating to the user, satisfies a second threshold, wherein the sending the alert is further based on a determination that the second difference satisfies the second threshold.

“9. An apparatus comprising: one or more processors; memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to: send content to be displayed via a first graphical user interface of a user computing system: financial monitoring data providers; public information data providers; and a cost amount associated with analyzing information obtained from the financial monitoring data providers and from the public information data providers; receive, based on user interactions with the first graphical user interface: a first selection of the financial monitoring data providers; and a second selection of the public information data providers; receive, from a financial monitoring data provider corresponding to the first selection, financial information relating to a user of the user computing system and, from a public information data provider corresponding to the second selection, public information relating to the user of the user computing system; retrieve, from a storage, stored public information relating to the user; determine whether a difference between the received public information and the stored public information relating to the user, satisfies a threshold; send, based on a determination of the difference satisfying the threshold, an alert to the user computing system; generate, based on the determination of the difference satisfying the threshold, a report relating to a risk threshold of the user; and cause, based on the report and via a second graphical user interface of the user computing system, display of the report.

“10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the financial information relating to the user includes: a direct deposit account (DDA) of the user, a DDA monitoring of the user, a brokerage account of the user, and/or a monitoring of a credit card of the user.

“11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the alert is sent via email, telephone, text message, regular mail, or facsimile.

“12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the apparatus to: send a first request to receive the financial information relating to the user from the selected financial monitoring data provider; and send a second request to receive the public information related to the user from the selected public information data provider.

“13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions to determine the difference, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the apparatus to: determine whether a first difference exists between the received public information and the stored public information; and determine, for the user, a user-selected threshold, wherein the determination is further based on the first difference and the user-selected threshold.

“14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the apparatus to: periodically monitor, for changes in information relating to the user, information from the selected financial monitoring data provider and the selected public information data provider.

“15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions to receive the financial information, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the apparatus to: receive, from the storage, stored credit information relating to the user; and determine, based on the received credit information, whether a second difference between the received credit information and the stored credit information relating to the user, satisfies a second threshold, wherein the instructions to send the alert are further based on a determination that the second difference satisfying the second threshold.

“16. One or more non-transitory media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform steps comprising: sending, by a first computing system, content to be displayed via a first graphical user interface of a second computing system: financial monitoring data providers; public information data providers; and a cost amount associated with analyzing information obtained from the financial monitoring data providers and from the public information data providers; receiving, by the first computing system based on user interactions with the first graphical user interface: a first selection of the financial monitoring data providers and a second selection of the public information data providers; receiving, by the first computing system from a financial monitoring data provider corresponding to the first selection, financial information relating to a user of the second computing system and, from a public information data provider corresponding to the second selection, public information relating to the user of the second computing system; retrieving, from a storage, stored public information relating to the user received from the selected public information data provider; determining whether a difference between the received public information and the stored public information relating to the user, satisfies a threshold; sending, from the first computing system based on the determination of the difference satisfying the threshold, an alert to the second computing system; generating, by the first computing system based on the determination of the difference satisfying the threshold, a report relating to a risk threshold of the user; and causing, based on the report and via a second graphical user interface of the second computing system, display of the report.

“17. The one or more non-transitory media of claim 16, wherein the financial information relating to the user includes: a direct deposit account (DDA) of the user, a DDA monitoring of the user, a brokerage account of the user, and/or a monitoring of a credit card of the user.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For more information, see this patent application: Andringa, Mark; Glau, Lisa; Slaton, Jonathan. Method and System for Preventing and Detecting Identity Theft. U.S. Patent Application Number 20240013309, filed June 8, 2023 and posted January 11, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20240013309)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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