Patent Issued for Method and system for preventing and detecting identity theft (USPTO 11715159): Aura Sub LLC

2023 AUG 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Aura Sub LLC (Herndon, Virginia, United States) has been issued patent number 11715159, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Andringa, Mark (Vienna, VA, US), Glau, Lisa (Alexandria, VA, US), Slaton, Jonathan (Marshall, VA, US).

This patent was filed on October 14, 2019 and was published online on August 1, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “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 115 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.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “SUMMARY THE INVENTION

“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.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method comprising: sending, by a first computing system to a second computing system via a graphical user interface displayed by the second computing system: a list of data providers including one or more financial monitoring data providers, one or more public information data providers, and a cost amount associated with analyzing information obtained from the financial monitoring data providers from the public information data providers; receiving, by the first computing system as sent from the second computing system: a selection of one or more of the financial monitoring data providers and a selection of one or more of the public information data providers; receiving, by the first computing system as sent from a first data provider, financial information relating to a user of the second computing system and, as sent from a public information data provider, public information relating to the user of the second computing system; storing, in the first computer system and over time, the received financial information and received public information; determining, based on the received public information and the stored public information, at least one of an addition, deletion, or change to the stored public information relating to the user, wherein the determination satisfies a threshold; sending, from the first computing system based on the determination of the at least one of an addition, deletion, or change, an alert to the second computing system; preparing, by the first computing system based on the received financial information and the received public information, a report relating to a risk threshold of the user; and sending the report to the second computing system to enable the user to view, in a unified view provided on a display of the second computing system, the financial information relating to the user and the public information relating to the user.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial information relating to the user includes at least one of a direct deposit account (DDA) of the user, a DDA monitoring of the user, a brokerage account of the user, or a monitoring of a credit card of the user.

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

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert is sent via at least one of email, telephone, text message, regular mail, or facsimile.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: requesting the financial information relating to the user from the first data provider; and requesting the public information from the public information data provider.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the financial information and the public information to identify irregularities satisfying the threshold.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring at least one of the first data provider and the public information data provider on a periodic basis for changes in information relating to the user.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: sending, by the first computing system to the second computing system, a list of data providers, the list of data providers including one or more first data providers, and one or more public information data providers; receiving, by the first computing system as sent from the second computing system, a selection of one of the one or more first data providers; and receiving, by the first computing system as sent from the second computing system, a selection of one of the public information data providers.

“9. A computer-implemented method comprising: storing, relating to a user, credit information and public information; sending, by a first computing system to a second computing system via a graphical user interface displayed by the second computing system: a list of data providers including one or more credit monitoring data providers, and one or more public information data providers, and a cost amount associated with analyzing information obtained from the credit monitoring data providers and the public information data providers; receiving, by the first computing system as sent from the second computing system: a selection of one or more of the financial monitoring data providers and a selection of one or more of the public information data providers; receiving, by a first computing system as sent from a first data provider, credit information relating to a user of the second computing system and, as sent from a public information data provider, public information relating to the user of the second computing system; and storing, in the first computer system and over time, the received credit information and received public information; determining, based on the received public information and the stored public information, at least one of an addition, deletion, or change to the public information relating to the user, wherein the determination satisfies a threshold; sending, from the first computing system based on the determination of the at least one of an addition, deletion, or change, an alert to the second computing system; preparing, by the first computing system based on the received credit information and the received public information, a report relating to a risk threshold of the user based on the received credit information and the received public information; and sending the report to the second computing system to enable the user to view, in a unified view provided on a display of the second computing system, the credit information relating to the user and the public information relating to the user.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first computing system comprises a server communicatively connected to the second computing system via a network.

“11. The method of claim 9, wherein the alert is sent via at least one of email, telephone, text message, regular mail, and facsimile.

“12. The method of claim 9, further comprising: requesting the credit information relating to the user from the first data provider; and requesting the public information from the public information data provider.

“13. The method of claim 9, further comprising processing the credit information and the public information to identify irregularities relating to a risk threshold.

“14. The method of claim 9, further comprising monitoring at least one of the first data provider and the public information data provider on a periodic basis for changes in information relating to the user.

“15. The method of claim 9, further comprising: sending, by the first computing system to the second computing system, a list of data providers, the list of data providers including one or more first data providers, and one or more public information data providers; receiving, by the first computing system as sent from the second computing system, a selection of one of the one or more first data providers; and receiving, by the first computing system as sent from the second computing system, a selection of one of the public information data providers.

“16. The method of claim 9, wherein the credit information relating to the user includes receiving information relating to a credit report of the user.

“17. The method of claim 16, wherein the information relating to the credit report of the user includes at least one of a credit score of the user, a first of the user, and a credit update of the user.

“18. A system comprising: at least one first data provider configured to provide information regarding a financial account of a user of a first computing system, the first data provider comprising at least one of a direct deposit account (DDA) account credit report, a DDA account credit monitoring and notification, a brokerage account monitoring and notification, and a credit card transaction activity monitoring and notification; at least one second data provider configured to provide information regarding credit information relating to the user; at least one public information data provider configured to provide public information relating to the user, the public information data provider comprising at least one of a public record report provider, a public record monitoring and notification provider, an internet monitoring or notification provider, or a business report provider; and a second computing system with a processor, the second computing system being further configured to: provide, to the first computing system, a list of data providers, the list of data providers including one or more first data providers, second data providers, and public information data providers; receive, from the first computing system, a selection of one of the first data providers, a selection of one of the second data providers, or a selection of one of the public information data providers; receive, relating to the user, financial information, credit information, and public information; store, in the second computer system, the received financial information, credit information, and public information relating to the user; monitor at least one of the data providers; and generate a report relating to risk thresholds of the user by: obtaining a first report from the selected financial monitoring data provider; obtaining a second report from the selected credit monitoring data provider; obtaining a third report from the selected public information data provider; and combining information from the first, second and third reports into a single report.

“19. The system of claim 18, wherein the financial information includes at least one of a direct deposit account (DDA) of the user, a DDA monitoring of the user, a brokerage account of the user, and a monitoring of a credit card of the user.

“20. The system of claim 18, further comprising receiving information relating to a credit report of the user.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Andringa, Mark. Method and system for preventing and detecting identity theft. U.S. Patent Number 11715159, filed October 14, 2019, and published online on August 1, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11715159)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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