Patent Issued for Report existence monitoring (USPTO 11978114): ConsumerInfo.com Inc.

2024 MAY 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Burger, Michael (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, US), DeBie, Tod (Costa Mesa, CA, US), filed on January 22, 2021, was published online on May 7, 2024.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11978114 is ConsumerInfo.com Inc. (Costa Mesa, California, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors:

“Field of the Invention

“This invention relates to systems and methods for detecting the existence of a credit report.

“Description of the Related Art

“Identity theft is the act of acquiring a consumer’s personal information, such as an account number, driver’s license, health insurance card, or Social Security number, and using the information to commit fraud or theft. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the nation. In 2007, the Federal Trade Commission estimated that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Identity thieves may rent an apartment, obtain a credit card, clone an ATM or debit card and make electronic withdrawals, take out major loans and not pay off the lender, and establish a telephone account, as well as engage in a number of other fraudulent activities. A consumer may not find out about the identity theft until a debt collector contacts the consumer.

“Consumers may enroll in credit monitoring services to protect their identities from theft. Credit monitoring services periodically check the credit report of the enrolled consumer and provide the enrolled consumer with updated credit reports so that the consumer may detect activities that appear fraudulent. However, enrollment in those services requires the existence of a credit report. If a credit report does not exist for a consumer, for example the elderly or expatriates, then the consumer cannot enroll in the service. Also, if the report is unavailable at the time enrollment is attempted, because of a system glitch or a data error, for example, then a consumer would also be refused enrollment. Thus, these consumers would be left without the protection of a credit monitoring service, which may result in a theft of their identity not being immediately noticed.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The systems, methods, and devices of the invention each have several aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of the invention, certain features will now be discussed briefly.

“In one embodiment, a computerized method of enrolling a consumer in a credit monitoring service, the credit monitoring service providing periodic notifications to enrolled consumers regarding changes to their respective credit reports, comprises (a) providing a user interface to a consumer, (b) receiving enrollment information from the consumer via the user interface, the enrollment information comprising one or more of: a name, a social security number, and an address of the consumer, © transmitting a credit report request to a credit bureau, the credit report request comprising at least some of the enrollment information, (d) receiving an indication that the credit bureau did not locate a credit report of the consumer, (e) notifying the consumer that a credit report was not located by the credit bureau, (f) after a predetermined time, requesting a credit report of the consumer from the credit bureau, and, if a credit report is not returned in response to the request, returning to step (f), or, if a credit report is returned in response to the request, continuing enrollment of the consumer in the credit monitoring service.

“In one embodiment, a computerized method of enrolling a consumer in a service that requires the existence of a credit report comprises receiving an indication from one or more credit bureaus that a credit report for the consumer is not available, periodically requesting a credit report of the consumer from the one or more credit bureaus, and, if a credit report of the consumer is located, continuing enrollment of the consumer in the service.

“In one embodiment, a computerized method of monitoring the existence of a credit report for a consumer comprises requesting a credit report for a consumer from one or more credit bureaus, receiving an indication from the one or more credit bureaus that a credit report for the consumer is not available, and, after a predetermined time period, requesting a credit report for the consumer from the one or more credit bureaus, receiving an indication from the one or more credit bureaus that a credit report for the consumer is not available, and repeating the request of a credit report for the consumer until a credit report for the consumer is available.

“In one embodiment, a system for enrolling a consumer in a credit monitoring service comprises an enrollment module configured to receive enrollment information for a consumer and to enroll the consumer in a credit monitoring service and a report existence module configured to request a credit report of the consumer from one or more credit bureaus wherein in response to receiving an indication that no credit report is available for the consumer, the report existence module is configured to periodically re-request a credit report of the consumer and, in response to receiving an indication that a credit report is available for the consumer, continuing enrollment of the consumer in the credit monitoring service.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving an indication of a data breach; receiving enrollment information from a plurality of consumers subject to the data breach to enroll into a credit monitoring service; requesting credit reports relating to the plurality of consumers subject to the data breach; receiving a first set of credit reports for a first subset of the plurality of consumers from a first credit bureau; determining that (a) the first subset of the plurality of consumers each have a credit file, and (b) a second subset of the plurality of consumers each do not have a credit file; receiving authorization from at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers to monitor for the existence of a credit file associated with the at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers; and for the at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers that do not have a credit file: on a periodic basis, transmitting a request for a credit report for the at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers; identifying a credit report of an individual consumer of the second subset; and completing enrollment of the individual consumer in the credit monitoring service based on the received enrollment information corresponding to the individual consumer, wherein the credit monitoring service is configured to notify the individual consumer of changes between a first credit report of the individual consumer obtained by the credit monitoring service at a first time and a second credit report of the individual consumer obtained by the credit monitoring service at a second time.

“2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the data breach includes a theft or loss of data.

“3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein: for each individual consumer of the first subset of the plurality of consumers, the operations further comprise: periodically requesting a credit report for the individual consumer of the first subset of the plurality of consumers associated with the data breach from the first credit bureau; receiving an updated credit report for the individual consumer of the first subset associated with the data breach from the first credit bureau; comparing the updated credit report with an earlier credit report, from the first set of credit reports, for the individual consumer of the first subset; identifying a change in the updated credit report and the earlier credit report in the first set of credit reports based on the comparison; and initiating display of a user interface including a limited subset of data related to the change and a selectable link.

“4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the user interface includes: a limited subset of data of the updated credit report or the earlier credit report in the first set of credit reports that have the identified change; and the selectable link to be displayed on a webpage, wherein the selectable link is configured to launch a user interface that displays additional information regarding the identified change.

“5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the change is related to at least one of: a bank account, a loan, a credit card account, or a telephone number.

“6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein initiating display of the user interface is in response to identifying a particular change between the earlier credit report and the updated credit report.

“7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the credit monitoring service cannot be performed for a particular individual without a pre-existing credit file existing for the particular individual.

“8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the credit monitoring service further notifies the individual consumer of one or more detected activities that are indicative of fraud or potential fraud.

“9. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving an indication of a data breach; receiving enrollment information from a plurality of consumers subject to the data breach to enroll into a credit monitoring service; requesting credit reports relating to the plurality of consumers subject to the data breach; receiving a first set of credit reports for a first subset of the plurality of consumers from a first credit bureau; determining that (a) the first subset of the plurality of consumers each have a credit file, and (b) a second subset of the plurality of consumers each do not have a credit file; receiving authorization from at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers to monitor for the existence of a credit file associated with the at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers; and for the at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers that do not have a credit file: on a periodic basis, transmitting a request for a credit report for the at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers; identifying a credit report of an individual consumer of the second subset; and completing enrollment of the individual consumer in the credit monitoring service based on the received enrollment information corresponding to the individual consumer, wherein the credit monitoring service is configured to notify the individual consumer of changes between a first credit report of the individual consumer obtained by the credit monitoring service at a first time and a second credit report of the individual obtained by the credit monitoring service at a second time.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the user interface is viewable in a web browser.

“11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising notifying the consumer when the first credit report of the individual is received.

“12. A system comprising: a memory; and a processor configured to: receive an indication of a data breach; receive enrollment information from a plurality of consumers subject to the data breach to enroll into a credit monitoring service; request credit reports relating to the plurality of consumers subject to the data breach; receive a first set of credit reports for a first subset of the plurality of consumers from a first credit bureau; determine that (a) the first subset of the plurality of consumers each have a credit file, and (b) a second subset of the plurality of consumers each do not have a credit file; receive authorization from at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers to monitor for the existence of a credit file associated with the at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers; and for the at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers that do not have a credit file: on a periodic basis, transmit a request for a credit report for the at least one of the second subset of the plurality of consumers; identify a credit report of an individual consumer of the second subset; and complete enrollment of the individual consumer in the credit monitoring service based on the received enrollment information corresponding to the individual consumer, wherein the credit monitoring service is configured to notify the individual consumer of changes between a first credit report of the individual consumer obtained by the credit monitoring service at a first time and a second credit report of the individual obtained by the credit monitoring service at a second time.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to notify the consumer when the first credit report of the individual is received.

“14. The system of claim 12, wherein for each individual consumer of the first subset of the plurality of consumers, the processor is further configured to: periodically request a credit report for the individual consumer of the first subset of the plurality of consumers associated with the data breach from the first credit bureau; receive an updated credit report for the individual consumer associated with the data breach from the first credit bureau; compare the updated credit report with an earlier credit report for the individual consumer in the first set of credit reports; identify a change in the updated credit report and the earlier credit report in the first set of credit reports based on the comparison; and initiate display of a user interface including a limited subset of data related to the change and a selectable link.

“15. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface includes: a limited subset of data of the updated credit report or the earlier credit report in the first set of credit reports that have the identified change; and the selectable link to be displayed on a webpage, wherein the selectable link is configured to launch a user interface that displays additional information regarding the identified change.

“16. The system of claim 14, wherein to initiate display of the user interface is in response to identifying a particular change between the earlier credit report and the updated credit report.

“17. The system of claim 14, wherein initiating display of the user interface comprises transmitting user interface data to a computing device of the individual.

“18. The system of claim 12, wherein the credit monitoring service cannot be performed for a particular individual without a pre-existing credit file existing for the particular individual.

“19. The system of claim 12, wherein the credit monitoring service further notifies the individual consumer of one or more detected activities that are indicative of fraud or potential fraud.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Burger, Michael. Report existence monitoring. U.S. Patent Number 11978114, filed January 22, 2021, and published online on May 7, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11978114)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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