Fraud prevention system and method

Abstract

A system and method for preventing fraud. The method typically includes identifying one or more fraud indicators and examining past transactions and/or a pending transaction associated with the account for the presence of the fraud indicators. The method also includes, by said examining, detecting at least one of the fraud indicators. The method also includes calculating a cumulative fraud risk level associated with the pending transaction based on the detected fraud indicators. The method may also include determining whether the cumulative fraud risk level meets or exceeds a predetermined threshold, and if the cumulative fraud risk level meets or exceeds the predetermined threshold, verifying the request for the transaction with an owner of the account. The method may further include assigning a weighted value to each of the fraud indicators. The account is typically a telephone calling account, such as a calling card account.

We claim:  
     
         1 . A method for use in inhibiting fraud in a pending transaction associated with an account, the method comprising: 
 identifying one or more fraud indicators;    examining past transactions and/or the pending transaction associated with the account for the presence of the fraud indicators;    by said examining, detecting at least one of the fraud indicators; and    calculating a cumulative fraud risk level associated with the pending transaction based on the detected fraud indicators.    
     
     
         2 . A fraud queue for use in a telephone calling card recharge system, the fraud queue comprising a plurality of pending recharge orders, each pending recharge order being associated with a telephone calling card account, each of the pending recharge orders being assignable to a fraud clerk for verification with an owner of the telephone calling account.  
     
     
         3 . The fraud queue of  claim 2 , the respective telephone calling account associated with each of the pending orders contains an identified fraud indicator.  
     
     
         4 . A system for inhibiting fraud in a customer order associated with a customer account, the system comprising: 
 a computing device;    a database linked to the computing device, the database being configured to store information on past transactions associated with the customer account;    an order processing program executable on the computing device, the order processing program being configured to receive a customer order and assess a risk level for the customer order based on the past transactions related to the customer account stored in the database;    a fraud queue configured to receive the customer order if the risk level of the customer order exceeds a predetermined fraud risk threshold and hold the customer order pending verification of the order.