Secure money transfer via electronic stamp

Abstract

A method of providing for a money transfer over a network includes the steps of: providing a stamp having a face value and a lifespan both indicated on the stamp, the stamp being a string that is a concatenation of two or more fields including the face value and the lifespan, with at least one of the fields calculated according to a prescription involving a hashing or encryption of a concatenation of others of the fields or of some other field not part of the stamp; affixing the stamp to an e-mail; and allowing the recipient of the e-mail to obtain value for the stamp if the stamp is presented to a predetermined entity (such as a stamp issuer) for the stamp value within the lifespan indicated on the stamp. The stamp may comprise a concatenation of a set of fields, including a lifespan, a stamp value; and hash/encryption.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for electronic money transfer, the method comprising:
 receiving a request from a sender for a stamp, the stamp having a face value and a lifespan;   generating, by a processor, the stamp associated with the request based on the face value and the lifespan;   transmitting the generated stamp to the sender electronically;   receiving from a recipient a request to redeem the stamp;   determining whether the stamp is expired based on the lifespan of the stamp and a time when the request to redeem the stamp is received; and   crediting the face value of the stamp to the recipient only if the stamp is not expired.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the stamp specifies a recipient of the stamp. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 determining whether the recipient that requests to redeem the stamp matches the specified recipient; and   crediting the face value of the stamp to the recipient only if the recipient matches the specified recipient.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the generated stamp further comprises a hash or encryption of information other than the face value and the lifespan. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 validating the stamp using the hash or encryption of information in the stamp; and   crediting the face value of the stamp to the recipient only if the stamp is validated.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 accessing an account associated with the sender and an account associated with the recipient;   debiting the account of the sender based on the face value of the stamp; and   crediting the account of the recipient based on the face value of the stamp.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the stamp is transferred from the sender to one or more recipients electronically to facilitate money transfer. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 crediting the face value of the stamp to a first recipient to redeem the stamp.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the generated stamp comprises a numeric character string that can be added to an electronic message. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the face value and lifespan are encoded in the numeric character string. 
     
     
         11 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions for providing electronic money transfer, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:
 receiving a request from a sender for a stamp, the stamp having a face value and a lifespan;   generating, by a processor, the stamp associated with the request based on the face value and the lifespan;   transmitting the generated stamp to the sender electronically;   receiving from a recipient a request to redeem the stamp;   determining whether the stamp is expired based on the lifespan of the stamp and a time when the request to redeem the stamp is received; and   crediting the face value of the stamp to the recipient only if the stamp is not expired.   
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , wherein the stamp specifies a recipient of the stamp. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 12 , further comprising instructions for:
 determining whether the recipient that requests to redeem the stamp matches the specified recipient; and   crediting the face value of the stamp to the recipient only if the recipient matches the specified recipient.   
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , wherein the generated stamp further comprises a hash or encryption of information other than the face value and the lifespan. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 validating the stamp using the hash or encryption of information in the stamp; and   crediting the face value of the stamp to the recipient only if the stamp is validated.   
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 accessing an account associated with the sender and an account associated with the recipient;   debiting the account of the sender based on the face value of the stamp; and   crediting the account of the recipient based on the face value of the stamp.   
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , wherein the stamp is transferred from the sender to one or more recipients electronically to facilitate money transfer. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 crediting the face value of the stamp to a first recipient to redeem the stamp.   
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , wherein the generated stamp comprises a numeric character string that can be added to an electronic message. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 19 , wherein the face value and lifespan are encoded in the numeric character string.