[54] PROCESS FOR THE ACCEPTANCE OF A VIRTUAL PREPAID CARD USE REQUEST PERMITTING THE REUSE OF ITS SERIAL NUMBER
[75] Inventors: David Arditti, Clamart; Olivier Boulot, Versailles; Mireille Campana, Clamart; Sophie Milano, Paris, all of France
[73] Assignee: France Telecom, Paris, France
[21] Appl. No.: 08/873,653
[22] Filed: Jun. 12, 1997
[30] Foreign Application Priority Data
Jun. 21, 1996 [FR] France 96 07762
[51] Int. CI.6 H04L 9/32; G07F 7/08
[52] U.S. CI 380/25; 380/23; 380/24;
380/49; 380/50; 235/379; 235/380; 235/381; 379/111; 379/112; 379/114; 379/143; 379/144
[58] Field of Search 705/1, 14; 235/379,
235/380, 487, 493, 494, 492, 381, 382, 382.5; 379/111, 114, 143, 144, 154, 155, 112, 113; 380/4, 23, 24, 25, 49, 50, 59
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
4,706,275 11/1987 Kamil 379/144
4,725,719 2/1988 Oncken et al. .
5,264,689 11/1993 Maes et al 235/492
5,409,092 4/1995 Itako et al 235/381 X
5,719,926 2/1998 Hill 379/113
5,825,863 10/1998 Walker 379/144
The present invention relates to a process for accepting a request for use of a virtual prepaid card involving the following stages:
a user of a virtual prepaid card is connected to a server containing a data base, particularly version numbers, which are incremented when the corresponding cards are empty or obsolete,
said user is authenticated with the server by communicating thereto an authentication sequence and a version number,
said server supplies these numbers to a security processor having the capacity to recalculate the authentication sequence and check the validity thereof,
in the case of the validity thereof, the processor transmits to the server a consumption authorization,
after receiving said authorization the server gives agreement to the use request, within the limits of the credit remaining on the card and the validity date of the latter.
