Patent Application
20150079326
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to consumer credit and debit account information security. More particularly, the invention relates to banking card security utilizing adhesive stickers to cover the personal information on a banking card to effectively deal with the hazards of the theft of banking card information.
2. Background of the Invention
Credit cards, debit cards, or other forms of banking cards bearing personal and account information on the cards can become a source of identity information leaking and eventually lead to credit card fraud activities. According to the Federal Trade Commission, identity theft activities increased 21 percent in 2008. Although incidents of credit card fraud is limited to under 1% of all card transactions, this conduct has resulted in huge multi-billion dollar financial losses and has been reported as being one of the key concerns of consumers. The industry-wide cost of bank card fraud in 2006 was 9 cents per 100 dollars worth of transactions.
A legitimate transaction to a merchant may lead to bank card fraud. The data associated with the user's account, including the card account number or other information that would routinely and necessarily be available can be compromised during a legitimate transaction, especially when the victim's card is taken outside of the cardholder's immediate view. Common scenarios of these compromises can occur in a restaurant, bar, or other retail establishments, as well as hidden devices that secretly record the account information while the card is being scanned at the checkout or at an ATM machine, and that can usually be conducted without tipping off the cardholder, the merchant or the issuer, at least until the account is ultimately used for fraud.
Various prior art patents and patent applications are directed to efforts to resolve this question. U.S. Pat. No. 8,302,858 discloses a method and system for protecting credit card account information. The disclosed system provides a credit card with a card portion displaying a first part of an account number and an electronically readable region. The credit card may also include a sleeve portion that holds the card portion and that may display a second part of an account number.
Published Patent Application No. 20090260731 discloses a smart cardholder or passport holder having two sides sealed together at three edges to leave an interior space dimensioned and configured to hold a smart card or passport. The holder sides have multiple layers, one of the layers protecting any magnetic strip on a card or the like from the dielectric material and preventing unauthorized RF remote access to the smart card chip or passport chip.
Another published Patent Application No. 20130037615 discloses a card cover that encapsulates the account numbers on a credit card, debit card, gas card, or general bank card to conceal the information for security purposes. This application discloses guard bands removable by the owner, yet reveals when someone else has tampered or attempted to tamper with the bands. These guards are designed in such a way that once removed they cannot be reaffixed to the card. An air sensitive material is layered above the adhesive to allow the cardholder to detect the change of color of the card guard when the card is compromised. The material has a clear covering allowing the material to be protected from air on top of the card, and allowing the user to see the change in color should the card be tampered with.
Despite all the teachings from the prior art references, there lacks a method or system that properly protects both embossed and non-embossed account numbers on a credit card, or instructs a sales person to check “ID”, produces a cracking to demonstrate to the cardholder that the covering layer has been removed or tampered with, and carries personalized information for the cardholder to select and provide additional aesthetic value to the user's card.
The present invention prevents a waiter, clerk or the like, from knowing what the user's card number is by allowing the user to apply an adhesive backed, tamper evident and opaque sticker over all but the last four numbers of the user's card on the front, and over all or most of the digits on the back of the card. The present invention contemplates that a similar sticker can be applied to cover the card code number on either the front or rear of the card. Each strip is adhesive backed and opaque.
In one embodiment the sticker covering the protruding side of the embossed numbers on the card has a predetermined thickness to form a cushion. This cushion properly protects the protruding account number from being revealed without removing the covering sticker. The sticker covering the recessing side of the embossed numbers is the same thickness as the front covering sticker but also has a cushion to protect the numbers as well.
In another embodiment of the invention, the tamper evident sticker is adapted to be placed over a card number printed, but not embossed on the card. In a further embodiment, a plurality of tamper evident stickers are packaged and sold as a kit for ease of purchase and use by a cardholder.
The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention may best be understood from the following detailed description of currently illustrated embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like numerals refer to like parts, and in which:
a, 3b, and 3c are front elevation views of three embodiments of an adhesive security sticker kit having rectangular elements of three different sizes of removeable security stickers.
As shown in
In the illustrated embodiment shown in
Some banking cards have the account numbers 14 printed on the banking cards 10, but some account numbers 14 are embossed on the card 10. The embossed numbers 14 protrude from the surface of the front side of the card 10. A security sticker 20 made of a thin layer of covering material may not properly cover the protruding numbers, because the numbers can still be seen or printed without removing the thin layer of covering material. In one embodiment, the security sticker 20 has three layers as shown in
A cushion layer 54 is placed between the adhesive layer 52 and the top tamper evident layer 56. In one embodiment, the cushion layer 54 is made of tamper-evident metalized or foil material. The foil constitutes a cushion to prevent the protruding account numbers from being shown through the cushion or metalized layer 54 to prevent the disclosure of the covered embossed numbers without the removal of the security sticker 50. The cushion layer 54 and adhesive layer 52 may be of the type furnished by Flexcon Co., Inc. of Spencer, Mass. under the trademark TAMPERmark™, which leaves a checkerboard pattern on the surface of card 51 when layer 54 is tampered with. The combined layers 54 and 52 can also be of the type furnished by Avery Dennison Corp. under the brand name FASSON® particularly FASSON 2 Mil Silver Void Polyester TC/S8015/50#SCK. Additionally, whenever the security sticker 50 is lifted from the card 51, the lifting movement always leaves crease markings in the coating in layer 54, thus also alerting the cardholder that the security sticker 50 has been tampered with.
In an additional embodiment of the present invention, the top layer 56 of the security sticker 50 is also a tamper evident layer that shows the cardholder the sticker has been tampered with. The material used in this top layer 56 can be standard chemical film that cracks itself when the sticker 50 is peeled. The cracking effect is created by the combination of the adhesive layer 52, the elastic layer 54, such as Kimdura by Avery Dennison Corp., and the chemical film in the top layer 56 working together, while still providing a security sticker 50 that generally has a thickness of approximately 17.5 to 18 thousandths inches. The crease marking on the elastic layer 54 and the cracking effect on the top layer 56 together combine to provide strong protection and alert the cardholder when their account information is potentially compromised. The cardholder may then immediately notify the banking card company that the card has been compromised. If desired, the sticker 50 can include both layers 54 and 56, or only one of layers 54 or 56.
Another embodiment of the present invention is used for the banking cards that have no embossed number, where the account number 14 is flat printed on the front of the card. The cushion layer 54 in this embodiment is thinner than the cushion layer 54 used in the previously described embodiment. The thinner metalized foil of layer 54 retains the attribute of having crease markings when peeled from the card 51.
The security code on the front or back of the card is protected through a specially designed security sticker 26 to conceal the three-digit security code on the backside of card 10 that states “DO NOT REMOVE.” The stickers 22 and 26 are made of the same tamper evident material as sticker 20, described above and illustrated in
As seen in
a, 3b, and 3c depict front elevation views of three embodiments of the adhesive security sticker kit for the sale and distribution of the above mentioned security stickers to consumers. The upper substrate of all or some of the security stickers can carry indicia visible to the cardholder, such as instructions, advertisements, or unique designs of the user's choice. The information can be pre-printed on the stickers when they are sold to the consumers, or printing can be added by the consumer after the stickers are already purchased. The customized information makes it very hard to find a replacement sticker to replace on the card when the original security sticker is removed from the card. When the security sticker has a blank surface or uniform appearance, whoever removes the security sticker outside the presence of the cardholder can easily find an identical replacement of the security sticker and apply it back on the card to pretend the sticker has never been tampered with.
In the illustrated embodiment of the presently disclosed kit, two sets of covering stickers are provided in a package. Two signature-covering stickers 22, four security stickers 20 for the account numbers in the front and back of the card, and two card code number stickers 26 on a backing card 30 or a separate peelable backing are provided in the kit 36. The different stickers of the same kind provided in one kit may vary in thickness to accommodate the user's needs to properly protect the cardholder's personal information and banking card security. Each of the stickers 20, 22 and 26 have a thin film adhered to adhesive layer 52, which film has a peelable adhesive on the opposite surface of the thin film. In this manner, each sticker can be peeled from backing card 30 of kit 36 without creasing or cracking the film material 54 and/or 56.
Other types of banking cards use radio frequency identification technology (RFID) to transmit signals in transactions. In one embodiment of the present invention, a RF blocking material (not shown) is used in the sticker 50 to substantially cover both sides of the banking card to prevent remote access to the RFID signal. Dielectric material that is impervious to RF/electrical transmission may be used in the covering stickers. The dielectric may include plastic films, or plastic films coated with silver or iridium or similar materials known in the art.
While several particular embodiments of security stickers for banking cards of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present invention.
This application claims priority to provisional application Ser. No. 61/878,957 filed Sep. 17, 2013 to the extent allowed by law.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61878957 | Sep 2013 | US |
