Michael F Rakosi

US Patent:

20010001856, May 24, 2001

Filed:

Jan 18, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/765244

Inventors:

David Gould - New York NY, US
Michael Rakosi - New York NY, US

International Classification:

G06F017/60

US Classification:

705/039000

Abstract:

A cash-equivalent card-based purchasing system and its method of operation, in which an information processing computer has a plurality of records stored in an associated storage device, each record including a unique cash-equivalent card number linked to a card value. A cash-equivalent card is provided to a user, the cash-equivalent card having encoded thereon one of the cash-equivalent card numbers stored in the storage device, the cash-equivalent card provided in exchange for consideration equivalent to at least the value linked to the cash-equivalent card number encoded thereon. Neither the cash-equivalent card nor the storage device has any information regarding the identity of the user.