Verifying Cardholder Identity Using Signature Of The Card - Patent 8118220

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Verifying Cardholder Identity Using Signature Of The Card - Patent 8118220 Powered By Docstoc
Description: CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is related to concurrently filed U.S. Patent Applications: entitled "AUTHENTICATION OF DOCUMENTS HAVING MAGNETIC STRIPE" by Fang et al. Ser. No. 12/276,244; and entitled "UPDATING OF REFERENCE MAGNETIC SIGNATURE FORAUTHENTICATING A DOCUMENT WITH A MAGNETIC STRIPE" by Fang et al. Ser. No. 12/276,212, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety.BACKGROUND Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to verifying the identity of a cardholder, and more specifically to using a unique magnetic characteristic of a card (e.g. a credit card) to verify the cardholder identity. Documents having a magnetic stripe have long been used for a variety of different purposes. Such documents are currently used in large numbers, e.g., credit cards, debit cards, I.D. cards, etc. Typically the magnetic stripes of such cardscarry recorded data relating to the use of the card, and in some instances relating to the assigned user or owner of the card. Although magnetic stripe cards are widely and successfully used in commerce and industry, counterfeiting these cards is a common occurrence, which can result in great losses. For example, if a counterfeiter obtains an authentic credit card (orthe recorded data on the card), the counterfeiter can create a new credit card, which could be used to make unauthorized transactions. Consequently, the ability to reliably verify the authenticity of a card (or other document) having a magnetic stripeis important. One method for verifying the authenticity of a card uses certain magnetic characteristics of the magnetic stripe to identify cards. Generally, the magnetic stripes of individual cards possess inherent, substantially unique, magneticcharacteristics (often referred to as a fingerprint or signature). This fingerprint is related to a noise-like component that results from the manufacturing process of the magnetic stripe. Fraud can also occur when a