Granted Patent B1

US 12,450,591 · App. 17/475,130 · Granted Oct 21, 2025

Inventors: Deana Cook (Wilmington, DE); Darrell L. Suen (San Ramon, CA); William E. Wheeler (San Francisco, CA)

Assignee: Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

G06Q20/354G06Q20/352G06Q20/409

Abstract

Claims (64)

1. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receive, from a user device, a contactless card application;

transmit, in response to approving the contactless card application, a request to create a contactless card to a third party computing system;

receive, based on the request, an account number and an encryption key for the contactless card from the third party computing system;

generate a card activation code for the contactless card, the card activation code being unique to the contactless card, wherein the card activation code further includes (i) a set of randomly generated alphanumeric values and a set of digits of the account number appended to the set of randomly generated alphanumeric values and (ii) an alphanumeric string generated based on obfuscated information associated with a customer;

generate a customer-specific uniform resource locator (URL) by embedding the card activation code within a query string of a general URL, the general URL being associated with an entity of the system, and wherein the query string is configured to automatically pass the card activation code to the system in response to a browser navigation to the customer-specific URL;

transmit the customer-specific URL to the third party computing system with instructions to write the customer-specific URL into a wireless chip of the contactless card;

receive, via the browser navigation to the customer-specific URL, subsequent to a short-range communication between the contactless card and the user device, the card activation code and an encrypted cryptographic key, wherein the short-range communication conveys the customer-specific URL containing the card activation code from the contactless card to the user device;

decrypt, via a decryption algorithm associated with the encrypted cryptographic key, the encrypted cryptographic key to determine an identifier of the customer associated with the contactless card, wherein the identifier of the customer is determined based on an association with the encryption key;

authenticate the customer based on an association between the card activation code and the identifier of the customer associated with the contactless card;

authenticate the user device based on an association between the identifier of the customer associated with the contactless card and a device identifier;

subsequent to the authentications, store the card activation code within the memory, the card activation code including an expiration condition; and

automatically delete the card activation code from the memory based on detecting the expiration condition following an activation of the contactless card.

2. The system of claim 1 , the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

retrieve the information regarding the customer associated with the contactless card from the memory using the card activation code.

3. The system of claim 2 , the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

authenticate a user associated with the user device as the customer based on additional authentication information received from the user device and the information regarding the customer associated with the contactless card retrieved from the memory.

4. The system of claim 3 , the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

in response to authenticating the user as the customer, activate the contactless card for future use.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the general URL comprises a domain name associated with an issuer of the contactless card.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the card activation code is a unique alphanumeric value.

7. A method, comprising:

receiving, from a user device, a contactless card application;

transmitting, in response to approving the contactless card application, a request to create a contactless card to a third party computing system;

receiving, by a card issuer computing system and based on the request, an account number and an encryption key for the contactless card from the third party computing system;

generating, by the card issuer computing system, a card activation code for the contactless card, the card activation code being unique to the contactless card, wherein the card activation code includes (i) a set of randomly generated alphanumeric values and a set of digits of the account number appended to the set of randomly generated alphanumeric values and (ii) an alphanumeric string generated based on obfuscated information associated with a customer;

generating, by the card issuer computing system, a customer-specific uniform resource locator (URL) by embedding the card activation code within a query string of a general URL, the general URL being associated with a card issuer associated with the card issuer computing system, and wherein the query string is configured to automatically pass the card activation code to the card issuer computing system in response to a browser navigation to the customer-specific URL;

transmitting, by the card issuer computing system, the customer-specific URL to the third party computing system with instructions to write the customer-specific URL into a wireless chip of the contactless card;

receiving, by the card issuer computing system and via the browser navigation to the customer-specific URL, subsequent to a short-range communication between the contactless card and the user device, the card activation code and an encrypted cryptographic key, wherein the short-range communication conveys the customer-specific URL containing the card activation code from the contactless card to the user device;

decrypting, via a decryption algorithm associated with the encrypted cryptographic key and by the card issuer computing system, the encrypted cryptographic key to determine an identifier of the customer associated with the contactless card, wherein the identifier of the customer is determined based on an association with the encryption key;

authenticating, by the card issuer computing system, the customer based on an association between the card activation code and the identifier of the customer associated with the contactless card;

authenticating, by the card issuer computing system, the user device based on an association between the identifier of the customer associated with the contactless card and a device identifier;

subsequent to the authentications, storing, by the card issuer computing system the card activation code, the card activation code including an expiration condition; and

automatically deleting the card activation code based on detecting the expiration condition following an activation of the contactless card.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

retrieving, by the card issuer computing system, the information regarding the customer associated with the contactless card using the card activation code.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

authenticating, by the card issuer computing system, a user associated with the user device as the customer based on additional authentication information received from the user device and the retrieved information regarding with the customer associated with the contactless card.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

in response to authenticating the user as the customer, activating, by the card issuer computing system, the contactless card for future use.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the general URL comprises a domain name associated with the card issuer computing system, and wherein the card activation code is unique alphanumeric value.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

identifying, by the card issuer computing system, the contactless card and the account information of the customer based on the card activation code.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by at least one processor of a card issuer computing system, causes the card issuer computing system to:

receive, from a user device, a contactless card application;

transmit, in response to approving the contactless card application, a request to create a contactless card to a third party computing system;

receive, based on the request, an account number and an encryption key for the contactless card from the third party computing system;

generate a card activation code for the contactless card, the card activation code being unique to the contactless card, wherein the card activation code includes (i) a set of randomly generated alphanumeric values and a set of digits of the account number appended to the set of randomly generated alphanumeric values and (ii) an alphanumeric string generated based on obfuscated information associated with a customer;

generate a customer-specific uniform resource locator (URL) by embedding the card activation code within a query string of a general URL, the general URL being associated with a card issuer associated with the card issuer computing system, and wherein the query string is configured to automatically pass the card activation code to the card issuer computing system in response to a browser navigation to the customer-specific URL;

transmit the customer-specific URL to a third party computing system with instructions to write the customer-specific URL into a wireless chip of the contactless card;

receive, via the browser navigation to the customer-specific URL, subsequent to a short-range communication between the contactless card and the user device, the card activation code and an encrypted cryptographic key, wherein the short-range communication conveys the customer-specific URL containing the card activation code from the contactless card to the user device;

decrypt, via a decryption algorithm associated with the encrypted cryptographic key, the encrypted cryptographic key to determine an identifier of the customer associated with the contactless card, wherein the identifier of the customer is determined based on an association with the encryption key;

authenticate the customer based on an association between the card activation code and the identifier of the customer associated with the contactless card;

authenticate the user device based on an association between the identifier of the customer associated with the contactless card and a device identifier;

subsequent to the authentications, store the card activation code, the card activation code including an expiration condition;

automatically delete the card activation code based on detecting the expiration condition following an activation of the contactless card; and

activate the contactless card for future use based on the received card activation code.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor of the card issuer computing system, further cause the card issuer computing system to:

authenticate a user associated with the user device based on additional authentication information received from the user device and stored information associated with the user.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor of the card issuer computing system, further cause the card issuer computing system to:

identify the contactless card and associated card information based on the card activation code.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the short-range communication is a near-field communication.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (400)