Patent · US Expired

Metering incoming mail to detect fraudulent indicia

US6064995A · kind A · utility

87Cited by
22References
29Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 5, 1997
Grant dateMay 16, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 5, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99948
  • WIPO fieldControl
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A system that tracks when normal digital postage meter mail or digital processor mail is received by an addressee. The foregoing is accomplished by connecting a scanner and control software to a digital postage meter or digital processor that would read incoming digitally metered mail. Instead of printing an indicia, the scanner would read the already existing indicia and other information on the mail piece and then extract the sender data fields that are contained in the indicia or on the mail piece. The extracted mail data would be periodically uploaded to a data center. The data center would compare the extracted data with mail sender data that has previously been uploaded from sending meters and processors to determine if fraud has been committed in the production of the postal indicia.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.