DETERMINING TRUSTWORTHINESS AND FAMILIARITY OF USERS OF AN ELECTRONIC BILLING AND PAYMENT SYSTEM

摘要

Enhanced systems and methods for processing invoices, payments, and money transfers are described. One aspect of the invention is a computer-implemented method (and corresponding system and computer program product) for determining trustworthiness and familiarity of entities for a billing and payment system, the method comprising: categorizing entities into the following four categories based on their trustworthiness and familiarity to the billing and payment system: (1) a first zone for well-known and trusted entities, (2) a second zone for entities that are familiar but not well-known or not as trusted, (3) a third zone for entities that are new to the billing and payment system, and (4) a fourth zone for other entities; re-categorizing entities based at least on their payment transactions made through the billing and payment system during the time they are with the billing and payment system; and treating the entities of different categories differently according to their categories.