PayPal Admits Rewards Program Failed, as Millions of Fake Accounts Were Opened

Paypal CFO John Rainey revealed that the company found 4.5 million accounts created illegitimately by bots in connection with a customer rewards program. Although PayPal has already shut down the accounts, many took advantages of the incentives, which according to Bloomberg had caused Paypal’s stock market shares to go down by 25%. Actually, the rewards campaign was in line with PayPal’s objective of reaching 750 million active accounts by 2025. Apparently after the discovery, the goal is out of reach for now.

According to CFO Rainey, it is their practice to periodically assess their active account base, to make sure all are legitimate. It;s actually one way of avoiding bad actors, In this recent case, they collected benefits from the incentive campaigns without mutual participation as a legitimate customer of Paypal.

How Did the Account-Opening Rewards Program Work?

In the past two years, PayPal garnered 120 million new customers and now currently have a total of 426 million accounts as ecommerce boomed. CFO Rainey mentioned how PayPal focused on incentivized customer acquisition tactics more than ever. One instance is how the company had an offer that deposited $5 or $10 dollars to their customer’s account after signing up for Venmo or Paypal.

Trouble arose when bots created accounts automatically ny visiting websites but only for the purpose of collecting the rewards offered as incentives. PayPal’s CFO mentioned how the company is transitioning to a sustainable growth and driving engagement instead to make legitimate customers use their apps more frequently.

Point Predictive co-founder Frank McKenna acknowledges how this is the first time he has seen a company to admit how fraudsters take advantage of new account incentive programs in this scale.

P2P Payment Apps – Making Mobile and Online Banking Better Than Ever

P2P or person-to-person payment is a financial method that enables customers to transfer funds to another person using their credit card or bank account. Users simply access a payment-transfer application installed in a mobile device, laptop or PC. of a mobile Banks develop or collaborate with a third party provider of P2P platform, to give customers the ability to transfer money to another person, even if the latter does not maintain a bank account with the servicing bank.

Once the sender makes a money transfer, the recipient will be notified by way of email, about the money transferred to his or her bank account, whilst referencing a specific transaction code. The P2P system does not require senders and recipients to have a deposit account with the same bank.

How P2P Payment Method Works

Even before the development of P2P applications, the majority of e-commerce merchants who have been accepting online payments, used payment processors like PayPal. As mobile banking likewise enabled device users to make payments, PayPal introduced a mobile banking app that enabled their customers to make direct payments to the bank accounts of merchants or peers without need to pass through PayPal’s e-wallet platform. .

Today, there’s a broad selection of P2P mobile payment apps that enable family and friends to transfer and receive funds. Some of the leading providers of P2P mobile apps, in addition to PayPal, are Google, Venmo and Xoom. Actually, even Facebook offers person-to-person payments through credit unions and banks.