Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Venmo lost a lot of cash due to payment fraud
Venmo apparently had a good reason for disabling web payments and temporarily shutting off instant money transfers -- it was losing money hand over fist. The Wall Street Journal has obtained documents indicating that the PayPal-owned service took a 40 percent larger than expected operating loss ($40 million) in the first quarter of 2018, and payment fraud played a major factor in that financial blow. Where Venmo had expected dodgy transactions to represent 0.24 percent of its activity, the numbers shot up to 0.4 percent in March.
[...] If the scoop is accurate, though, it illustrates the challenges Venmo is facing. While the company might be synonymous with mobile payments for some, it's also expensive for PayPal. Venmo doesn't charge for most transactions and only recently started charging for instant transfers. If it's going to have a healthy long-term future, it might need to keep a very close eye on fraud and find more ways to generate cash.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Friday November 30 2018, @12:46PM
Ta.
So... like a million and one other services that are identical, then, but usually worldwide.