Seller Protection Suggestion

[IOS]

I am getting a lot of unauthorized claims from several people. I have no protection because I am in the business of selling intangible goods. 

I ask my customers to send me an email with their associated PayPal email stating that they have sent me $xx.xx, and that they have received the goods they have paid for. They also claim that they are satisfied with the goods that they have purchased. 

Even when I show this as proof of delivery to PayPal, I do not win the unauthorized claim. 

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My suggestion is:

Everytime someone logs into their PayPal account, a code is sent to their phone. The PayPal user must inter this code into PayPal before being able to log in or send out payments. 

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If this can be implemented ASAP, this would make life so much easier for me. I've lost thousands of dollars because people abuse the system. Let's stop this now. Please bump this everyday so that PayPal can see this!

[IOS]

Has anyone seen this? 

[IOS]

Someone should respond to this. 

[PayPal_Frank]

Hi IOS,

Welcome to the community and thanks for the feedback. 🙂

While it's not mandatory, there is a feature available that does just what you describe.  It's called the PayPal Security Key.  I have tips post here with more information on the feature:  PayPal Security Key

I know being an intangible goods seller can be frustrating.  There's no way to be absolutely sure that you're being paid with authorized funds.  This is true for any intangible goods merchant using any electronic payment processor.

There are some things that do help for some intangible goods merchants to avoid the loss.  Unfortunately most of the techniques rely on delaying order fulfillment for a certain period of time. That allows time for the account holder to hopefully notice the charge and report it as unauthorized before the intangible good has been provided.  Most fraudsters are in a rush and it may not be worth it to them if they know there is a wait time.

Another option is to flag certain payments for review if they show certain characteristics that increase the probability of fraud.  Check out our Fraud Management Filters for more information on that feature.

I also recommend reading through our Risk Management and Fraud Prevention Guide for Digital Goods Merchants.

I know this information will not completely prevent all unauthorized payments for a merchant but hopefully it's helpful to reduce the frequency that these situations occur.

- Frank

[IOS]

Is it possible to find out if someone that sends you money has this security key feature? 

[PayPal_Frank]

Hi IOS,

Sorry, there's no way to know if someone paying you is using a Security Key but that's an interesting idea. Thanks for the suggestion. 🙂

- Frank