Paypal considering Verified by Visa
What happens when you introduce one of the most widely targeted brand names, i.e. Paypal, with yet another highly targeted brand name, i.e. Visa? Can anyone say Chernobyl?
Seems in an effort to combat fraud, Paypal is in the early stages of considering the use of Verified by Visa and MasterCard (NYSE MA) Secure Code to combat its continued friendly fraud issues. Seems that with all its money and reach, Paypal is at a loss with what to do when it comes to the problem of friendly fraud, an ever growing problem for online merchants.
As consumers become savvier with the ease of charging back legitimate transactions, merchants continue to be faced with the need for a viable solution. While I have my doubts that Paypal will ultimately reach out to Visa for help on this one, it’s an interesting thing to see that even Paypal is having problems tackling fraud.
While Paypal has some of the lowest fraud rates in the eCommerce world, hovering between 20 and 30 basis points (0.20% and 0.30%), that’s a lot when you consider that by 2010, Paypal could be processing upwards of $100 Billions dollars or more a year in transactions.

Comment by Steve on 13 February 2008:
I am a big fan of Verified by Visa and if paypal does ineed consider additing it, it will make paypal more secure and more loved and used payment processor and it will make Paypal the unbeatable king in this category!! Keep it up Paypal!
Comment by George Ehrhorn on 14 February 2008:
I prefer the mastercard’s way of double security for the online transactions rather than verified visa, which I personally feel has some loopholes which can be easily tapped by hackers. Paypal should try Mastercard instead.
Comment by Larry Johnston on 15 February 2008:
This is really a great move by Paypal considering the number of online frauds and phishing attacks that we have been hearing about paypal almost every day at different forums and blogs. This is one of the best move by Paypal in the recent past. I hope others too follow suite paypal soon.
Comment by Jim Chou on 16 February 2008:
What?? I can hardly remember any of my current passwords, and I don’t like to store them electronically, because who the heck knows who can see my info? Now Paypal wants me to remember another password for Verified By Visa oir Mastercard Securecode and then have it ready for every transaction? Hell to the no.
This is a terrible idea, paypal.
Comment by DayDreamer on 24 February 2008:
Recently i got scammed in paypal. I think phishers & other scammers will hate this system and other users should love it. Visa is a good name. Also Mastercard but somehow i prefer visa!
Comment by ManilaGurL on 24 February 2008:
I do think it is worth considering since my Paypal account was just got verified by using a Visa credit card and to think this will prevent fraud. I don’t see any reason why they should not add Visa as an option, anyway.
Comment by swap on 24 February 2008:
According to me any move that make our transactions more secure must be welcomed. I myself was very afraid of doing online transactions when I began. Moves like this will not only lower the Fraud rates it will also attract more people to the world of eCommerce.
Comment by Jamie on 24 February 2008:
I think this is great for paypal users as this is a positive outcome to handle online scammers. However in my part of country VISA is not a common CC. Hope Mastercard will also take the same step as Paypal is currently used all over the world.Its better to be safe than to be sorry!!
Comment by Rootkit on 25 February 2008:
Its a good idea. There will be less cases of hacked accounts and thefts . It will make paypal more secure and attract more customers also once the word spreads out that paypal has a foolproof security system :)
Comment by zhar on 29 February 2008:
The reason paypal is still surviving and the leader in the payment processing system is because their anti-fraud systems are pretty good then others. There is some problem with users charge backing after a legitimate purchase but there has been more good done by chargeback than bad.