I wouldn't be surprised if they were working with Palantir (ex-paypaler company) and using their fraud detection software, since PayPal has already been through this whole ordeal, its probably a much more solvable problem now than before, at least someone has figured it out.
The interesting thing here is that PayPal made all their margins by encouraging people to use bank accounts rather than credit cards because they made almost no profit on credit card transactions. I'm interested in how this revenue model will work out, it seems like merchant services providers have arrived at their current model of business (arduous checks before granting accounts) out of necessity. Since Square is basically in the merchant accounts business (that's where their margin is) it will be interesting to see if they actually know something that merchant service providers do not about granting accounts to anyone who wants them without more verification.
I've always wondered why merchant service providers didn't instantly verify accounts and allow people to start charging immediately, but hold the captured funds while the account was verified with all the proper checks. Maybe that is what Square is doing.
The interesting thing here is that PayPal made all their margins by encouraging people to use bank accounts rather than credit cards because they made almost no profit on credit card transactions. I'm interested in how this revenue model will work out, it seems like merchant services providers have arrived at their current model of business (arduous checks before granting accounts) out of necessity. Since Square is basically in the merchant accounts business (that's where their margin is) it will be interesting to see if they actually know something that merchant service providers do not about granting accounts to anyone who wants them without more verification.
I've always wondered why merchant service providers didn't instantly verify accounts and allow people to start charging immediately, but hold the captured funds while the account was verified with all the proper checks. Maybe that is what Square is doing.