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Facebook Introduces Payment System
An anonymous reader writes: Today Facebook announced a new feature for its Messenger services: the ability to send money to friends. The payment system will work by connecting debit cards from Visa or Mastercard — no credit cards, and no bank accounts. The company claims they aren't trying to make money on it, since it'd be such a small business compared to their ad revenue. "Once the $ button is tapped, users simply enter the dollar amount and hit Pay. The money is instantly taken from their debit account and delivered to the recipient's debit account. Facebook never holds the money, though the receiver's bank will usually take a few days to make the funds available as is standard. Both users see a confirmation message detailing the transfer status and time." Facebook says transaction information is encrypted, and users will protect their cards with a dedicated passcode (or fingerprint identification).
Considering how often I see people get hacked, what happens when random hacker breaks in and send multiple payments to his launderer? How exactly does this get refunded?
Also 2 day delay will instantly kill this feature.
I dont know if this is available in the USA.
However here in Canada, from any bank I can do an Interact e-mail transfer.
Recipient receives the e-mail in 20-30 mins, followings instructions and cash is transferred bank to bank instantly.
Cost is $1.50. which is less than ATMs charge to withdraw your cash.
I pay my rent this way (as there is an electronic log), and transfer money to the ex for child related things, again because of electronic log.
Except, you'll be playing with your real bank account data and funds. I can't wait to share this with my friends on Facebook!!!
And, what a terrible standard!
Even a decentralized FOSS project like Bitcoin does a better job of transferring value.
... right after I use it to deal pot at my local high school.
Great, another ACH debit mechanism, which means that when a fraudster empties a bank account, it stays emptied because there is nowhere the protection present that a credit card has in place.
I would place this on the heap of "run, don't walk away from", also-ran payment standards like CurrenC... avoid at all costs.
Now, if they had used the Visa/MC credit mechanism, things would be different. Fraud wouldn't completely destroy an end user's bank account.
Greetings, friends. Do you wish to look as happy as me? Well, you've got the power inside you right now. So, use it, and send one dollar to Happy Dude, Don't delay, eternal happiness is just a dollar away.
There an old SNL ad spoof called "Bad Idea Jeans" that comes to mind.
Facebook already knows everything about you. Now you want them to know who you're sending money to also?
I literally did a face palm.
Proverbs 21:19
This looks to me just like Square Cash.
As with so many services, if you're not paying - there's a strong possibility that you're the product.
In this case the product is user data, users are paying with their privacy and the data gained from their likes (targeted advertising etc).
Facebook has way too many fake contests, chain posting asking you to share with everyone, etc.
This will quickly enable all sorts of scams.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Are there still countries where this is legal ?
We got rid of this shit 20 years ago.
THIS will tell Facebook who among your friends you are willing to send money to.
Let that sink in for a bit.
And giving money to someone is a pretty good sign that they are a real friend and not some fake facebook 'friend'.
Think about the value of THAT data to advertisers and also to Homeland security.
THOSE relationships will be sold off at a very high premium.
...I'm constantly getting messages from Facebook friends about how they are stuck overseas and their passport and credit cards have been stolen, and they need me to wire them money. This will make that process so much more convenient.
(Hm? Those are people trying to scam me, you say?)
How is this any different to a direct money transfer. Timing seem the same, only benefit is you don't have to give bank account details to each other (which is a minor inconvenience at best), and seems like could be hit with a lot of scams...
Interac E-transfers, USA really needs to learn from Canada's banking systems we're at least several years ahead of you in all facets (chip cards, online personal fund transfers, not collapsing our economy etc)
Yes in the *snicker* "#1 country in world" *snicker*. It's also called Dumbfuckistan or more simply the "USA".
So, we all know there are dumb people out there that wont turn on the security features, and when their phone gets stolen, their bank account gets emptied to a facebook account that no longer exists!
For that matter, it was in pre-messenger "Chat" for Facebook that many of us were hit by those "Hey, I'm stuck in London and my wallet was stolen, can you send me some cash?" scams from hacked accounts.
Making it easy to say yes to that kind of crap is just ridiculous.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
"Friends" on my Facebook are the least likely group of people I will send money to.
The subject line says it all!
"Self", I said, "you haven't been feeling fully integrated into today's online society. What could you do to make sure that a major corporation with a history of disdain for its users and their privacy could come to have possession of your financial data? Banks are so old fashioned. Your checking account should be social!"
Today is a happy day indeed.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Would someone mind telling me what "The complain claims they..." is meant to mean? I can't work it out.
Nah, still don't want it.
The handwriting is on the wall.
Facebook is not your friend, it will suck your private data and resell that data
to any entity which is willing to pay.
And now they are entering the payment arena ? Excuse me, I need to make some
popcorn, this is going to be good.
http://www.coindesk.com/change...
https://www.changetip.com/how-...
Protip aims at competing with changetip as well:
https://www.indiegogo.com/proj...
So far, everyone seems to be missing one possible motive for Facebook to be doing this.
Now, "Sloppysock McBuckstick" has a verified debit card that says, "George McFly", associated with the account. Shortly after, Mr. McFly gets an email advising that their account is locked out for using a false name.
[End Of Line]
So the next step for this is to shop with facebook where you can "send" money to a company and in return they send or give you blah?
See that nice ad? Now you can click on it and in an instant it is ordered and arrives at your door the next/same day.
And you think people got bullied now? Wait 'til they start shaking people down for cash.
I already have a system. It works like this: "I'm out of cash, will you pick up this tab?". "Yeah, no problem. I owe you for pizza last night anyway". A long time ago, we were BSing over some beers and jokingly floated the notion of "pizza currency"--an entire economy backed by pizza as a highly perishable store of wealth, thus requiring some unique accommodations. In reality though, "pizza currency" transactions are small dollar figures that tend to cancel out in the long run among true friends. Everybody knows who the mooch is, and unless they have some legitimate reason for being that poor, they're not your friend.
So. It might be cute to have a hi-tech "friend money ledger" that keeps track of who is in debt, etc.; No actual banking is necessary for that. It could have been done with some Perl script in a few hours, and probably already has been done at some point; but it might do more harm than good to some friendships.
Aside from that, there's the obvious problem of giving real ACH power to FB; but others have covered that angle nicely.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Sadly here in canada the few major banks have the "3-5 business days" dick in the average persons ear too.
One of the few cases where we cant be smug.
Only for cheques. Interac eTransfers and payments are instantaneous.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
David Marcus left PayPal last year to go work with Facebook in the mobile messaging division of Facebook. Honestly looking at the screen shots it almost looks like the PayPal app.
David Marcus letting the cat out of the bag
Grab some popcorn and cross your fingers. Would be nothing more enjoyable in seeing Facebook vs. PayPal in a drag out legal fight including similarities in look and feel of the app, patents, and most specifically non-compete agreement that Marcus should be bound too.
-- Knowing too much can get you killed, but knowing who knows too much can make you rich.
You forgot to log in, so I can't send you any money via slashpay.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Are Canadians forced to use those banks??????????
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Who the f*** is we, *Anonymous Coward*
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Unless the hacker also has the hackee's card & pin, they're not getting anything... If this stops people having to do wire transfers to some anonymous individual, then surely that's far better.
Heh. My apologies. Just figured out my mistake. Fair enough - you have a point. But, in my defence, it's a lot harder to hack a Facebook account now than it was in the era of Chat, even if it's still not as difficult as we would like.
What, no Bitcoin!? Lame..
FB is now a pseudo-PayPal?
There are all sorts of reasons this would be a horrible idea, not just privacy.
I am well aware of the software and hardware that banking systems run on. I'm well aware of how quickly a transaction can be completed, without the ugly mess of human intervention.
Why do I have to wait 5 days in 2015 for my payment or transfer to go through? That's right, its the HUMAN element.
Will this ever be fixed? I'm getting sick and tired of waiting around a week for transactions to go through.