PayPal, FBI Join Forces to Boost Online Security
Leading Online Payments Service to Participate in FBI Conference Highlighting Bureau's Internet Fraud Complaint Center
Palo Alto, CA - Tuesday, May 22, 2001 - As part of its continued efforts to improve online security and increase consumer trust in e-commerce, leading online payments provider PayPal (www.PayPal.com) will take part in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) press conference tomorrow to highlight the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center. Peter Thiel, Chairman and CEO of PayPal, will discuss how the company works with the FBI to discover and prosecute criminal activity and ensure secure transactions for its nearly 8 million users.
"Safe and secure online transactions are a critical feature of our service,'' said Thiel, PayPal's CEO. ``As the leading online payments provider, our users choose PayPal over other payment alternatives because we combine security with convenience. We applaud the FBI for taking crucial steps to improve the security of e-commerce and online payments."
Because PayPal was created with security in mind, the company has its own internal security force to lead baseline surveillance and swiftly detect fraud while working in tandem with organizations such as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. PayPal has contributed to law enforcement in a number of recent cases, including the discovery and reporting to local law enforcement of the fraudulent online sale of dozens of non-existent Sony PlayStation 2 gaming consoles during the last holiday shopping season. This information led to the arrest of the perpetrator and restitution to his victims.
Most notably, PayPal played a crucial role in assisting in the recent capture, indictment and upcoming prosecution of two Russian nationals accused of hundreds of Internet crimes against dozens of companies and innumerable consumers.
"Because of the safeguards we have in place, our secure transactions rate is consistently higher than the norm for Internet commerce," said Thiel. "With the FBI, we're working aggressively to make e-commerce as safe, secure and convenient as technologically possible. After all, consumer trust is the most important requirement for e-commerce."
For more information about PayPal's security including tips for PayPal users, please visit: http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/security-main-outside.
About PayPal
PayPal is the instant and secure online payment service that allows people and businesses to send and receive money by e-mail from bank accounts or credit cards. With nearly 8 million members and growing, PayPal is the world's first and largest Internet-based payment service, and the #1 financial site on the Internet*. PayPal is the preferred payment service for online auctions, online community and group Websites, and is seeing tremendous growth in e-commerce transactions for small businesses. PayPal members send approximately $8 million in more than 160,000 payments each day. Free to consumers, PayPal can be used from PCs or web-enabled mobile phones. Business users pay transaction fees to receive payments through PayPal.
PayPal is a privately held company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and was recently named one of the Top 25 New Companies by Fortune Small Business. The PayPal Website has been cited as among the ``Best of the Web'' by Forbes, Time, PC Magazine and U.S. News & World Report. For more information, please visit http://www.paypal.com.
(* according to research by PC Data Online.)