PayPal announced new restrictions on a feature in its payment system that allowed people to receive money without paying additional fees .

As of July 28, only personal PayPal accounts can receive funds via Friends and Family, a transaction method intended for trusted recipients.

There are two ways to send money via PayPal: friends and family, and merchandise and services.

The idea is about the way friends and family let the sender know who is receiving the money and what they are getting in return for payment.

There are usually no fees, but they lack protection from issues that may arise, such as refunds or scams.

While the goods and services method is for purchases, funds sent in this way are subject to company fees.

In the event that the thing you buy does not meet the specifications, was damaged upon its arrival, or did not reach the buyer, you can, through the method of goods and services, recover the money of the purchase easily.

Many businesses handle transactions using a PayPal business account. You receive payments for goods and services through the friends and family method, although technically you are not supposed to.

The buyer may not realize the difference between the two methods, or the company and the customer can agree to send money in this way to avoid seller fees.

This is fairly common in many informal transactions, such as people selling things via social media platforms.

And the buyer may know the seller personally and trust him to deliver the goods. Sellers also sometimes insist on the friends and family way of avoiding transaction fees, which causes problems if something goes wrong.

PayPal simplifies the fee structure for goods and services

The change stops this method for sellers who use a PayPal account to run a business. They are now subject to additional transaction fees.

With this new change, US corporate accounts will no longer be able to accept personal payments without a fee.

People who use a PayPal account to manage a company account also need to create a personal account to receive money without fees from friends and family.

The company appears to have changed the rules to clamp down on misclassified purchases. In the announcement, it said the amendment would bring consistency across the platform and remove confusion about eligible payments for buyer and seller protection.

In the same announcement, the company also said that the transaction fee structure for goods and services may change beginning later this month.

US sellers currently pay 2.89% plus $0.49 per transaction. But starting July 28, that changes to 2.99% with no additional flat fee.

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The company laid off dozens of employees who worked in Chicago, Omaha, Nebraska and Chandler, Arizona. PayPal also this month announced plans to permanently lay off more than 80 people at its San Jose, California, headquarters.

“Paypal is constantly assessing how it operates to ensure that it is prepared to meet the needs of its customers and operate with the best structure and processes to support its strategic business priorities as it continues to grow and evolve,” the company said in a statement.

Spending across its platforms rose just 15% in the first quarter to $323 billion, the smallest increase in five years.

Supply chain disruptions have hampered e-commerce purchases. More consumers have also returned to in-store shopping as the epidemic subsides. In addition, eBay, the company’s previous parent company, has moved payments away from the PayPal platform.

The company’s headcount has surged in recent years to 30,900 at the end of last year, up 33% from pre-pandemic levels.

The company said last month that it was improving the ability to raise revenue faster than expenses.

The company began streamlining its operating model before the pandemic. But the surge in volumes across its platform in the early days of the outbreak forced it to put off that work.

Spending declines via PayPal platforms as the epidemic recedes

The company warned in a regulatory filing that it incurred $20 million in costs associated with the restructuring in the first three months of the year after it began the strategic reduction of its existing global workforce. She explained that most of the costs are related to termination and other employee benefits.

The company now expects to incur an additional $100 million in restructuring fees this year. But the job cuts help the company save about $260 million annually in employee-related costs.

“We continue to review our facility’s needs due to our new business models,” the company said. The strategic actions and cash payments associated with this plan are expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022.

It is noteworthy that PayPal is not the only one, as many technology companies have reduced the number of employees or stopped hiring due to the economic slowdown.

Microsoft, Meta and Nvidia are limiting hiring due to lower stock prices and slowing sales and revenue growth. Uber and Lyft are also reducing hiring as part of cost-cutting measures.

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The expert disclosed the problem to PayPal’s bug bounty program seven months ago, demonstrating that an attacker may utilize Clickjacking to steal money from victims.

The vulnerability was detected on the endpoint “www.paypal[.]com/agreements/approve,” which was built for Billing Agreement.

The endpoint should only receive billingAgreementToken, according to the expert, however this is not the case.

The victim should click all over the page to send money to the attacker’s PayPal account.

The flaw may also be used to sign up for services that accept PayPal payments.

“There are online services, such as steam!, that allow you to add balance to your account using Paypal. I can compel the user to add money to my account using the same vulnerability!” according to the researchers’ blog post. “Or I can take advantage of this flaw and have the victim create/pay for my Netflix account!”

The experts provided a proof-of-concept exploit for this flaw, which has yet to be patched, according to the experts.

Until now(writing this article), PayPal did not announce any thing!

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According to the complaint made public Monday by the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, the charges stem from Zagala’s use and sale of ransomware, as well as its extensive support and profit-sharing agreements with cybercriminals who used its ransomware programs.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, Deputy Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the charges as follows : “This multifaceted doctor allegedly treated patients, created and named his cyber tool after death, profited from a global ransomware ecosystem where he sold the tools to carry out ransomware attacks, trained attackers on how to extort money from victims, and then boasted of successful attacks, including by malicious actors associated with the government of Iran. The fight against ransomware is one of the main priorities of the Branch of Justice and this Office of the Attorney General. Provided you benefit from ransomware, we will find you and disrupt your malicious operations.”

The document adds: “We accuse Zagala of not only having created and sold ransomware products to hackers, but also of having trained them in their use. Our actions today will prevent Zagala from finding victims. However, numerous other malicious criminals are looking for companies and organizations that haven’t taken steps to protect their systems, which is an incredibly vital step in stopping the next ransomware attack.”

According to the criminal complaint, Zagala, a 55-year-old cardiologist residing in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, has designed multiple ransomware tools. Zagala sold or rented his software to hackers who used it to attack computer networks.

One of Zagala’s first products, a ransomware tool called “Jigsaw v. 2”, had, according to Zagala’s own description, a “Doomsday” counter that kept track of how many times the user had tried to eradicate the ransomware. Zagala wrote: “If the user tries to kill the ransomware too many times, then it is clear that he is not going to pay, so better erase the entire tough drive.”

Starting in late 2019, Zagala began advertising a new tool online: a “Private Ransomware Builder” that he called “Thanos.” The name of the software appears to be a reference to a fictional cartoon villain named Thanos, who was responsible for the destruction of half of life in the universe, as well as a reference to the figure “Thanatos” from Greek mythology, who associate with death. Thanos software allowed its users to create their own unique ransomware, which they could then use or rent for use by other cybercriminals.

Instead of just selling Thanos software, Zagala allowed individuals to pay for it in two ways. First, a crook could buy a “license” to use the software for a sure period of time. The Thanos software was designed to periodically contact a server in Charlotte, North Carolina that Zagala controlled in order to confirm that the user had an active license. Alternatively, a Thanos client could join what Zagala called an “affiliate program,” providing the user with access to the Thanos builder in exchange for a share of the profits from the ransomware attacks. Zagala received payment in both fiat currency and cryptocurrencies, including Monero and Bitcoin.

Zagala advertised Thanos software on various online forums frequented by cybercriminals, using usernames that referenced Greek mythology. His two favorite nicknames were “Aesculapius”, referring to the ancient Greek god of medicine, and “Nosophoros”, which means “diseases carrier” in Greek. In public announcements for the program, Zagala boasted that the Thanos-created ransomware was almost undetectable by antivirus programs, and that “once encrypted,” the ransomware “erased itself,” making detection and recovery much easier. were “almost impossible” for the victim.

In private chats with clients, Zagala explained how to deploy his ransomware products: how to craft a ransom note, steal passwords from victims’ computers, and set up a Bitcoin address for ransom payment. As Zagala explained to a client, speaking of Jigsaw: “Victim 1 pays at the indicated btc [Bitcoin] address and decrypts their files.” Zagala also famous that “there is a penalty…[i]f the user reboots. For each reboot it will punish you with 1000 deleted files. After Zagala explained all the features of the software, the customer replied “Sir, I really need to say this… You are the best developer ever.” Zagala responded: «Thank you, it’s a pleasure to hear it[.] I feel very flattered and proud». Zagala had only one request: “If you have time and it’s not too much trouble, please describe your experience with me” in an online review.

On or about May 1, 2020, an FBI Confidential Human Source (CHS-1) spoke of joining Zagala’s “affiliate program.” Zagala replied: “Not for now. I don’t have seats.” But Zagala offered to license the software to CHS-1 for $500 a month with “basic options,” or $800 with “full options.”

On or around October 7, 2020, CHS-1 asked Zagala how to establish an affiliate program of his own using Thanos. Zagala responded with a short tutorial on how to set up a ransomware team. He explained that CHS-1 was to find people “well versed… in LAN hacking” and supply them with a version of the Thanos ransomware that was scheduled to expire after a set period of time. Zagala said that he personally had “a maximum of between 10 and 20” affiliates at any given time, and “sometimes only 5.” He added that hackers approached him for his software after gaining access to a victim’s network: “They come with LAN access, I check and then agree. They block several large networks and we hope… If you block networks without tape or cloud (backups), nearly everyone pays.”

Zagala further explained that sometimes a victim network turned out to have an unforeseen backup: “so there is no point in blocking because they have backups, so in that case we only exfiltrate data”, referring to the theft of victim information. . Zagala further added that he had a partner who “knows how to corrupt the tapes,” that is, the backups, and how to “turn off antivirus.” Lastly, Zagala offered to give CHS-1 an extra two weeks for free after CHS-1’s one-month license expired, explaining “because one month is very little for this business…sometimes you have to work hard to receive it.” good benefits.”

Zagala even publicly bragged about his knowledge and that his clients used his software to commit ransomware attacks. He even posted a link to a news story about an Iranian state-sponsored hacker group using Thanos to attack Israeli businesses.

In or around November 2021, Zagala began using a third username: “Nebuchadnezzar.” In chats with a moment confidential FBI source (CHS-2), Zagala stated that he had changed aliases to preserve “OPSEC…operational security” because “malware analysts are on top of me.”

In early May this year, law enforcement officers conducted a voluntary interview with a relative of Zagala’s who resides in Florida and whose PayPal account was used by Zagala to receive ill-gotten gains. This person confirmed that Zagala resided in Venezuela and had taught himself computer programming. The individual also showed agents contact information for Zagala on his phone that matched the email on dossier for the malicious infrastructure associated with the Thanos malware.

Provided convicted, the defendant faces up to five years in prison for attempted computer intrusion and five years in prison for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

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Bloggers can now sell products through WordPress blogs and receive payments through PayPal. Automatic company announced a new payment button that can be placed in the posts to accept payment via PayPal with a very simple process.

Unfortunately, for starters, the service is available for paid blogs hosted on WordPress, whether through the Premium or Commerce package, and there will be fees charged by PayPal as usual.

When the PayPal payment button is included in the post, it will be asked to enter more details about the product to be sold such as its name, description and even the inclusion of a picture and PayPal address to which the payments are being transferred.

And when anyone buys a WordPress blog product, they will be presented with a PayPal payment window in a pop-up to log in with their PayPal account and pay with it.

It is noticeable that Automatic has recently started offering more features exclusively on its hosted paid blogs, to justify its relatively high fees, ranging between 8.24 to 24.92 dollars per month, depending on the package, and the ultimate of these advantages is the ability to upload custom templates and outside plugins.

It doesn’t seem that Automatic wants to compete with popular shopping platforms like Shopify and Etsy right now, especially since WordPress is more a blogging platform rather than a shopping platform, and the number of users who can take advantage of the feature is relatively small.

Source

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