Some Google Pay users gave small bribes to verify transaction data

Google takes an old-fashioned approach to solving potential accuracy issues with Google Pay: It’s pouring money into solving the problem. But not much: 25 cents a pop.

The problem here seems to be that Google’s NFC payments app sometimes It ignores the data that comes from the click-to-pay transaction(Opens in a new window) Instead, the purchase is tagged with the name of a nearby merchant. I’ve seen this myself. In March, it identified an NFC transaction with a vendor at a farmers’ market in Arlington, Virginia as a purchase price Movie theater maybe 100 feet(Opens in a new window).

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Sometime this summer, Google Pay started offering some users, myself included, a reward of 25 cents for checking their records right away.

“Confirm the correct business name and address for the transaction below,” this invitation was read when it appeared on my phone last week. “You will earn a reward.”

Below, the merchant’s name as recorded by Google Pay, a map of their location, and the purchase total appear, followed by a “Yes, the information is correct” and “No, the information is incorrect” dialog.

In this case — buying a ticket at the train station in Copenhagen, where I spoke at a conference last week — Google Pay was right. I earned 25 cents, which in addition to two previous bounties I claimed (Google Pay was accurate both times) brought me up to 75 cents in fact-checking income.

(credit: Rob Bigoraro)

I seem to have almost no company in this effort. No one mentioned it in the 4,800-member r/googlepay subreddit yet, to judge from the “bonus” query results.(Opens in a new window)

In an email, Google spokeswoman Chetty Sen described this as “a very limited test we’re running to verify merchants and ensure they are accurately tagged.” It did not explain how Google selected users or what led to this fact-checking query.

This isn’t the only time Google has resorted to paying people to interact with the latest version of its app, which has seen several rebrandings over the past decade and then has seen Google tear up and replace one version of the app that was associated with a user. Google account with another account based on the user’s phone number for authentication(Opens in a new window). Since restarting this beleaguered franchise, Google has offered a variety of cashback deals for tasks like referring friends to the app and making payments to new merchants.

But Samsung, the most popular maker of Android smartphones, already offers its own Tap-to-pay app and has recently added new features like digital key support for SmartThings home locks and even some BMW, Hyundai and Genesis cars.

Meanwhile, there is no such confusion on iPhones, as Apple Pay has remained on Apple Pay since its launch in 2014 and has long become synonymous with more speedy(Opens in a new window) About “NFC Mobile Payments”.