X.com, provider of the PayPal person-to-person payments service, is offering users a Buyer Protection Guarantee against online transaction fraud. Consumers who send online payments through X.com to recipients that have verified their account with the company will now have their transaction 100% guaranteed against fraud.
X.com currently has 2.9 million registered US accounts. Individuals use the service to send email payments to other account holders.
In order to receive the Buyer Protection Guarantee, users must send payment to a recipient who has verified his or her X.com account by providing the company with a legitimate bank account number. After X.com has confirmed the bank account information, the person's X.com account is verified and payments to that account are covered against fraud, including the failure to ship purchased goods. When sending a payment, users can confirm that a recipient is verified from member information provided on the Web page.
"The amount of online transaction fraud committed by individuals using our service is already well below the industry average for e-commerce sites," says Elon Musk, X.com founder and CEO. "And it is virtually nonexistent among our verified accounts. So to give buyers a better sense of security when making online transactions, we decided to remove any lingering sense of risk consumers may feel."
X.com is the #1 financial Web site and the 52nd most-visited Web property, according to PC Data Online. X.com users conduct over 100,000 transactions per day, with an annualised transaction volume of $1.6 billion. The company plans to expand its service internationally in the autumn.