Google Pay users discovered a cash deposit of approximately $1,000 (N750,000) in their app accounts on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, for no apparent reason.
The confusion began when Google Pay users took to social media to announce the cash deposits, curious as to why they had received such large sums of money.
One person wrote:
“Uhhh, Google Pay seems just to be randomly giving users free money right now,” tweeted tech journalist Mishaal Rahman, attaching a screenshot of the errant couple buckets he received.
Confused Redditt users, a thread also joined in the celebration, comparing each received amount and wondering how to cash out on free products or goods.
A Redditt user said:
“I just got almost $100 in six different cashback rewards for ‘dogfooding the Google pay remittance experience,”” wrote one user. “What does this mean?”
Findings showed that Googe Pay messed up its reward programme, reports say.
According to them, it is like a reward programme where users earn a discount for using the service regularly.
The cash reward was meant for employees who used their product for a while to test it before releasing it to users.
Google explains
However, according to an email from Google, the company sent out the reward to random users a few days after the error was detected.
Google said:
“You received this email because an unintended cash credit was deposited to your Google Pay account. The issue has since been resolved, and where possible, the credit has been reversed.”
Users, who still had the money in their accounts, reported that it was reversed, while others who cashed out reportedly ‘earned’ it.