Many Google Pay users were in for a surprise earlier this week when they found that their accounts had been credited with free money, thanks to a bug that accidentally deposited cash into their accounts. The payments ranged from $10 to over $1,000 and were part of Google's "reward" program, which gives users a few bucks back for various promotions.
According to Android researcher Mishaal Rahman, who received $46 in rewards, the payments were made to users for "dogfooding the Google Pay Remittance experience." Dogfooding is a process where employees beta test pre-release software given to them by their company, and in return, the company gives them money for participating in the test. As such, this money should have only gone to Google employees, and the fact that regular users received multiple copies of this message with multiple payouts suggests that there may have been a bug in the app or some kind of mix-up that resulted in the unexpected payments.
While Google has since sent an email to affected users detailing "an error that deposited unintended cash credit to your account," it appears that if you spent or transferred the money before Google could reverse the credit, then you get to keep the money. Google is not going to charge your account to get its money back.
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| Figure 1: Google has issued a statement that has resolved an error |
This news has caused a stir among Google Pay users, and many have taken to Reddit to share their experiences. As of now, it is unclear how many users were affected by the bug and how much money was accidentally deposited. Nevertheless, this incident shows how important it is for companies to thoroughly test their software before releasing it to the public to prevent such mishaps from occurring in the future.
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