PayPal’s mobile glitch

PayPal, the consummate internet payments goliath, had a little hiccup today.

I was logging on as usual when the first screen asked if I would like to sign up for their mobile payment security service.  This is where a one-time password (OTP) is generated as a text message each time you make a payment, and you enter that to authorise the payment as an additional security layer.

I like this sort of thing, so immediately said yes and clicked into the mobile security key sign-up process.

As you can see, I'm on the mobile page here and logged in, which is why it says "log out" at the top of this page:

Trouble is, the SMS Security Alert screen pops up in a new window and I'm suddenly logged out.  As you can see below the screen is now asking me to log in:

 

As a result, when you try to activate the SMS Security Key, it cannot complete the process because there is no account to associate with this:

So being the helpful person that I am, or annoying l'il git if you prefer, I rang PayPal and told them of the glitch which they've now fixed.

It goes to show a couple of things where a consummate online service can sometimes get their electronic processes wrong, which is particularly unimpressive when it's a major rollout of a new service that is being heavily promoted ... but they then have helpful clients to sort out such glitches for them.

And at least they're trying to do sensible things for additional security, rather than the awful Xiring terminals the banks rolled out.

One more blow for payments freedom for PayPal.