Google Pay, the digital payment service from Google, faced a glitch that caused accidental payments of up to INR 88,000 to some of its users. The issue affected a small percentage of the app’s users in India, and Google has confirmed that it is working to resolve the issue.
Some Reddit users have reported unexpected credits to their Google Pay accounts, with some accounts receiving up to $1,072 (approximately Rs 88,000). The reason for the credit was that the users were “dogfooding” the Google Pay remittance experience, which refers to a company’s employees testing a new feature before making it public.
This suggests that Google mistakenly sent money to random users who were testing Google Pay features, rather than paying its employees who were actually testing them. Some users have been contacted by Google via email after the amount was credited. It is unclear how many users have received these accidental credits, and Google has informed affected users that they will attempt to reverse the payment. If they are unable to do so, however, the money will remain with the users.
Google Pay has issued a statement saying that the issue has been identified and resolved. The company has also assured users that their money is safe and that they will receive a refund for any accidental payment that was made.
The problem seems to have been caused by a technical glitch that resulted in payments being debited from users’ bank accounts twice. Some users reported seeing the double charge immediately, while others discovered it when they checked their bank statements. The payments were automatically reversed, but the double debit caused inconvenience and panic for some users.