PayPal's popular app for sending money, Venmo, is facing a federal investigation

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Venmo/Tech Insider

The Federal Trade Commission is looking into whether Venmo, PayPal's popular peer-to-peer payment service, engages in "deceptive or unfair practices."

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PayPal disclosed the investigation in its quarterly earnings report on Thursday, which just so happened to be the company's "best quarter ever," according to PayPal CEO Dan Schulman.

PayPal bought Venmo in 2009, the same year the service launched.

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Venmo handles hundreds of millions of dollars each year by letting people transfer money to each other quickly and easily through a simple and intuitive smartphone app. My girlfriend and I actually use Venmo all the time to pay each other back for things like groceries, bills, rent, and trips.

PayPal hasn't disclosed which aspects of Venmo the FTC is investigating, but the company says it is fully cooperative with the investigation.

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Tech Insider reached out to PayPal for more information. The company provided the following statement:

As a global payments provider, we are completely aligned with regulators in their efforts to ensure that consumers have positive experiences when using our services. We consult and collaborate with regulators and work hard to comply with laws and regulations in the markets where we do business, around the world. We are cooperating fully with the Federal Trade Commission to address their requests for information.

PayPal's popular app for sending money, Venmo, is facing a federal investigation EXCLUSIVE FREE REPORT:
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