Block, Inc. just wrote a $45 million check to make 46 states stop asking uncomfortable questions about Cash App. The Jack Dorsey-led fintech company reached a multistate settlement on July 8 to resolve allegations that it misled users about the safety of its wildly popular peer-to-peer payment platform while simultaneously failing to deliver on even basic fraud protections.
What Block actually got dinged for
According to the multistate investigation, Cash App’s rapid onboarding process required minimal identity verification, which is great for user acquisition metrics and terrible for preventing fraud.
The platform allegedly marketed itself as offering protections comparable to traditional banking, but the actual security infrastructure told a different story.
For years, Cash App reportedly offered no phone support at all. If you got scammed, your primary recourse was essentially yelling into the void of an in-app help menu. The attorneys general argued this amounted to failing to provide legally required fraud resolution services, a fairly damning accusation for a company processing billions in transactions.
