Paypal acquires fraud detection company for nearly $1.7m

San Francisco (CA) - Paypal today announced it has agreed to acquire Fraud Sciences, an Israeli security company, for $169 million.

Paypal is by far the most widely used online payment service, and as such it is one of the biggest targets for phishing and other Internet scams. Fraud Sciences has developed technology that it claims helps in differentiating between legitimate transactions and those perpetrated by fraud.

Ebay, which acquired Paypal in 2002, said the acquisition is part of an overhaul to its anti-fraud system, which it said will be greatly improved this year.

The acquisition will be finalized within 30 days.