DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance.

The companies involved include: Google, Facebook, LinkedIn AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, PayPal (eBay), Bank of America, Fidelity Investments, American Greetings, Agari, Cloudmark, eCert, Return Path and Trusted Domain Project.

In a post on Google’s Online Security Blog, product manager Adam Dawes writes:

Industry groups come and go, and it’s not always easy to tell at the beginning which ones are actually going to generate good solutions. When the right contributors come together to solve real problems, though, real things happen. That’s why we’re particularly optimistic abouttoday’s announcement of DMARC.org, a passionate collection of companies focused on significantly cutting down on email phishing and other malicious mail.

We’ve been active in the leadership of the DMARC group for almost two years, and now that Gmail and several other large mail senders and providers — namely Facebook, LinkedIn, and PayPal — are actively using the DMARC specification, the road is paved for more members of the email ecosystem to start getting a handle on phishing. Our recent data indicates that roughly 15% of non-spam messages in Gmail are already coming from domains protected by DMARC, which means Gmail users like you don’t need to worry about spoofed messages from these senders. The phishing potential plummets when the system just works, and that’s what DMARC provides.

“Email phishing defrauds millions of people and companies every year, resulting in a loss of consumer confidence in email and the Internet as a whole,” said Brett McDowell, Chair of DMARC.org and Senior Manager of Customer Security Initiatives at PayPal. “Industry cooperation – combined with technology and consumer education – is crucial to fight phishing.”

“BITS has been committed to defining and improving email authentication standards and practices to meet the financial services industry’s needs. DMARC’s evolutionary approach is critical in assuring these needs are met for years to come,” said Paul Smocer, President of BITS, the technology policy division of The Financial Services Roundtable.

DMARC is encouraging interested organizations to read the specification, join their mailing list and start testing and deploying standards, by learning the details at DMARC.org.

As Zach Walton reported yesterday, Paypal also projects that its payment volume will be $7 billion in 2012.

Both eBay and Paypal are riding an ever-climbing wave of sales made on mobile devices – smartphones, tablets, etc. Ebay’s sales volume for mobile sales doubled last year to $5 billion from the nearly $2 billion bar set in 2010. Paypal’s volume was up from $4 billion in 2010 to that $7 billion mark in 2011.

Smartphones and tablets allow consumers to find and purchase items without having to be at a home computer or even laptop. Ebay boasts multiple apps for iPhone that include features that aid in last-minute bidding, research of sales trends, even barcode scanning to help fill in item descriptions. For buyers, the app gives you alerts, price comparison capability with barcode scanning, and, of course, pay in the app.

We reported last week that Walmart is spending tons of money to acquire and develop mobile purchasing position in their market.

eBay was involved in two industry panels during CES that discussed the future of digital and mobile payment industries. The company was able to announce record mobile payment volume.

The Ebay Ink Blog was kind of enough to recap the panels that Ebay was involved with. The first panel was PayPal at “Mobile Payment Basics: How the Technology Works.” The title sounds like a boring introductory course, but it turned into a discussion on the pros and cons of the “wallet in the cloud” versus NFC solutions for mobile payments.

“We see the wallet in the cloud as the best way to bridge the gap between the online and offline world,” said David Marcus, VP/GM of Mobile for PayPal.

Andrew Paradise, CEO of Aislebuyer, agreed saying, “If I lose my iPhone, I don’t want to have to cancel all my credit cards. It would be no different than losing my wallet.”

Bill Gadja, Head of Mobile for Visa, was more in favor for NFC solutions, but said that “whatever technology we end up using, it’s all going to come down to the widespread education and adoption by the individual merchants.”

All at the panel agreed that 2012 may very well be the year of the digital wallet. Paypal used this to announce that their mobile payment volume had reached $4 billion, a huge increase from the original prediction of $1.5 billion.

The second panel, aptly named “Planet of the Apps,” included the eBay company proper with Steve Yankovich, VP of Ebay Mobile, speaking on the panel.

The panelists discussed trends in mobile apps in 2011, but Yankovich stressed the importance of QR codes in 2011. He predicts that the next big trend will be apps that utilize the camera on mobile devices.

Chris Hercik, Creative Director at Sports Illustrated, said that organizations need to adapt and react to shifts in consumer behavior. He presented the example of readers using the Sports Illustrated mobile app are asking for interactive ads instead of having to reject or be put off by them.

Yankovich went on to equate eBay to plumbing in that they only exist to connect the buyer to the seller.

eBay, like PayPal, did well in mobile in 2011 as well. The company’s global mobile gross merchandise volume reached $5 billion in 2011.

While preparing that story, I sent a request for comment to PayPal. They got back to me with the following statement:

While we cannot talk about this particular case due to PayPal’s privacy policy, we carefully review each case, and in general we may ask a buyer to destroy counterfeit goods if they supply signed evidence from a knowledgeable third party that the goods are indeed counterfeit. The reason why we reserve the option to ask the buyer to destroy the goods is that in many countries, including the US, it is a criminal offense to mail counterfeit goods back to a seller.

Unfortunately, this isn’t really that much of an answer. They decline to discuss the specifics of the case, but state that signed evidence from a knowledgeable third party is required before they ask the buyer to destroy an item. According to the seller, however, the violin had already been examined before being sent, and its authenticity was confirmed. It remains unclear whether PayPal really did require the buyer to present proof from a third party before ordering the violin’s destruction. I asked PayPal’s representative in a follow-up email whether the buyer had provided the necessary evidence. I also asked what, if any, recourse the seller might have, since she has lost both the violin and the $2500 she was paid for it. As yet I have not received a response.

eBay CEO John Donahoe is taking over for Thompson at PayPal in the interim. eBay is sharing an internal memo that all PayPal employees received from Donahoe today. It says:

As you may already have seen, Yahoo! announced this morning that Scott Thompson is joining the company as CEO, effective immediately. Scott informed me Tuesday afternoon, saying that despite his passion for PayPal, this was an opportunity he felt he had to take. I know I speak for everyone in wishing Scott the best.

Let’s do it, and take this special business to the next level in 2012 and beyond.

Amanda Pires, with PayPal Global Communications, said: “Scott was a terrific leader for the PayPal business over the last seven years, and I know all of PayPal joins me in wishing Scott the best in his new role. He will be missed.”

Just before Christmas, eBay announced the acquisition of BillSafe, a purchase-on-invoice technology provider, which would be rolled into PayPal in Europe.

It seems this reader, Erica, had sold a $2,500 violin (after having it authenticated by an expert). She received payment via PayPal. The buyer, however, disputed the label, which is apparently not uncommon with antique violins. When the buyer contacted PayPal, they determined that the violin must be counterfeit – how a violin could be counterfeit is unclear – and insisted that the buyer destroy it in order to get his money back. The buyer complied, sending the following picture of the splintered violin – with the disputed label displayed prominently – to Erica and to PayPal.

Once the post went up on Regretsy, it did not take long for the situation to be picked up on Twitter and Reddit. Most people were, as you might imagine, outraged.

Well, there are a few Scott Thompson’s out there. One of them is Yahoo’s new CEO – Not to be confused with Scott Thompson from Kids In The Hall:

This Scott Thompson was the president of eBay’s PayPal. Before that, he was Senior Vice President and CTO at the company.

As President of PayPal, Thompson had overall responsibility for establishing PayPal as the leader in global online payments. As SVP and CTO, he oversaw information technology, product development and architecture for PayPal.

Before his time at PayPal, Thompson was Executive Vice President of technology solutions at Visa subsidiary Inovant, which was designed to oversee Visa’s global technology. Thopmson oversaw Visa’s global payment system.

Thompson was also Chief Information Officer of Barclays Global Investors. There, he is credited with implementing a new strategic technology platform and global infrastructure.

He’s also worked with Coopers and Lybrand to deliver IT solutions to financial services clients, including Wells Fargo.

Thompson received a bachelor’s in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College

He’s also on the board of directors for F5 Networks and Zuora Inc. The former is an IT architecture company and the latter is a subscription billing and payment solutions provider.

Last year, Thompson received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award (though so did 9 others).

Speaking on the appointment, Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo’s board of directors, said, “Scott brings to Yahoo! a proven record of building on a solid foundation of existing assets and resources to reignite innovation and drive growth, precisely the formula we need at Yahoo!”

This appointment comes almost four months to the day after the announcement that Yahoo had fired CEO Carol Bartz. Bartz was apparently fired over the phone by Bostock. Bartz had been hired in 2009 to help dig the struggling company out of its troubles, a task at which she was largely unsuccessful. Yahoo has been stepping up efforts to find a replacement in recent weeks. In the interim, the company has been headed by CFO Tim Morse.

Meanwhile, eBay has announced that eBay CEO John Donahoe will take the reins of PayPal until a new president can be appointed.

[Source: Yahoo Press Release]

eBay has owned a minority stake in BillSafe since October 2010. Now it owns the whole thing.

eBay says BillSafe works with merchants of all sizes in Germany, where there are already over 15 million PayPal accounts. Purchase-on-invoice is the most popular form of payment in Germany, as well as in Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, eBay says.

“German customers are extremely security-conscious, and they enjoy the convenience and safety of invoicing when they shop online. One of PayPal’s greatest assets is the security of our system, and we’re glad that we can now offer customers even more peace of mind with a payment method that they already know and prefer and that drives more sales for the merchants,” says Arnulf Keese, managing director of PayPal Germany. “Together with BillSAFE, we can offer even more choices to our customers – whether they prefer to pay with their bank accounts, their credit cards or now through purchase on invoice.”

“Purchase on invoice is an ideal addition to the payment options available with PayPal and makes it the most comprehensive service for consumers and merchants alike,” said Alexander Ey, managing director of BillSAFE. “Security-conscious shoppers can receive and inspect the merchandise they bought online before paying for their purchases. And merchants can sell to customers who were previously skeptical of buying online. It’s an ideal match.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. eBay says it doesn’t expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in its Q3 earnings release.

The blog post detailing the debacle went up on Regretsy last night and was picked up by Twitter this morning. In response to the backlash PayPal backed down, unfreezing the account in question and making a donation to boot. Below are some of posts that made the rounds on Twitter today.

Eventually, PayPal took to Twitter with their response:

However, that was not enough for some, who found parts of PayPal’s apology wanting.

While others were simply grateful that PayPal did the right thing at all.