What can an online-wallet record prove?¶

An online-wallet record can establish activity associated with a wallet account, stored balance or linked payment route.

Avoid the dangerous assumption¶

The dangerous assumption is that the wallet record proves the registered customer personally made the payment.

A wallet record may show the account identifier, payment handle, amount, currency, date, time, status, funding source, recipient, merchant and transaction reference.

Provider records may also show devices, sessions, IP addresses, authentication methods, linked bank accounts or cards, and account-security changes.

The record can help establish that value was sent, received, held, refunded, converted or withdrawn through the wallet service.

It may also show whether the transaction remained internal to the provider or moved to an external bank, card, merchant or wallet.

But the account holder is not automatically the user. The wallet may be active on several devices, shared, compromised or operated through an existing session.

A linked card or bank account may belong to another person.

A wallet balance may also include refunds, incoming payments, stored value or previous transfers.

Preserve the complete transaction record and all linked identifiers.

Ask the provider for account creation, verification, login, device, session, authentication, funding and withdrawal records.

Compare the wallet record with device evidence, communications, merchant records and the onward movement of funds.

When reporting, state that the provider recorded activity on the wallet account unless the wider evidence identifies the operator.

Operational takeaway¶

Use online-wallet records to establish account and value movement, then use provider, device and contextual evidence to identify who controlled the transaction.