The news comes from Yuga Labs security engineer Sam Curry who took to his personal Twitter to reveal he received a mysterious wire transaction from Google for nearly $250,000.
Curry took to Twitter on September 14, writing that it had, at the time, been almost three weeks since Google randomly sent him $249,000 and that he still hadn't heard anything back from the company regarding the support ticket he filed shortly after noticing the payment. Curry tagged Google on Twitter and asked if he could get into contact with the company about the mysterious payment.
A Google spokesperson told CNN that there was a problem on Google's end with the payment and that it shouldn't have gone to Curry but to a different party. The Google spokesperson said that the payment to Curry was a result of "human error" and that the company appreciates that the issue was quickly brought forward so it can be corrected. So, how come this happened?
Curry explained to NPR that he is also a bug bounty hunter, which is essentially freelance cybersecurity work that big tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and others offer the public. Freelance cybersecurity experts test the tech companies' software for bugs or flaws and are rewarded via these bounties. Curry was somewhere in Google's payroll system, and during a large payout to a cybersecurity expert, Curry's details were thrown into the mix, resulting in the payment going to him and not to the target party.
Even a company as big as Google makes mistakes!