It's not clear in the article - is PayPal gaming the "Important Inbox" feature of Gmail by making fake important-reading "Balance Summaries"?
When Gmail introduced a feature to reduce spam and spam-like email in your Inbox, the people sending that spam will adapt and try to game it. More news at eleven.
Did anyone seriously believe this would be a viable long term solution?
"xelfer, your PayPal balance summary is here plus an extra discount from Virgin Airlines."