paypal

[elizabeth.1683]

Paypal limited my account for no reason and wont let me have my money unless I give them a heap of personal information. I rang them and they were very unhelpful and said I have to give them the information. There was nothing wrong with my account and that was my money. In the end I told them to keep my money then and shove the account, I will never deal with them again.

I have come across alot of ebay sellers that refuse to deal with paypal and now I understand why. Paypal should not be allowed to demand peoples personal information that is unnecessary.

I hope everybody thinks before giving out their personal details to paypal or any other place, this is how things get hacked. What are they going to request next? My password?

[boggo58]

Dear oh dear another sucker!. These are all spam emails designed to get people to open links and enter personal details and passwords. You get them from banks as well. Cant believe people still take these emails seriously.

[boggo58]

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@horizon1907 wrote:

?? ? ? never heard of that before. 

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? Its very very common to be get these "your account has been limited" emails,

[boggo58]

There is everything strange about it and its got nothing to do with money laundering. Its crooks wanting to steal accounts and passwords. Banks dont do it so why would paypal.

@lyndal1838 wrote:

Paypal is requesting proof of your identity to comply with Australia's Money Laundering Laws.  It is the same as a bank requesting 100 points of ID to open an account.

There is nothing strange about it and we have all had to do it eventually.

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[lyndal1838]

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@boggo58 wrote:

Dear oh dear another sucker!. These are all spam emails designed to get people to open links and enter personal details and passwords. You get them from banks as well. Cant believe people still take these emails seriously.

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Before sounding off you should actually read the OP.....she RANG paypal and was assured that she needs to provide the requested information......no clicking on links or giving passwords.

There is nothing suspect about providing proof of identity.   The OP will be able to use her account for a very limited time before it is frozen until the requested information is supplied.

[digital*ghost]

You had to provide your personal information to PayPal when you opened the account, now they are essentially asking you to prove that information, and as lyndal said, it's to do with Australian laws and requirements.

I had my account for a few years before this request was made, and just for those saying 'scam', if you've been around long enough, it becomes pretty easy to tell straight away if an email is genuine of not. Even if you can't be sure, all you have to do is log directly into PayPal (not through an email link) and your account status is displayed clearly.

My details were requested as soon as my account hit $750 in funds, and while I could conduct all the usual activities, including withdraw money, they told me if it went over $1000 then my account would be limited until I submitted the appropriate identification. 

I scanned my photo ID and a recent utility bill, which contained very little information that they didn't already have, though what they plan to do with my electricity account number and knowing how much my bill was is anyone's guess, but I uploaded it to PayPal and my account status was returned to normal within 24 hours. 

[digital*ghost]

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@boggo58 wrote:

. Banks dont do it so why would paypal.

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Because you have to supply all that information before a bank will let you open an account, so they don't need it twice.

Since you can open a PayPal account with a name and an email address, PayPal will require the same kind of ID banks do at some point.

Yes, there are a lot of fake PayPal requests for info, but you do realise that these fake emails work most often because they're based on genuine procedures? Just like the classic "Your credit card information has been changed!" phishing emails that I get quite often. I know they're fake so I don't even open them, however my first card recently expired so I logged into PayPal and updated my account with the new card details...

Guess what the subject line was for the 100% genuine PayPal email I received after making changes to my credit card details? 😉

[cq_tech]

By the same token, if you have a bank account attached to your Paypal account, there should be no need for them to request your personal details as the bank has already required you to provide the 100 points of ID necessary. There should be no valid reason for Paypal to double up on information which has already been provided.

[lyndal1838]

But CQ, paypal is asking the OP to prove that she is the holder of the paypal account, not that she is the owner of the bank account.

And it is only to comply with Australian Law

[cq_tech]

It never occurred to me that a Paypal account holder would attach a bank account which wasn't their own, but I suppose it's a possibility. Still, Paypal's heavy-handed approach leaves quite a lot to be desired IMO.

[digital*ghost]

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@cq_tech wrote:
By the same token, if you have a bank account attached to your Paypal account, there should be no need for them to request your personal details as the bank has already required you to provide the 100 points of ID necessary. There should be no valid reason for Paypal to double up on information which has already been provided.

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In that case, next time someone asks me for 100 points of ID, I'll show them my ATM card and offer to have them witness me make a withdrawl, should they feel it's necessary. 😛

Actually, when I opened my ING Direct account, it could all have been done online, with no one sighting anything. I wasn't quite able to provide enough online verification (all via the supply of cross-referencing info, sequences of numbers that match the ones attached to the name I provided, in a nutshell) so I ended up having to take a couple of documents into Australia Post to complete the account verification, but had I not been who I said I was, yet had enough data to supply.... 

Not all PayPal accounts will have a verified back account attached, either, nor a bank-issued credit/debit card, and they will have more stringent limitations.