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I am providing this information as a public service to everyone with a PayPal account, as well as any and everyone who may consider establishing a PayPal account.
I have learned in the last few days, the hard way, that PayPal can and does, at their discretion, without any complaints or problems otherwise from any third party, after months or years of a PayPal account in which thousands of dollars have been legitimately transacted, suddenly refuse to transfer money back into the bank account in which it was transferred to the PayPal account, or allow the account holder to use their money to make payments to anyone or have any access to their money.
I am a disabled honorably discharged Vietnam era US Navy veteran, and the Founder and Minister of a church that is qualified by and registered with the US Internal Revenue Service that assigned to my religious organization/church, YOUtopia INstitute, and active EIN number.
I recently was awarded a Veteran’s Disability Pension from the Veteran’s Administration, and deposited, on 1/28/08, a part of the initial money that I received into my PayPal “Business account” for my church, primarily for the interest earnings that they offer. PayPal opened that account on 8/17/07 after confirming my bank account. There was no money transacted in or through that account until I made the deposit on 1/28/08, and no indication to me or notification of any problem with that account for over six months, until, 1 hour and 45 minutes after I attempted to transfer a part of my money in my PayPal account back into my bank account from which it was transferred to my PayPal account.
I received an email dated “Tue 1/15/2008 2:01 PM” from service@paypal.com with the subject “You have successfully lifted your withdrawal limit” in which was written:
“Dear YOUtopia INstitute, Congratulations! Your withdrawal limit has now been lifted, and you may withdraw unlimited funds from your PayPal account. Sincerely,PayPal”
I requested a debit card and received from customercare@paypal.com dated “Fri 2/22/2008 4:03 PM” – “Subject: PayPal Consumer Support (KMM33828551I96L0KM) :ppk1” with the following:
“Dear Rama Dyushambee, DD, Thank you for contacting PayPal. I am sorry to hear about this situation regarding your PayPal Debit card requested on 2/08/08, and understand your frustration and concern over the issue. We have manually issued you a new PayPal debit card to your physical street address. Please allow 2-4 weeks for your card to arrive. The previous card requested on 2/8/08 has been closed. We are committed to making your PayPal experiences pleasant and fulfilling. Sincerely,RichettaPayPal Consumer SupportPayPal, an eBay Company”
For sure, my “PayPal experiences” have been and are anything but pleasant. And, I question how PayPal can legally hold my money, yours, or anyone’s. Nevertheless, they are doing just that.
As I wrote to customercare@paypal.com; compliance@paypal.com dated “Sun 2/24/2008 8:40 AM” – “Subject: RE: In Response to Your Request to Close Accounts (KMM34133908I96L0KM) :ppk1 ” – “The absurdity of PayPal, now that you have my money, requiring more proof than the US Internal Revenue Service that YOUtopia INstitute is simply a church ("We have not yet been able to verify the legitimacy of the nonprofit status of your organization") is beyond any logic, reasoning or legal substance. The simple fact of the matter is, in the first place, if YOUtopia INstitute does meet PayPal's requirements for an account, then PayPal should never have opened an account for YOUtopia INstitute, and accepted a deposit from the bank account. And finally, obviously, not meeting PayPal's Compliance Departments requirements does not give PayPal the right to keep my money. I have wasted more than enough time with this silliness. As I wrote to "compliance@paypal.com" last night (See attachment)" on Monday February 25, 2008 I will post this information everywhere that I can think of and do, under the title "BEWARE OF DEPOSITING MONEY IN A PAYPAL ACCOUNT." - including a full account of this ludicrous situation, with documentation in copies of emails from over six months of this absolutely absurd fiasco that amounts to PayPal refusing to give my money back to me." No threat, just the facts,Rama Demetrius Dyushambee, DD”
To make the PayPal preposterous illegal (?) shenanigans even worst, and more confusing and complex, is the fact that, for years now, hardly a day passes when I do not receive one or more PayPal ‘phishing’ emails from whomever. Apparently they can’t catch or stop the blatant criminals, or just haven’t, which I better understand now that it is clear to me that they are spending way too much of their employee’s time harassing their legitimate customers to allow them to spend more time stopping the people who are continuously sending ‘phishing’ emails that look like they are sent from PayPal, including two today, and the one that I received recently, and forwarded to spoof@paypal.com. To which I received their standard useless response:
“Mon 2/25/2008 8:52 AM” – “RE: Q510 - Thank you for your email to PayPal (KMM96080526V47462L0KM) :kf1 –
Thanks for taking an active role by reporting suspicious-looking emails.The email you forwarded to us is a phishing email, and our security team is working to disable it. -------------------------What is a phishing email?------------------------- Phishing emails attempt to steal your identity and will often ask you to reveal your password or other personal or financial information. PayPal will never ask for your password over the phone or in an email and will always address you by your first and last name. Take our Fight Phishing Challenge at https://http://www.paypal.com/fightphishing to learn 5 things you should know about phishing. You'll also see what we're doing to help fight fraud every day. -------------------------You've made a difference.-------------------------Every email counts. By forwarding a suspicious-looking email to spoof@paypal.com, you've helped keep yourself and others safe from identity theft. Thanks, The PayPal Team _______________________________________________________________________This email is sent to you by the contracting entity to your User Agreement, either PayPal Inc, PayPal Pte. Ltd or PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A. Société en Commandite par Actions, Registered Office:5th Floor 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg RCS Luxembourg B 118
349.”
I’m not going to waste any more of my time with that. If their “security team is working to disable it” (the phishing), they must be totally incompetent, after all of these years of the same problem. Clues to why that is true are contained in my information above, describing what the priority of their “security team” really seems to me to be, truly.
I have far too many related emails to attach here, which document what I’ve written here. But I will forward copies of any or all of those emails to anyone who requests them. E-mail: TheCosmicDetective@YOUtopiaINstitute.org
Founder & Minister www.YOUtopiaINstitute.org
3/1/08 Update: Unfortunately, for me, I didn’t see these articles before PayPal did it to me/my PayPal account. Get your money from PayPal and get out! - and this CNNMoney.com article 5 PayPal alternatives - <with other links
View profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/thecosmicdetective
