Hi All,

I am business account holder at paypal.com.

Today i received email from paypal.com that my account is restricted due to security reasons. I haven't done anything wrong. I just use paypal.com account as optional payment collection method. Since i am from India i don't have any checking account in U.S.A. so i use to spent money collected through paypal.com to my web hosting providers in U.S.A. I have very good balance at paypal.com account. i have confirmed 2 credit cards that make me internationally verified customer.

Now after all this my account is restricted without any strong reason. :angry: Today, I need to refund some money to my client who paid me through paypal.com account yesterday and when i log in to paypal.com system it says my account is restricted for no reason. I have just written to paypal.com to activate my account. But this is not good practice to deactivate any business account without any strong reason and just saying that it is due to security reasons.

I suggest paypal.com correct there security system and don't block business accounts like this. :mad:

This system really sucks. i will prefer not to use paypal.com account anymore if my account is not activated within 24 hrs. Also all you guys keep this in mind that they can tern you off without providing any reason and even you have thousand's of dollars balance with them. :angry:

------------

here is the email from them

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Return-Path: <service@paypal.com>
Delivered-To: cplabs@mmb1.vsnl.net.in
Received: from mailhost05.vsnl.net (mailhost05.vsnl.net [202.54.1.73])
by mmb1.vsnl.net.in (Postfix) with ESMTP id BA09638021
for <cplabs@mmb1.vsnl.net.in>; Sat, 25 Aug 2001 23:51:03 +0530 (IST)
Received: from web6.sc5.paypal.com (web6.sc5.paypal.com [216.136.154.242])
by mailhost05.vsnl.net (Postfix) with SMTP id 30B941D1B87
for <cplabs@vsnl.com>; Sat, 25 Aug 2001 23:49:24 +0530 (IST)
Received: (qmail 30245 invoked by uid 99); 25 Aug 2001 18:20:30 -0000
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 11:20:30 -0700
Message-Id: <998763630.30245@paypal.com>
From: service@paypal.com
To: cplabs@vsnl.com
Reply-To: auto-restriction-appeal@paypal.com
Subject: Notification of PayPal Account Restriction
X-UIDL: DD<"!nf6"!1Pe!!/KX!!

Dear creative people,

PayPal is constantly working to increase
security for all of our users. To ensure
the integrity of our payment network, we
conduct frequent checks on our system.

Your account has been placed on a restricted
status, pending further review. Restricted
accounts are limited in their ability to send or withdraw
funds.

If you have questions concerning this restriction
please contact the PayPal Account Review Department
by replying to this email.


Thank you,

PayPal Account Review Department



:angry:

Probably someone (or several people) paid you with a stolen credit card. Paypal doesn't restrict accounts without reason: It's bad for business.

Give them until at least Monday to check it over. After all, it is in everyone's interest for Paypal to crack down on fraud.

You could also try talking to paypaldamon (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=3236) who is a member of this board and works for PayPal. Maybe he can help you out!?

Originally posted by cperciva
Probably someone (or several people) paid you with a stolen credit card. Paypal doesn't restrict accounts without reason: It's bad for business.

Give them until at least Monday to check it over. After all, it is in everyone's interest for Paypal to crack down on fraud.

that's fine. But i am business account holder. i have 2 working credit card numbers submitted to them so that they can charge my card any time if something wrong happens and this is why I am paying them transaction charges. If somebody paid through stolen credit card then it is there problem and because of some transactions they just can not freeze my whole account. :angry:

Just imagine if you have $0000's balance with paypal.com and someone pays you $15 through stolen card thus that means paypal.com freeze your whole account like this. This will rune your whole financial planning and can result in big losses. Will paypal.com pay you back those losses.? Simply No. That is why i raised this issue. :angry:

Well, you have to remember thou, it IS paypal, its not like your talking about a full merchant account, paypal probabbly see's 10X the fraud go throu their doors as most merchants do.. If you want reliability get a real merchant, paypal is probabbly just responding normally, they've obviously had enough fraud that they don't take any chances whatso ever.

I'll give you an example.

I use to email everybody that signed up that I thought was questionable and waited for them to reply or cut their account after a few days.....

Now, by checking various informaiton, I can tell if its a fraud before they walk in the door so I block their account.....

No different than paypal really, once you get enough fraud you have to implement stricter rules to make it a big disadvantage to use paypal for fraud, yes you might not have done something wrong , but as they said, all it takes is for somebody to pay with a stolen credit card and wham your offline.

I face this kind of issue with Revecom before. What can I aspect? Since this is not a real merchant account, they are just protecting their business and the card holders....;)

You should, probably, wait for them to explain themselves first.
They may have very good reasons for their actions.
Please post here after they reply to your letter.

Originally posted by DanielP
If you want reliability get a real merchant, paypal is probably just responding normally, they've obviously

well, i do have other credit card processors. as i already said paypal.com is optional payment method. You are right paypal.com is not providing real merchant account but i am from india and can not withdraw money from there account and i have to spent that money in USA merchants, hence i had my funds accumulated in paypal.com account for future use.

I am not saying paypal.com did something wrong may be this is there regular practice but they should have provided me sufficient reason for restricting my paypal.com account. They did it with no reason and said it is placed on a restricted
status, pending further review. What kind of service is this.?

Now somebody know that he can use fraudulent credit card through paypal.com and get my paypal.com account suspended and put me in financial troubles.


I use to email everybody that signed up that I thought was questionable and waited for them to reply or cut their account after a few days.....

if somebody wants to pay you through paypal.com account he must first have account with paypal.com then he need to verify his credit card and i think that is not possible for stolen credit cards because the secrete code appears in credit card statement. Then he needs to login his paypal.com account and make a request over there to send money to other paypal.com account holder (or any person but he have to open an account in order to receive money). Now, i think there are very minor chances of credit card frauds. I don't understand how they have high ratio of credit cards frauds. ?

anyway, i think SoftWareRevue is right i should wait for paypal.com response. :(

There is no secret code in credit card statements, there may be that additional 3 or 4 digit number after the card that their wanting, but that can be stolen as well.

Originally posted by DanielP
There is no secret code in credit card statements, there may be that additional 3 or 4 digit number after the card that their wanting, but that can be stolen as well.

there is, atleast for me. when you add new credit card number to paypal.com system it charges you $1 on your credit card with some secrate code with transaction details then you need to punch that number in there system in order to get your credit card working with them.

Since i am international client it apply with me. i add the cards in this way only. i don't know weather USA members have to follow same procedure to add credit card or not.

yep
you have to verify your credit card, which have to be in your name. You can get credited but cannot withdraw before you get verified.
They send the verifying code to your credit card statement.
:)

What kind of service is this.?

it's a free one... or darn close to it. You get what you pay for.. or in this case more as paypal has continiously shown it's efforts (through this board) to work with the hosts and get things resolved.

-neil

Originally posted by neil


it's a free one... or darn close to it.

-neil

no neil its not.

At least for Premier and Business Accounts you need to pay 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction fees. which i do pay them.

Originally posted by DanielP
Well, you have to remember thou, it IS paypal, its not like your talking about a full merchant account

Ever actually read the contract you signed when you got your full merchant account? They can do exactly the same thing (for a lot of different reasons, justified and otherwise), and do - it's happened to us twice in two years.

I'm not too concerned about PayPal doing this to us, but it's a hell of a lot worse when the merchant processor does it.

Trust me - this is something that can happen no matter who you're using or how much you're paying.

Jason

I have also had a negative experience with the Pay Pal restriction systems, as a consumer rather than a business account.

-- one of my credit cards was consistently rejected by PayPal, even though it worked at other merchan sites, and still does.

-- the website tells you that the reinstatement process is one way (having small amounts sent to your account, logging in to reverify) but then the customer service representatives tell you via email that the process is something different (faxing copies of your credit cards, credit card statements, and drivers license to PayPal)

-- want to talk to a representative to sort it out? Sorry, only email access is supported.

-- the Paypal website admits that their restriction system snares innocent customers.

I have over $40 in my account, so eventually I'll get around to breaking it free out of paypal prison, but for now it's too much of a hassle.

hello all, Im here cos we have had a report of excessive paypal bashing going on, i dont see it too much, but all i can say is:

1) i opened a aypal acct, it worked forst time, accepted my UK credit card and my account was ready

2) Money was paid into my paypal acct and once paid in appeared in my account

3) when transferring the money from my paypal account it took about 6 days to transfer, a bit long i admit but it did transfer

4) when i phoned up to ask about the 6 day wait they answered me with an acceptable answer, due to international checking etc... and international transfers.

So here i am with my paypal account, ive opened it, transferred money into it and out of it, phoned their support line internationally, they verified me and guess what:

IM A HAPPY CUSTOMER !!

bye for now !

Originally posted by davidsmith
I have also had a negative experience with the Pay Pal restriction systems, as a consumer rather than a business account.


How much time it took them to reivew your account and put your account back on regular status ?

Originally posted by xtstrike
hello all, Im here cos we have had a report of excessive paypal bashing going on, i dont see it too much, but all i can say is:



What you think we are doing some party here ?. I am not saying paypal.com service is bad. I said there Account Restriction System is not good. It automatically put account on restriction status so that you can not withdraw or send fuds. but you can receive funds. Why this ?. If they suspend account they should suspend it fully. They want money to come in but they are not ready to pay clients because of there stupid system.

4) when i phoned up to ask about the 6 day wait they answered me with an acceptable answer, due to international checking etc... and international transfers

i gone through there web site and there is no phone number available for restrication appeal. i have already emailed them 2 times through there web site. Now more then 36 hrs are passed and my account is still restricted.

Right. I don't think there's been anything excessive directed towards PayPal.
manhinder was just wanting to know what happened; and hasn't been getting an answer.
I can understand his frustration. But, I don't think there's been anywhere near a flame going on.:rolleyes:

Please feel free to send me the information (pm or email) and I will see what account management can do about the issue. I would ask, however, that you realize that we don't support withdrawals for India at this time (unless the user can provide a US bank account). The countries that we allow international withdrawals for are displayed on the web site.

My paypal account to was being put on restriction since more than a month ago ... Sent an email to them right away, yet until today I did not get any follow up. Thus, I called them just now ... They told me I need to fax them a copy of my driving license, a copy of utility bill, a copy of my primary credit card's statement, a copy of my bank statement (well, at least that's all what I remember). I wondered why suddenly I need to fax all these (have been a verified paypal member for the last 17 months!). Then the person on the phone asked me whether I have been overseas lately. It turns out this was the root of all the problem! About a month ago, I was in Indonesia and check my paypal account from that country. And Indonesia is one of the countries that paypal does not deal with due to frauds. And this caused paypal to trigger the security flag, and I have to face all the unnecessary problems now... Screw paypal ...

And the funny thing is ... I just knew what they want me to do (fax them copies after copies of documents for simple verificaion) until I called them today. I would never have any idea what to do if I did not call since they did not even care to tell me what to do even after I contacted via email a month ago!

burnt with anger,
:beer: -> to cool me down.

Originally posted by paypaldamon
Please feel free to send me the information (pm or email) and I will see what account management can do about the issue. I would ask, however, that you realize that we don't support withdrawals for India at this time (unless the user can provide a US bank account). The countries that we allow international withdrawals for are displayed on the web site.

Hi PaypalDamon,

It feels good to see you here which i already expected. I never said i want to withdraw funds to India as i already know and have discussed this issue with you previously in other posts.

Also there is nothing special i have to say about my issue, so that i should give you an PM or email.

Everything is very clear in this post. I have attach full email with headers in this post. My account was restricted by your Automatic Account Restriction System without providing any reason and that hurts me and my planning's very much.

Also when i received email from your Automatic Account Restriction System there it was mention to contact PayPal Account Review Department which i did 2 times and now more then 40 hrs are passed and i haven't received any reply from you guys.

No reply from PayPal.com have forced me to think allot weather i should promote and deal with your company or not. I will prefer not to deal with PayPal.com since this is the worst experienced i ever had with any financial institute i have deal in my life.

It makes me feel very dry that how a big company like paypal.com can restrict Business Accounts like this and never reply to my requests. This is not a good sign of Professionalism. Also i am internationally verified member and have 2 active credit cards punched in your system. You know, i received $105 yesterday from my client and for some reasons i wasn't able to register his domain so i want to refund him $15 of his payment, but now i can not. This hearts creditability of my company and my client will think that he is dealing with un-professional company.

Anyway, PayPal.com Service is Very Good and i used to give special discounts to my clients to use paypal.com because of low transaction fees charged by paypal.com but now i have to think twice because this system is really out of my mind. I don't say you guys are wrong or may be you guys are right but how do i come to know, since i haven't received any response from you guys explaining why my account is restricted and that is also after 40 hrs of making requests 2 times. You should do something to ovoid such issues.

Thanks for your help. I will love to see response from PayPal Account Review Department explaning why my account is restricted. ?

Originally posted by dektong
My paypal account to was being put on restriction since more than a month ago ... Sent an email to them right away, yet until today I did not get any follow up. Thus, I called them just now ... They told me I need to fax them a copy of my driving license, a copy of utility bill, a copy of my primary credit card's statement, a copy of my bank statement (well, at least that's all what I remember). I wondered why suddenly I need to fax all these (have been a verified paypal member for the last 17 months!). Then the person on the phone asked me whether I have been overseas lately. It turns out this was the root of all the problem! About a month ago, I was in Indonesia and check my paypal account from that country. And Indonesia is one of the countries that paypal does not deal with due to frauds. And this caused paypal to trigger the security flag, and I have to face all the unnecessary problems now... Screw paypal ...

And the funny thing is ... I just knew what they want me to do (fax them copies after copies of documents for simple verificaion) until I called them today. I would never have any idea what to do if I did not call since they did not even care to tell me what to do even after I contacted via email a month ago!

burnt with anger,
:beer: -> to cool me down.

Now this is scarring me allot what they are going to do with me. :confused: :stan: :crap:

Originally posted by mahinder
Also when i received email from your Automatic Account Restriction System there it was mention to contact PayPal Account Review Department which i did 2 times and now more then 40 hrs are passed and i haven't received any reply from you guys.


Oh no ... 40 hours???? They did not send me any email regarding what I need to do even after about one month (720 hours, that is) since I contacted them .... :eek: I need to call them in order to know what I need to do ... pathetic ... :(

cheers,
:beer:

Thanks...sorry..a little busy today and didn't catch the email.

The account is currently not restricted. Thank you for your patience, as it looks like a potential fraud flag got triggered in our system, which resulted in the restriction.

Please let me know if you have further access issues.

now paypaldamon, can you lift the account restriction for me too? I do not want to go through all the problems (gee ... you even need to see my credit card and bank statement? I really reluctant to share that to anybody!), especially after being 17 months of a verified member of paypal in a good standing (about 4 months of which with a premier account).

Dang ... 17 months of being a member and I have to go through all the problems simply because of me login into your system while I am in Indonesia... why not block all the ISP from Indonesia if you don't want anybody to login from there and indeed, you do not even want to deal with that country anyway ... I can give you all the IP blocks of major ISPs in Indonesia, and you can block them all .... Simple solution, right?

cheers,
:beer:

Please feel free to send the account information to me, as I will have the account management team review the case immediately. The restriction appears to be the result (based on your statements) of access from a country not supported by PayPal (which also has a high fraud rate).

Originally posted by paypaldamon
Thanks...sorry..a little busy today and didn't catch the email.

The account is currently not restricted. Thank you for your patience, as it looks like a potential fraud flag got triggered in our system, which resulted in the restriction.

Please let me know if you have further access issues.

Well, thanks paypaldamon for your help. Now Restrictions are removed from my account but i haven't received any explanation from PayPal Account Review Department regarding what happen and why Restriction was imposed on my account.

I believe you have taken personal efforts on this issue because i posted this issue on this public form which is harming the reputation of PayPal.

I appreciate your personal efforts but why PayPal.com system automatically put account on Restriction like this. ?. There should be explanation with each Automatic Restriction, so that deceived member can do something about it.

Once again thank your for your help.

I do look for all outstanding customer issues in a variety of forums. I like to make sure there is closure on all outstanding cases (it is our way of making sure that all issues are resolved to customer satisfaction whenever possible).

I can't cover account specifics in a public forum without your permission.

Our credit card verification process is fairly stringent,which can impact legitimate users at times. The process can impact legitimate users at times, but there are ways of getting the card verified (verification or documentation is required).

Please feel free to contact me if assistance is needed in doing so.

Originally posted by mahinder
. . . . . . I believe you have taken personal efforts on this issue because i posted this issue on this public form which is harming the reputation of PayPal. . . . . . .Didn't change my mind about PayPal.
They're still one of the best deals going.
And, I've always had great customer support.
Things happen.

Originally posted by paypaldamon
I do look for all outstanding customer issues in a variety of forums. I like to make sure there is closure on all outstanding cases (it is our way of making sure that all issues are resolved to customer satisfaction whenever possible).

I can't cover account specifics in a public forum without your permission.

damn,

My Account is again restricted by PayPal.com crap system. :angry:

I give up and will ovoid using this CRAP SERVICE. I just login into my account to refund my client $15 and found my account is restricted again.

:kaioken:

I have again written to them here is the email:



Dear sir,

Few Hours before restriction was removed from my account. Now when i login to my account it is again restricted. What the hell is going on at paypal.com. I am trying to send funds from 3 days and your crap system restrict my account without any reasons.

Mahinder Dangwani.
Very angry unsatisfied customer.
ceo-cphosting.com.


Now i want some explanation what is happening and why it is happening with me. Previously it use to work fine when funds amount was low and now when funds are accumulated they are not allowing me to send funds.

:kaioken: <<-- i wish i can put this smilies in the email i sent to them.

Here is the response i received from them Today at 12:16 PM + 5:30 GMT and Now it is only 3:00 PM + 5:30 GMT and my account is restricted again.


Dear creative people,

We have completed our review and have removed
the restriction on your account. Thank you for
your patience during this process and for helping
to make PayPal the safest and most trusted online
payment solution.

Sincerely,

PayPal Account Review Team


Now you tell me what should i understand from this email ?. Why my account was restricted ?. What should i do to ovoid such situations.

:confused: :bawling:

I am sorry...the system triggered the flag again. I just took it off and there should not be an issue again. Please feel free to contact me if it happens again.

Originally posted by mahinder
What should i do to ovoid such situations.


Unfortunately, I don't see paypal really care about informing its valuable customers regarding this matter at all ... It's great that they have this precautions system, but then in my opinion, they have to let their customers know about what is to happen when the customers do such and such ... In my case, it is so easy for them to actually let me know that accessing my account from countries paypal do not deal with might have cause some problems due to security reason. In that case I can just easily access my paypal account from Indonesia through my server here at US. But there is no way that I would ever know this and hence I have to face the consequences due to their negligence to inform their customers!

I got an email from them basically telling me to provide these documentations and there are two questions they ask me about:


1. Do you travel out of the United States? If so, where do you travel (regions and /or countries)? Do you travel on business or pleasure?
2. Are you selling merchandise purchased abroad? If so, what is that merchandise?


Now I might understand the purpose of the first question (though, why would they care it the reason was business or pleasure or something else?). But, what in the world would the second question has anything to do with anything at all? When I come to this country back, I already passed US Customs and US Customs are the ones who has right to ask this sort of question. But why would paypal needs to ask me this? I will leave it to anybody to think about it and please enlighten me about this matter, if you can think of a reasonable reason.

Anyway, in my reply to them I have decided that I would not sent them my credit card statement and moreover, my bank statement. I would sent them my driving license and my utility bill, but not these other two statements. I don't even feel comfortable disclosing my credit card/bank statements to my close relatives/family, not to mention them. Furthermore, all this problems are not my fault, but their's.

In reply, paypal has agreed to lift my account restriction. I am thankful for them that this is all over now (hopefully for good), but moreover, I am proud that I have made my stand and refused to do things in their terms especially if this is all their fault (for not disclosing any possible problems with me first!).

I would like to thank paypaldamon for his help. Thanks, damon!

I hope you won't get any more problem, mahinder. And to everybody else, i hope none of these happen to you!

cheers,
:beer: -> for all.

Originally posted by dektong


Unfortunately, I don't see paypal really care about informing its valuable customers regarding this matter at all ... It's great that they have this precautions system, but then in my opinion, they have to let their customers know about what is to happen when the customers do such and such ...

PayPal.com Security system reminds me of Uncle Scruz MackDuck (Richest Person / Duck on Earth) of Disney's Duck Tales Cartoon.

One time Scruz MackDuck ordered his engineer Gyro to build such a robot which do not allow anyone to hang around his Building where he use to store $Trillions money. Gyro made a robot and gave him duty to guard the building. After that when Scruz MackDuck tried to enter into building robot stopped him through firing and bombing on him. So he asked Gyro what the hell is this why he is not letting me in. So Gyro replied you only told be to program robot not to let anyone hang around your building.

Just a thought. PayPal.com Security system is so secure, it even does not allow its owners to withdraw the funds. Isn't it great !! :D :D
:D :cartman: