I know paypal doesn't do adult sites and such, but what about adult hosting? I am not actually selling any pornographic material, so does that still count?

Yes, it would probably count but you might want to check with them to be sure.

Paypal does not do high risk (adult/gaming) because of the rules & regulations of Visa/Mastercard. You are not selling adult itmes as you pointed out - only hosting. And there are a few hosting companies that accept Paypal. I do not think that it would count because your SCI code would be for hosting & not audio/video text.

This has been discussed before, but basically ...

yes you can set it up
yes it against the rules and
yes they will keep your money when they find out

Originally posted by othellotech
This has been discussed before, but basically ...

yes you can set it up
yes it against the rules and
yes they will keep your money when they find out

LOL, no no no....I was not going to set it up without finding out first, I looked around their site, even emailed them, but couldn't get an answer, so I figured I'd ask here.

This is the best forum I have ever joined! Thanks.

You might be able to call them - but you probably won't get an answer. Your e-mail is probably floating from in box to in box over there with no one wanting to give you a definite answer.

There is actually one forum where one person does work @ Paypal - not too sure if he could answer or direct you.

Well that was an experience. I called Paypal. I first spoke with Gail. I explained to her that I wanted to bill clients for web hosting services. Three times she asked me what I would be selling. I kept telling her web hosting. Remember who's on first? :) She put me on hold & came back. Asked me again what I would be selling. I asked her if she knew what a web hosting company was. She put me back on hold & got Gail on the line. Gail told me that it was fine to bill out for web hosting & it did not matter if some of them were adult web sites. She did state though that those adult websites could not use Paypal on their sites.

That is very interesting information coreybryant. I wonder if you called back and talked to another operator would the answer be the same.

Paypal is out of the adult oriented business. First I think a more complete definition of what is considered adult is needed.

WHT has a user paypaldaemon but he has not posted in a long time.

Well - yeah I am a glutton for punishment. ;) I called back - first spoke with Joylynn who did not know what web hosting was. I just asked to be transferred to someone who might be familiar with policies.

I spoke Susie. She said it is her understanding that since the web hosting company would cater to some adult web sites, that they could only use Paypal to bill the regular customers. The only thing that would happen if they did find out - an e-mail would be issued to stop billing. The account would not be frozen unless it continued. I did ask her is she knew what she was speaking about since the other two told me a different story. She said she did.

Shall we go for 2 out of 3? :)

Well, this is all very interesting, because just now I got an answer form Paypal:
Thank you for taking the time to write to us with your concerns. I am
happy to assist you further.

I apologize for any inconvenience, you will not be able to use your
PayPal account to receive payments for adult hosting.

The Acceptable Use Policy has been updated to simplify the policy on
transactions for adult related material. After June 12, 2003, PayPal
will no longer process transactions for adult related material through
the Mature Audiences category on eBay.com. As a result, after June 12,
PayPal will no longer process payments for adult related material
anywhere on the Internet.

PayPal strives to find the right balance between serving our community
while minimizing our financial risk. We feel that exiting the Mature
Audiences category with a clear and consistent policy for all adult
material best achieves this balance.

As part of this effort, we are extending the deadline for when PayPal
customers must stop sending and receiving payments for tangible adult
products, including magazines, DVDs and video cassettes. Originally May
12, this deadline has now been extended to June 12 to correspond with
PayPal's phase-out of service for these items on eBay. The deadline to
stop sending and receiving payments for digital adult products and
services, including online photos, streaming video and audio services
will remain May 12.

To read the complete policy governing this category, please visit

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/use/index_frame-outside&
ed=mature


Seems like the answer depends on who you talk to???

BTW, this response was from Lori.

Apparently. I even asked Susie that since the SIC code was different from web hosting & adult items, how could it be justified. But she could not answer it.

The problem is - Visa/MasterCard are cracking down so much on the third party processors that Paypal is probably too afraid to touch it.

Yep... the heat is definitely on the 3rd party processors. I would not be surprised to see them become even more restrictive as time passes.

I had a hosting company was doing great and was in the biz a few years.

Never had 1 complaint then 1 day my support forum was was hacked and the database stolen.

The hacker mailed all my customers saying i did childporn then in turn... well 3 of them contacted paypal in panic and said they did not know we had childporn (we had none) paypal closed us down and we lost everything servers, customers, the lot.

Paypal said they put a hold on the accounts and will never reopen them due to underage content.

Even after telling them to call the cops with my info and get them to inspect my severs they still refused to reopen my accounts.

We went bust and now own nothing!!

We lost about 2000 / uk pounds per month about 20 of our own domains and much more customers ect it was one of the worst things to ever happen to me on the internet.

I have never even seen a cp site dont mind access one and my customers never had any cp... we were just simply biz guys.



Thanks to paypal

I had a hosting company was doing great and was in the biz a few years.

Never had 1 complaint then 1 day my support forum was was hacked and the database stolen.

The hacker mailed all my customers saying i did childporn then in turn... well 3 of them contacted paypal in panic and said they did not know we had childporn (we had none) paypal closed us down and we lost everything servers, customers, the lot.

Paypal said they put a hold on the accounts and will never reopen them due to underage content.

Even after telling them to call the cops with my info and get them to inspect my severs they still refused to reopen my accounts.

We went bust and now own nothing!!

We lost about 2000 / uk pounds per month about 20 of our own domains and much more customers ect it was one of the worst things to ever happen to me on the internet.

I have never even seen a cp site dont mind access one and my customers never had any cp... we were just simply biz guys.



Thanks to paypal

When did this happen ? Was it just recently or before the class action lawsuit against Paypal for unjustified account suspension ?

it all started around jan / feb this year 07.

Soon after he hacked us he started to ask for money and of course I told where to go then he sent more mail like this.

==========================================================

admin@xxxxx.org to me
show details 23-Feb

I give your backup and sql files for 500$

even if you have recovered everythng, I have entered most of the emails
and grabbed your dbase, I will pm them every day, every ****in day
ricardo!

===========================================================

admin@xxxx.org to me
show details 24-Feb

hehe, I am a wise man , it s childish to call someone names, dont you have balls", it s also fastinating you
are running a board with rookies who arent even able to protect your database
passes :) Next 21th september give me kisses to ricardo,


I have rooted 200+ servers so far, I will put your ip and personal
informations there, it will be a huge chaos when they are hacked and
police will look after you everywhere...You will spend 2007/2008 in jail
whereas I will be surfin and tanning on ocean.

I WONT GIVE UP ****ING YOUR
BUSINESS, I LIKED THIS HOBBY and I HAVE PLENTY OF FREE TIME :)

you are my bitch , accept this fact soon

=============================================
Lots more mail like that.

I did all the right things but hit a wall everyplace I went. He even went to sites where you report cp and post my url and it was taking up all my time trying to explain to them we had nothing to do with cp.

Next my url started to show in google as a cp site ahhh what a mess all because I would not pay him.

I did try talk to paypal about 2 weeks ago about my account as they keep sending me spam mail and asked them to reopen they account they said never.

I am 100% sure we had no cp on any site or server so I could hand on heart and say anyplace we had no cp but they dont care.

Even the customers that had the panic attack after the scarey mail from the hacker told me they were sorry. They said it was just a reaction to the mail. They also contacted paypal to explain but still no go.

Want to hear something worse???

Every account linked to mine was closed by paypal Yeh over 200 customers and site designers, anybody that ever paid me or anybody I ever paid had their paypal closed.

The thing about all this is the words childporn scares everybody.
Nobody wants to be connected with it and that includes me and this is why I was unable to get help and I cant blame people for that.
When I had the mail sent to me I was scared and sick then I spent each day trying to defend my good name.
I would sort it one place and he the hacker would go someplace and do it again.

Nobody customers or paypal could show 1 little bit of evidence to prove what was said yet the closed us down...


I would love to know about this paypal case your talking about and when it was.

Thanks Again.

Is there any information you can give me about that (i.e. which accounts were closed) because I would like to contact Paypal to find out what they have to say about this case to figure out how safe I am with Paypal.

I would need to talk via icq to give out account names but that would be a waste of time as paypal would not talk to you about the matter.

What they went on is a complaint from the hacker we think and 3 customers who said things like this to them.
=======================================

customer 1
=======================================
Dear Sir, I just receive an email from someone claiming that your web site is involved in child pornography. Even i never saw this kind of information on your site, I don't want at all to be involved in such a depravation like infantile pornography. Can
you stop my account and definitely remove all informations concerning my login from your database. Thanks beforehands, blah blah"


He left above as a note with his refund claim that he sent via paypal.

=====================================

There were 2 more like that as far as I know.
I had a long chat with the guy on icq and he said he just reacted to the mail from the hacker and of course his bad english did not help.

I explaned all this to paypal via the phone via email and I was going to go legal on it at one stage but then I said why make myself sick for money.

Without paypal I could not pay the server people, I could not pay anybody on the network I setup as I used paypal to pay and receive money.

My customer base is gone as they no longer have a paypal accounts.

All this is already post on paypal sucks where some of my customers have sent replys.

Regards,

Hi,

can you give me links to the pages on Paypalsucks.com that refer to this case and what your customers wrote about it ? If Paypal did really cancel even all of your customers' accounts that would be absolutely incredible.

Also I would be interested to know how you did identify yourself to Paypal. I.e. when I reached a certain amount of money I had to send a copy of my ID and stuff like that. Did you do that or was your account "unconfirmed" ? And you said you are in the UK, right ?