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PayPal stole users’ money after freezing, seizing funds, lawsuit alleges:
PayPal is facing a class-action lawsuit alleging that the digital payments company violated racketeering laws by freezing customer funds without offering an explanation.
When users contacted PayPal about the frozen funds, they were told they had violated the company's "acceptable use policy" but weren't told how that violation had occurred, the lawsuit says. What's more, it alleges that in at least one instance, PayPal said that a user would "have to get a subpoena" to find out why.
"PayPal violates its own Agreement by failing to provide adequate notice to users whose accounts have had holds placed on them," the lawsuit says. When PayPal does let users know it placed a hold on their funds, "it does not inform such users why such funds are being held, how they can obtain a release of the hold, and/or how they can avoid future holds being placed on their accounts."
It also says that PayPal takes the money for itself after a 180-day hold period. "PayPal's user agreement and acceptable use policy cannot be used as a 'license to steal,'" the complaint says.
[Ed. Note: one of the payment options to subscribe to SoylentNews is through PayPal. We practice safe operations and periodically withdraw funds from our PayPal account and deposit them to our bank account. We use the same technique with Stripe. To my knowledge, we have not had any problems with any of our payment processors.--martyb]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday January 17 2022, @04:59PM (2 children)
If you have documentation, please contact your local DA's office (if you're in USA- not sure about other countries). You may have a criminal case to press. A few states in the USA allow ordinary citizens to directly file criminal charges, called "private criminal complaint", so you might not even need DA.
That said, INAL, but if you're not in CA (or NE or GA or FL or AK or wherever PayPal is based), it might not work across state lines, and federal agencies (FBI, SEC, etc.) might not be willing to help, but please try- it's the only way to stop these criminals.
I guess I'm very lucky, but didn't know it. I've used PayPal to buy things, but haven't sold or otherwise received money through them, except, one time someone I did work for decided to pay me through PayPal. PayPal's process for receiving the money into my bank account was onerous, even though money goes from my bank, through a debit card, to PayPal no problemo. They said it was due to federal banking regulations. But, when I asked on the phone, they sent me a paper check for the full amount. Whew!
So far, no problems with PayPal.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PiMuNu on Monday January 17 2022, @05:48PM (1 child)
It was only a few $ (well GBP). I have other things to do with my time, I'm afraid, so I just write them off and hope everyone else does too.
Nb: skype did the same thing a few years back.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday January 17 2022, @07:19PM
Very wise. But share your experiences, as you have here. There's great power in PR, perception, reputation, etc. Thanks.