Yeah, that's right. As everyone was speculating over the past few days, paypal
has locked my paypal account and confiscated all funds. It was about $5k.
Luckily most of the PCB money from Aaron's bug hunt (both of the $1080
payments mentioned in a news post) were sent to Japan a few days before that,
so PCBs can still be bought (I actually spent most of it already on nice
items that will arrive in a few months)
I'm posting this full update here now in case there is a slim chance that
someone can help. I mean real help, not just talk. There is still 1 day
to go before the 15th March deadline.
paypal have an automated security system that is triggered by certain events.
You can read exactly what those events are and other very disturbing facts by
reading this....
http://www.paypalsucks.com/PayPalFormerEmployee1.shtmlhttp://www.paypalsucks.com/PayPalFormerEmployee2.shtmlhttp://www.paypalsucks.com/PayPalWhistleBlower1.shtmlGuessing why this has happened, it would seem that due to the high rate at
which donations were made (lots and lots of little amounts and a few big ones
too), and the total being several thousand dollars, the account was
automatically flagged and locked, citing 'suspicious activity'.
paypal should not even be trying to act like a policing body because clearly
it just doesn't work. If someone were to steal a credit card and
syphon money out of it via paypal, all the credit card owner has to do is
contest the withdrawls and the bank immediately kills the card and reverses
the transactions. The credit card owner is always protected because
of strict banking and government regulations.
In reality it's not even possible to add a credit card because paypal makes
a $2 withdrawl and then asks you to tell them the special transaction number
from your credit card statement. No one except the real credit card account
owner could get access to that number. So it would be near impossible to add
a stolen credit card to a paypal account. paypal are using the 'locking /
freezing' excuse merely to steal your money.
Whatever the reason, it's too late now.
Paypal are thieves, there is no doubt. Think about it for a minute. In one of
the above posts, they say.....
"I'm amused by the posts that say, "But I've been a good customer of PP since
the beginning and have paid thousands in fees.... why would they have done
this to ME?" Let me answer that with a hypothetical question: If you were an
unregulated financial services company so embittered by fraud losses that
you, yourself, had completely lost whatever moral compass you might have once
possessed, what would YOU rather have: a happy, content customer who's
business might account for $5000 worth of fees over the next 10 years, or a
person who's pissed off and will NEVER do business with you again, BUT you've
got his $5000 up-front, TODAY- seized directly out of his account with no
appeal possible."
Pretty amazing stuff. AND very sad, when you consider they have to stoop to
these kinds of tactics when they are probably making about 1 million dollars
a week in fees.
Deadline for their hilarious Nazi automated verification system was given
as 15th March (5 days from locking to now). I may post an update when that
passes.
I emailed them via their web form and it bounced back. I knew it would, even
before I sent it. The resulting address was
webform@paypal.com.au. So I
re-sent the same email to
webform@paypal.com. After a few days I got a
response back from that stating that the subject line was changed and they
cannot process the email. That's pure bullshit of course. Any human can read
any email regardless of the content or subject.
I refuse to allow unlimited access to my bank accounts & credit cards. I
refuse to send them copies of my passport, drivers license, bank statements,
credit card statements, electricity/water bills etc. They want copies of
invoices and supplier contact info, none of which I have. They want me to add
a bank account and credit card, then verify them then authorise direct debit
from my bank account (not mentioning any specific amounts of course, just
that I would allow any debt to be recovered). It's a farce, and especially
troubling when you read stories at sites like
www.paypalsucks.com, especially
the 3 from ex-Paypal employees/managers on that site's main page in the right
lower column. I actually don't need either bank or credit card access anyway,
the money flows enough without needing it. I never had it before, I don't
need it now either. My account was quite old and was verified before. But it
was done by simply adding a credit card and that was it. After a few weeks I
removed it and it was still verified. That was at least 4-5 years ago when
paypal was kind of new and had less stringent conditions on their service.
Now my account is unverified and has $0 in it. I thought I'd play their little
game a bit and see what happens. So I kind of re-semi-verified parts of it. I
scanned some real documents in 1-bit black & white (basically useless
anyway), then changed pics/names/addresses with Photoshop to match my paypal
account and sent those, also removing any kind of other sensitive info like
bar codes and region-specific or person-specific text. I shortened some
numbers, changed names/addresses, account numbers etc, and everything is
black and white. No color letterheads, no color photos. I scanned a 10-year
old expired drivers license I had lying around linked to an address I
haven't lived at for over 5 years, changed the photo and altered the numbers
(made shorter/ added spaces), changed dates etc etc. All of the documents I
sent all have correlating names/addresses and other info. They are all a
perfect match, as they would normally be if you were to submit real
documents. Why paypal need photo ID is beyond me? They are 20000 miles way,
they have no idea what I look like and details on a drivers license don't
necessarily match a postal address or business address anyway. The documents
are useless even to thieves (= paypal). If someone did use them they would be
caught immediately because the numbers are not in the correct format
(spacing, missing hyphens, number of digits incorrect etc). It would
definitely send alarm bells ringing with any Australian government
organisation or bank. Some of the documents were accepted, others have
disappeared and they are re-asking for them. If you read the posts on the
site I mentioned, it's a stalling tactic to wear you down. They didn't lose
anything. They can't prove either way that they are not genuine simply
because they have no idea what happens in another country other than the U.S.
I could send them a used piece of toilet paper and tell them that's my bank
statement and technically they couldn't disprove it without some manual human
effort (which as we all know does not happen). hehehe. Actually that would be
quite hilarious to actually do!
I added an old credit card I haven't used for years then got their bullshit
number and verified it. Then immediately phoned the bank and cancelled the
card stating fraud (they'll re-issue another one with different numbers
I did the same thing with an old bank account that I haven't used for years.
Got their numbers, verified it then closed it. Both of those are now verified
in my paypal account. The bank verification is pretty worrying. They credit a
couple of small cent amounts to your account then ask you to wait 3-4 days
and submit those same amounts via the verification page. btw, they don't
actually wait 3-4 days before emailing you about the verification, they lock
the account and try to intimidate you with emails telling you to log into
your account and verify things immediately.... which of course you can't do
for 3-4 days until the bank processes those transactions. After verifying the
numbers the conditions come up (several pages) and one of them says you must
allow them to have direct debit access to your account. Its a general
statement, there's no specifics about what it's for. Basically you agree that
if you rack up some debt, you will let them take that money from your bank
account, even if you don't have it. Your bank account can go minus ringing
alarm bells at the bank too and causing a $45 fee to be charged to you per
transaction.
I thought about calling them too. Aside from it being long distance, I doubt
that will do any good. Read the
www.paypalsucks.com forum posts. The assholes
on the phone at the other end were flipping burgers yesterday. They have no
authority except to say 'no'.
It's pointless and probably all hope is lost. If you read the Terms of Service
agreement there's a clause where you agree not to sue them, and there's a few
other points where you basically agree to allow paypal to do whatever they
want. But if you don't agree you can not get use of a paypal account, so you
have to agree.
Complaining will do no good, neither will sending in all of the documents they
ask for even if you were stupid enough to send real copies of all of your
private info to an online company 20000 miles from you (think 'Identity
Theft'). If you read the comments on the site I mentioned above from the
ex-paypal manager, there is no 'review' board. They simply guess or flip a
coin and if you lose, they shut you down. They release about 2% of the
accounts in case they are sued in future and can quote their 'review' process
about doing good work and releasing some accounts after finding they were
cleared.
The big problem with paypal is everything is automated. Very few actual humans
do anything or intervene in anything. If you read one of the class action
suits against paypal from around 2002, the plaintiffs contend that because
PayPal's customer base has exceeded its operational capacity, PayPal has been
and continues to be unable to maintain and manage accounts in the manner
required by applicable state and federal legislation. In 2002 they had 10.6
million accounts. If you read the wikipedia paypal entry, it's estimated at
150 million now.
You can read the full case here....
http://pub.bna.com/eclr/021227.htmIdeally the government should step in and just shut it down and jail all of
the executives and permanently outlaw any kind of organisation doing the
same thing.
According to the ex-paypal manager, the only way out of this is to get a
lawyer and file suit. paypal knows this will cost them big dollars and will
drop their action immediately. However I'm 20000 miles from the U.S. and
assuming it will cost more than $5k anyway, it's pointless. AND paypal know
that!
So there you have it. They killed the Decapping Project and probably the
Dumping Project too. I have no desire to continue doing either. The Wanted
List will stay and I'll still keep dumping ROMs, but I won't be collecting
funds or buying anything else with those funds. Simply because the means to
collect those funds is now gone.
There is one option that comes to mind in order to continue, but I don't
know if it would work. Someone would need to donate a working, verified
paypal account for me to use. I would prefer a basic account that's about 4-5
years old and it must be without a bank account or credit card added. I don't
need or want those things anyway and I don't want to be accused of
compromising someones account. I would change the password and linked email
address (of course) so it would have to be one they don't need because they
would lose full control of it. I can then continue to do this good work. Only
this time I will be sure to remove all money much sooner instead of letting
it climb up to $5k and then risk losing it to a bunch of thieves (aka
paypal).
Another option is someone who is trustworthy could look after the funds using
their paypal account and work with me to buy other stuff like Randy and I did
a few years ago. However that person would be putting themselves at risk by
keeping the funds online so they would need to have an account where they are
able to withdraw funds daily. I would keep a basic paypal account too but only
for small amounts.
So what can you do about this situation?
For starters, Slashdot-ing it might get the word out there to more people.
If you use paypal, be VERY sure you remove most or all of the money often.
Do not leave money in the account you cannot afford to lose. Or ideally spend
the money online. Or do that then close it. In any case if you sent money
to me on or after 27th February, do a chargeback so the money is not lost.
At least you might be able to get it back and either re-donate it to someone
else or just recover it. Please be sure to wait for my 15th deadline post
before doing so or you could make things worse.
Do not ignore my advise. This is REAL people. Listen and act! I work full time
in a well-paid job. I don't need to rip off $5k from donations and kill my
8-year reputation and all of the good work I have done over those years. That
would be stupid and suicidal.
While I have your attention, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you
all for the support you have given me over the years. The Dumping Project
would not have been so successful without your help so you can feel proud that
you have made a real difference to improving MAME.
Regards,
Guru
http://www.mameworld.net/gurudumps/
