PayPal Will Steal All Your Money After the 180 Days

[terminator5505]

Hello

I'm sharing this to raise awareness people need to know that PayPal is not trustworthy. By using PayPal you agree upon their unfair TOS and they will eventually take all your money.
I've successfully processed a total of $160000 through PayPal in a period of 2 years. They stole $23000 after holding for 180 days.

As you may already know PayPal can hold your money randomly for 180 days and put restrictions on your account. No matter what you are selling or for how long this will probably happen to you at some point. They have some vague policy that they call "Acceptable Use Policy" and they may arbitrary decide you have broken one of their rules and will not tell you what is wrong you have done exactly.

Till late 2019 it was known to me that after 180 days they release the funds and allow you to link a desired withdrawal method to take your money like any other payment processor. Recently and starting from late 2020 I have noticed that all my accounts got hold for 180 days. Now after 180 days passed they took all my money and didn't release the funds. You login to find your balance as zero and all your hard earned funds was transferred to PayPal with a description "Damages caused to PayPal by Acceptable Use Policy violation(s);."

If you ever try to complain you will run in loops with their lazy customer support departments for months and you will eventually understand they have already seized your funds without notice based on their sole decision. Recently this is happening with everyone, they obviously decided they will scam sellers for their money. I have attached some screenshots from some friends and business partners and I have a lot more from friends and business contacts who faced the very same situation. What I can see for sure they are scamming sellers from all countries. You can make a simple Google search for "Damages caused to PayPal be Acceptable Use Policy" you will find thousands of people sharing their story how they got scammed by PayPal. Everyone was running a different business type and they all got scammed the same way and never got their money back. There is a Discord server dedicated to this issue with hundreds of people sharing their stories and screenshots I can share the link here if @Admin approves.

It is understandable that a payment processor may craft their TOS to protect their business and hold money for 6 months to cover chargebacks. It is totally not acceptable for them to take the money after the 180 days pass. No matter what you are selling it is your hard earned money and not PayPal's money. Taking sellers money for damages without a court order is obviously stealing.

I believe anyone in a similar situation can only get their money back by suing them so if anybody knows if there is a class action law suit against PayPal or a unified effort against them please share it.

Thank you

 

[Martin Everson]

I stopped using PayPal over 16 years ago. In 2021 there is no reason to be using such a provider.

 

[terminator5505]

I stopped using PayPal over 16 years ago. In 2021 there is no reason to be using such a provider.

Good for you, but most people are still using PayPal because they obviously didn't get robbed by them just yet. It is just a matter of time. Anyone using them will eventually end with the same situation.

I'm just shocked how recently a huge company like PayPal with 290 billion dollars market cap decided to just steal the money of their sellers/users. They seize the money without notice under their sole decision without a court order.

There are groups of people trying to start a class action lawsuit against them like this on discord you will find new people posting how PayPal stole all their money every day, each one selling different stuff and they are from different countries.
Unfortunately law firms would not accept these kind of cases. Quantum Legal, LLC, which was one of the law firms that argued and won Zepeda v. PayPal Inc. replied that they are not pursuing further lawsuits against PayPal at this time. PayPal has arbitration clauses included in their agreements which bar class actions and make litigation against them exceedingly difficult for consumers.

PayPal is now obviously running a huge scam and they had their lawyers craft their TOS to prevent people suing them. If anyone in a similar situation they better start sharing their experience with the media. People from US should start contacting their congressperson and/or senator.

 

[12345]

Thanks for sharing that
One thing to add is that when it comes to disputes paypal always favours buyers, especially with digital services that you can't prove delivery of with something like a tracking number. I lost a few thousand dollars with customers fraudulent disputes, I attached proof, screenshots customers confirming delivery, also 1 time screenshots where the guy was making fun of me that he will dispute paypal and get his money back! Still lost the dispute, all of them, despite having business account with nice history.

I tried to introduce different payment methods and even offered discounts, but PayPal is the most known service of this type and people don't like changes so my sales dropped. I had to continue accepting PayPal and acknowledge that some % of paymets will just get stolen

So if you offer digital services and especially when dealing with unreliable people (for example when selling adult content, computer games it is more likely to happen) keep in mind you can get chargebacked in 180 days. Scammers might also target you if you sell digital goods that can be easly resold

One would say that it is the same like CC chargeback but it is not, CC chargeback is more serious procedure it scares away most scammers, while with PayPal they feel careless

 

[Martin Everson]

PayPal has arbitration clauses included in their agreements which bar class actions and make litigation against them exceedingly difficult for consumers.

Great reason not to use them.

One thing to add is that when it comes to disputes paypal always favours buyers, especially with digital services that you can't prove delivery of with something like a tracking number. I lost a few thousand dollars with customers fraudulent disputes, I attached proof, screenshots customers confirming delivery, also 1 time screenshots where the guy was making fun of me that he will dispute paypal and get his money back! Still lost the dispute, all of them, despite having business account with nice history.

This is EXACTLY what happened to me 16 years ago as a seller of a digital service. The scam charge-backs caused me a lot of damage. Never used PP since and stuck to wire transfer only.

 

[terminator5505]

UPDATE: Eric Bensamochan Law Firm and Poker Player Chris Money maker are starting a class action lawsuit regarding this scandal. You can Google this to find how to contact them and get your money back from PayPal.

 

[orangeye]

Have you got your money back?

After they froze and closed one of my accounts the money was available for withdrawal after the 180 days. They didn't stole the money, they hold it (like most payment processors do) for the 180 days to avoid losses.

 

[Rosanna]

Have you got your money back?

After they froze and closed one of my accounts the money was available for withdrawal after the 180 days. They didn't stole the money, they hold it (like most payment processors do) for the 180 days to avoid losses.

Sometimes they seize the money if thr account owner violates some policy.

 

[orangeye]

Sometimes they seize the money if thr account owner violates some policy.

Means if I have 4000$ in the account and violated their policy they just keep the money! Really, have you tried that?

 

[Rosanna]

Means if I have 4000$ in the account and violated their policy they just keep the money! Really, have you tried that?

Even if you have $200, 000. They will take it.

I think it's called violation of acceptable policy. Something like that. Last time they took 1k from my account.

 

[blackmax]

I can confirme, they sized 5000 euro from my business UK paypal account for violating policy, without any chance of appeal.

 

[rolex]

Thanks for sharing that
One thing to add is that when it comes to disputes paypal always favours buyers, especially with digital services that you can't prove delivery of with something like a tracking number. I lost a few thousand dollars with customers fraudulent disputes, I attached proof, screenshots customers confirming delivery, also 1 time screenshots where the guy was making fun of me that he will dispute paypal and get his money back! Still lost the dispute, all of them, despite having business account with nice history.

I tried to introduce different payment methods and even offered discounts, but PayPal is the most known service of this type and people don't like changes so my sales dropped. I had to continue accepting PayPal and acknowledge that some % of paymets will just get stolen

So if you offer digital services and especially when dealing with unreliable people (for example when selling adult content, computer games it is more likely to happen) keep in mind you can get chargebacked in 180 days. Scammers might also target you if you sell digital goods that can be easly resold

One would say that it is the same like CC chargeback but it is not, CC chargeback is more serious procedure it scares away most scammers, while with PayPal they feel careless

f*****g thieves. same thing happened to me.

 

[bisovo]

In 2021 they did the same to me, we had a solicitor send a letter to them and it seemed to do the trick as they ended up giving the funds back. I cannot remember details of the letter as my business partner handled this but it may be worth a try.

 

[JohnLocke]

Did anyone of you got your money from paypal after some time ? We got ours back in time when they shut down our 10 years old account. It took only 1 - 2 months to get the money back, so it wasn't a big issue.

 

[Hazard]

Hello,

I came across this while reading various threads, I've been using paypal for years and had similar problems, and there is one way to get money "back" and that's so that when someone sends you money, there is possibility to return it to them even if your account is blocked or need verification (if you send/receive money over 2.5k if am correct,not sure), of course it only works in case if someone you know sent you money or you know him personally, it might not save everything, but at least something

 

[terminator5505]

Just an update as I was inactive here for some years. Back then I was able to recover some of my funds after I've sued them in the small claims court without a lawyer to avoid litigation fees. The process involved negotiations with their dirty Denton's firm lawyers they will try to blackmail you with counter cases to drop your case. They will make you sign a useless NDA to get only a small portion of your funds. This was some years ago and what I know now is that they became more aggressive and they may go further with cases without you getting any money.

Also as far as I know Eric Bensamochan lost the case too so don't put hopes in a class action lawsuit. My advice to anyone reading this is to avoid PayPal it is a big corporation scam. There are many alternatives to accept payments safely.