Paypal - Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

PayPal has 'randomly' selected me for re-verification as part of their ongoing effort to foil the bad guys. New password - no problem. New security questions - no problem. Verify address - BIG problem. To verify the address they have to make a trial transaction to one of my credit cards and this can take up to three days.

I've made hundreds of payments without incident but now I'm selected. Lucky me. OK, this is no big deal except that I have two sellers out there that want and deserve payment but I'm locked out until the process is complete.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

You'd think that they would grant you a grace period of at least a week during the re-verification process, so that you could continue to use the PayPal account as you have done with integrity in the past.

The one who thought up that policy must have been trained in Washington DC.

k

sigh I cant even tell you what came to my mind when I heard grrrrr - life

dear K,

i didnt know they could train anyone in Dc has there been a new development?

Laswabbie,
Did you confirm that this actually came from Paypal? I seem to remember hearing about a scam that ran something like what you are saying. Not wanting to scare you or anyone else, but it might be worth a phone call to Paypal to verify.

laaswabbie,
I have had to re-verify myself before but not to the seeming extreme amount you have gone through. maybe they have changed things. But, was this while you were already on the PayPal site and it happened? or was this an email you replied to?

yeah listent o devlin I had forgoten about the id theft angle

the second I read "Grrrrrrrrr" I just had to see this topic!

it looks like a as I've heard others say..."shoot first and ask questions later?" tsk tsk tsk.... not good

and to think I am about to enroll at paypal in about a weeks time from now, is there any other alternative aside from paypal?

Greg - if this email was addressed to you as "Dear Paypal user" and didn't address you by your name or Paypal ID, then it's a scam aimed at identity theft. It's a common one going around.

Not to suggest that you're not careful. But even if this was legit, it's a good time to remind people of potential scams. Common traits of this scam are the inclusion of a form to fill out or directing you to click on a link that takes you to a site that looks like Paypal but won't have the https at the start for a secure site (the link will look like it does, but the actual site won't.)

I hope you went into Paypal through your browser and not a link in the email. Paypal will never ask for ID or account information in an email, nor do they include hyperlinks in their emails, they always say "go to the help centre at https:/www.Paypal.com" etc without linking to it.

Balf

laswabbie, this had sort of happened to me, but in my case, my account at payPal had actually been hacked and unbeknownst to me, until I had checked, payment went out.

the re-verification process is not easy and the only thing that will get you through it is patience because there is no one there to yell at (just try to find a phone number) and it won't do any good, in any event.

Larry

yes nic ou could give me your credit card number and I will use it to charge items for you and you pay a 2% fee

nic:

http://www.moneybookers.com

I use PayPal, but I've recently discovered MoneyBookers -- don't know enough about them to give you a review. Maybe someone else knows more...

KirkS

Moneybookers (I don't belong (yet)) is used by a lot of European users on DelCampe and I see some on StampWants that accept it also. From what I read others saying it is roughly the same idea as PayPal but slightly different rules for some things.

There is also Google Checkout (not sure of link) that some sellers say they accept. Slightly different rules again.

In Europe they use bank to bank transfer somehow. I can set that up at my bank for sales or buys within Canada only but not to the USA or other countries. I believe this sytem does not charge the fees that PayPal and others do, or not as much. I noticed some sellers in Germany sayaing that they prefer this over eBay/PayPal.

ebay is supposed to allow one to accept Moneybookers I think but it does not come up as a choice when listing an item in Canada anyway. It is as safe as paypal (which is pretty safe).

very good points made by those who question whether it is legit paypal notice. I found paypal to be initally very intrusive because as part of the verification process they would be asking questions that generally only a bank would know (mother's maiden name, etc.) I refused to give that information. Unfortunately, many of the coin dealers were afraid that they would be thrown off ebay if they did not accept paypal as the only form of payment. Paypal is easy but giving important info over the computer is fraught with perils. I basically tie my paypal account to a second bank account with extremely low balance so essentially there is nothing to steal and any credit card # I would give as a fall back is a corporate, not personal card. Of course, not everyone has a company card to fall back on. In general, be very wary and cautious giving this kind of info over the internet.

Isn't PayPal part of ebay?

Sorry - I should have given more details. It WAS NOT an email or anything like that. When I logged on while trying to pay for an ebay lot it diverted me to the re-certify process. I've verified that it's legitimate, sent them an email complaining about no notice and such, gotten their canned reply about how important it is to maintain security, etc.

Yes abutt1, they were bought out by ebay.

I wouldn't really have a problem with the process if they had given me notice, or as someone said, allowed me to pay out the two sellers I already owed. Using PayPal is easy and convenient and I'll continue to do so, but this just put a burr under my saddle.

Thanks KirkS and Spock for the reply ,

yes am more than curious now, because I just had another email from my friends in USA warning about credit card scams which they call you up and manage to convince you in telling them your 3digit pin number at the back of the card. wow!