Posted on 01/14/2022 2:16:57 PM PST by algore
Three PayPal users who've allegedly had their accounts frozen and funds taken by the company without explanation have filed a federal lawsuit against the online payment service.
The plaintiffs — two users from California and one from Chicago — are accusing the company of unlawfully seizing their personal property and violating racketeering laws.
They're now proposing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all other users who've had their accounts frozen before and are seeking restitution, as well as punitive and exemplary damages.
Lena Evans, one of the plaintiffs who'd been a PayPal user for 22 years, said the website seized $26,984 from her account six months after it got frozen without ever telling her why.
Evans had been using PayPal to buy and sell clothing on eBay, to exchange money for a poker league she owns and for a non-profit that helps women with various needs.
Fellow plaintiff Roni Shemtov said PayPal seized over $42,000 of her money and never got an acceptable reason for why her account was terminated.
She received several different explanations when she contacted the company: One customer rep said it was because she used the same IP and computer as other Paypal users, while another said it was because she sold yoga clothing at 20 to 30 percent lower than retail.
Yet another representative allegedly said it was because she used multiple accounts, which she denies.
Shbadan Akylbekov, the third plaintiff, said PayPal seized over $172,000 of his money without giving him any explanation why the account got limited in the first place.
After the money disappeared from the account following a six-month freeze, PayPal allegedly sent his wife a letter that says she "violated PayPal's User Agreement and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
(Excerpt) Read more at engadget.com ...
Three out of how many million customers? Companies this large get sued literally every day.
So you want to minimize what they did? Pay Pal has no right to just seize assets from their users.
People should not have to hire a lawyer and go to court to get their money.
I don’t think Paypal should be sued unless theft was their policy. But, the people who made the decisions to take the money should be charged with felony theft and have the money repaid, if guilty, from their personal funds.
WF let ID theft happen and it was pretty clear it was an employee. Got it fixed. No more WF! No more Ashley Furniture, either. Same thing, employee related.
I fought with them for almost a year to get 3500 back from those crooks.
They did finely let me have it.
I have issues with Engadget’s terms to access the article and will not do so.
My sister, who was selling original artwork on evilBay, lost a couple thousand $$ due to a PayPal screwup. That was a good many years ago. She had no money for lawyers - just had to eat it.
My own story is that I had two episodes of fraudulent charges on my MasterCard in the space of six months or so. Nice lady at the issuing bank told me both times that the ID theft was traced back to PayPal. Insiders, probably. I was selling off motorcycle parts. Had to stop that.
Occasionally I see a small online vendor using PayPal to process credit card transactions. I only buy if I really need the item and there is no alternative seller. Not boycotting so much as I just don’t trust them.
I tried numerous times to cancel my PayPal account. They always had an excuse why they “couldn’t”. I still get notices from via email.
Paypal has always by dodgy about money in the accounts. Most vendors will set up their accounts so that the paypal account is a mostly pass through, where any balance will get scraped daily (or whatever) into some checking account or something.
heck, I remember having to set this up back in the early naughts.
And I was upset that the Boston Globe banned me from posting (which is why I paid their low discount rate) and would not (could not) tell me what I specifically posted in violation of its TOS despite many emails, but falsely claimed posting external links (in documentation) was forbidden which it is not, and others did so. Yet they have no problem refusing a refund.
Thank you! You are correct! This should be referred to their local DA. (Who will hopefully take this seriously!)
I thought with most of the large companies nowadays arbitration was required.
“I tried numerous times to cancel my PayPal account.”
They wanted to close my account about two years ago and I let them.
I can generally pay with a debit card and simply wait to buy until my bank account balance is just a few hundred dollars.
I had $75 disappear from a refund. It never arrived in my bank account. Paypal says it was transferred. They were never able to give me the ACH number of the transfer.
The issue with Paypal is I’ve never been able to talk to someone in the US about the problem.
I’m curious how many other small sums went missing.
Yes, and small claims court as a backup.
only a fool leaves money in a paypal account ... i transfer any paypal payments or refunds to my bank account within minutes of receiving any payment ...
i got screwed once MANY years ago when i accidentally left some money in a paypal account, and when i tried to make a payment to an ebay seller, paypal MADE me use the paypal balance instead of a CC ... turns out the seller was 100% fraudulent and my only option at that point was to use paypal’s BS resolution service, which took a big chunk off the top as a service “fee” ... never again ... i never have a paypal balance, so i can always use a CC to make paypal/ebay payments and if anything at all goes wrong, the CC company always gives me my money back, no questions asked ...
“Three out of how many million customers?”
So it would be no big deal to you if they seized your money, right?
I mean what the hell, so long as it’s just four people getting robbed why should you care?
Probably a heck of a lot more will join the class action lawsuit. Companies like that get sued because they are running a RICO operation.
Why did they leave that much money in their PayPal accounts?
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