Consumer complaint received 2021-09-01
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: NC
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Other service problem

Complaint:
I have been a PAYPAL Holdings INC member for 9 years and theyve processed over {$1.00} XXXX in payments for me. On XX/XX/XXXX I received an email stating that I can no longer use PayPal. I immediately called PAYPAL on XX/XX/XXXX to find out why I was suspended and they would not give me any specific answers. Just stating restricted items. I spent about six hours on the phone trying to figure out why I was suspended with PayPal giving me no answers and refusing to reinstate my account. They told me the decision is final and I can not appeal. 

Since I was pretty sure I did not violate PAYPALs acceptable use policy and I know PAYPALs history of wrongfully suspending people I decided to file a complaint with the XXXX XXXX XXXX. I received specific answers through the XXXX  from PAYPAL stating that there were several risk factors associated with my account. Upon reading the risk factors PAYPAL claimed as to why I was suspended I did not recognize any of the information. I will provide the information below however based on the information I received through the XXXX XXXX XXXX I assumed that someone had potentially created a PayPal account in my name. I called PAYPAL upon receiving the information from the XXXX XXXX XXXX  report and XXXX with PAYPAL created a ticket ID XXXX to have my account reinstated. PAYPAL made claims that I received {$2600.00} in friends and family payments and I knew that was incorrect when I called them they confirmed to me that I receive XXXX dollars USD on my PayPal account. PAYPAL also claimed that I had one or more accounts that were associated with my information and that it had limited access. I explained to PAYPAL that I only have one account this one that I created XXXX years ago. After waiting 10 days I received an email simply stating that my account would remain suspended forever. 

After spending literally hours on the phone with PAYPAL they would not tell me where they were getting this information from they would not tell me why I was still being suspended if they could not prove this information was correct. I explained to PAYPAL that I did not recognize the information I did not do any of it therefore I did not violate PAYPALs acceptable use policy and explained that my account should not be suspended if I did not violate any policies. PAYPAL even went as far as to tell me that if someone stole my information and created another account and did something that I had no knowledge of it would not matter they would still keep my account suspended and that the decision was final. 

The truth is that PAYPAL has been wrongfully suspending people for years maybe the entire time theyve been in business. Based on what it looks like on my end it appears that PAYPAL made up information to suspend my account because they can not verify that any of the information that they provided is accurate or true or that it even happened. 

Here is my response to the XXXX  case I have not heard back from PAYPAL at this time. 

The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business. ) Hi XXXX  I'm sorry I can not accept this as a resolution for the reasons outlined below. I have been in contact with PayPal via phone and explain the situation. XXXX was very helpful and opened a ticket for me which at this time is still in review. The ticked id # is XXXX. Based on the limited information provided it appears someone created an account with my info sent money around and possibly sold a restricted item. 

I see that you have reached out to our customer support team via call from XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/2021 where you asked for detailed explanation on account limitation and funds being held however, teammates provided only basic information on limitation due to proprietary reason. Below is the detailed explanation. 

The first thing I noticed is I did not receive an email from PayPal about my account suspension until the XXXX of XXXX. Above it states I was in contact starting XX/XX/XXXX which I wasn't. I immediately called PayPal on the XXXX which records will show from my registered phone number. 

A recent review of your PayPal account shows that onXXXX XXXX, XXXX, PayPal placed limitationXXXXXXXX on your account as we found there may be excessive risk involved in doing business with you, following risk factors were identified : - Multiple accounts with limited access - Based on a review of your account, we show that you are associated to one or more PayPal accounts which currently have limited access and we can confirm that the accounts share the following information : financials, phone number, email address and address. 

I do not have any other PayPal accounts nor have I created ANY PayPal accounts since this one XXXX  years ago. Prior to that I had a personal PayPal account which I stopped using once I opened this business account. I don't see how it's possible to share the same email for separate PayPal accounts and the financial info is also very concerning. I have not seen any transactions come through my bank out of the ordinary and I confirmed with my bank there have been no breaches. 

Your account has received an excessive amount of personal payments sent as Friends/Family. In the past you received XXXX payments from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX totaling {$2600.00} USD. These payments pose a higher risk of reversal due to chargebacks or ACH returns and are not eligible for Seller Protection. 



I use my PayPal account to take payments for my business and although I sometimes send money to friends and family I knew this amount was incorrect. I confirmed with the agent XXXX that I had only made a single {$40.00} payment as friends and family not received {$2600.00} as stated above so this information was very alarming. I received {$0.00} USD in friends and family payments which PayPal confirmed. 

I explained everything to XXXX on my call on XX/XX/XXXX. I told him I do not have any other accounts nor have I created any accounts since opening this one XXXX  years ago. I told him that I definitely did not send {$2600.00} in friends and family payments and he confirmed I paid only one {$40.00} payment and took in website payments. XXXX took my complaint seriously and created a ticket. He said if you didn't do anything wrong we had no reason to suspend you to which I agreed. 

The fact is that I have absolutely no knowledge of the provided information and I know for a fact I did not create any other accounts or send that amount in friends and family which makes PayPal account reflects. After thinking about it I asked myself why would I need to create an additional PayPal account to transfer money around when I already have a PayPal account and can use many other means to send funds if needed. It would literally make no sense for me to even take the time to create an additional PayPal account. 

So even though you said I can not appeal etc in light of this new and disturbing information I request that you look into this situation immediately so we can get to the bottom of this. Not only do I need to get my account reinstated since I have done nothing wrong but also I need to know that my bank account info etc is safe and not compromised. 

I had told PayPal agents are over and over again that I did not violate the acceptance use policy since I knew I didn't. Then when I received this info I knew I was correct and contacted PayPal immediately. They are currently looking into this situation and I am expecting that my account will be reinstated since I did not do anything mentioned in this report or violate the acceptable use policy. 

If there was a restricted item sold it was not on my account it was on the account someone created in my name. So what we have here is a case of identity theft. I think you would agree with me that it would not be fair to suspend me because someone stole my identity and created a PayPal account. If that is what happened. 

I am here to work with PayPal and I am willing to provide any necessary documentation or information to get my account reinstated. I am also willing to cooperate with any potential investigation. I know for a fact I did not create any PayPal accounts, receive {$2600.00} in friends and family, or sell any restricted items. Therefore I did not violate the acceptable use policy. 

I take payments for gold and silver, send and pay invoices etc with my PayPal account. I very rarely send money as friends and family. Therefore if I have done nothing wrong I should not be suspended. This has already disrupted my business and taken a mental toll on me. I have spent hours and hours on the phone with PayPal because I know for a fact I am completely innocent of ANY wrongdoing. 

Therefore I can not accept being suspended from PayPal for the rest of my life. I shouldn't be suspended now and I don't understand why ips, devices, etc etc were not checked before suspending me. I can guarantee there were no accounts created on my ip or any of my devices. I did not create any PayPal accounts on any other devices nor did I instruct anyone to create a PayPal account or accounts with my info. 

I am hoping that by the time you receive this my account has been re-evaluated and reinstated. I will also remind you that a full security check was done on my account in XXXX. I had to send in documents and everything checked out fine as it should have been. 

I am responding to this case to shed some light on the situation and because I only have 10 days. I have had a great relationship with PayPal and once this situation is fixed I hope to continue having a good business relationship moving forward. Again I have done nothing wrong therefore I should not be suspended. 

I have emailed you at the email provided but at this time have not received a response. Please look into this situation if necessary as I said PayPal is reviewing all of this information currently in order to move forward with reinstating my PayPal account. 

I look forward to your response and working with PayPal again. If you need any additional information please let me know. 
Kind Regards XXXX I believe PAYPAL made all of this information up just to give them a reason to suspend me because I have no knowledge of any of it. They would not tell me where they were getting the {$2600.00} from that I supposedly received and they confirmed that I did not have any other accounts in my name. I know I didnt sell any restricted items because all I do is sell precious metals and I did not sell anything out of the ordinary. There have been a lot of people recently showing up in online forums etc. that have been also wrongfully and from PAYPAL. If people violate PayPals acceptable use policy then I guess it is OK for PAYPAL to suspend them. However if PAYPAL is literally making up things to suspend people like they did with me I think you would agree that this kind of business practice has no place in the financial sector. This has hurt my sales on my website taking hours and hours of my time caused a tremendous amount of stress on me and the truth is I did not violate PAYPALs acceptable use policy. 

PAYPAL has a history of wrongfully suspending and banning people for the rest of their lives and I believe this business practice needs to be stopped. PAYPAL is hurting innocent business owners, the economy and humanity in general by wrongfully suspending peoples PayPal accounts. I even told PAYPAL that if they had given me a valid reason as to why I was why I was suspended then I would not have even questioned them for suspending me. I have known about PAYPALs history ever since I created a PayPal account XXXX years ago but I never really looked into it too much. 

It is my opinion that these business practices all of them need to stop immediately you can not ban people when they have done nothing wrong you can not hurt peoples businesses when they have done nothing wrong. 

I hope you can help me to make sure that PAYPAL does not continue to get away with these shady business practices and wrongfully suspending people and banning them from PAYPAL. Not only did they block my PayPal account they also blocked my Venmo account and they will also not let me check out through an actual PayPal system on websites. So my debit card is even blocked from being able to be used on the PAYPAL system. This whole situation is completely ridiculous on PAYPALs part and should be illegal. 

I hope that I have provided enough information for you to be able to take action if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation