PayPal to fine gamblers
p2pnet.net News:- PayPal, which owes much of its early growth to online gambling, says it’ll fine people up to $500 for uses related to gambling, adult content or services, and buying or selling prescription drugs from noncertified sources.
Now part of the eBay auction empire, PayPal once received almost 10% of its revenue from online gambling, says Reuters here, going on that regulations prohibiting the processing of gambling and adult transactions followed its acquisition by eBay in 2002.
Starting September 24, PayPal will impose fines for violations and, “may take legal action to recover losses in excess of the fines”.
Ex-PayPal executive and author of “The PayPal Wars” Eric Jackson called the new policy “draconian,” says Retuers.
September 11th, 2004 at 8:48 pm
wonder when PayPal decided to become the moral police?
September 14th, 2004 at 8:10 pm
re: wonder when PayPal decided to become the moral police?
Summer of 2003, when they forced all members to accept their updated TOS, which included a “no adult items” rule.
$5000 fine for a perceived violation of TOS by a PayPal drone? No thanks!
No more PayPal!
September 15th, 2004 at 9:08 am
There are whole sites dedicated to saying paypal is, basically, evil,
so this shouldn’t come as too much of a shock.
For example you can check:
http://www.paypalsucks.com/
And there’s also the time they froze freenet’s account without appeal for supposedly using a proxy.
They changed their minds when it became clear they were getting bad press for it.
The news freenet ran at the time:
“Paypal has frozen the account we use to accept donations over the web, they refuse to give any reason other than “use of an anonymous proxy”, which suggests that someone at Paypal took a dislike to the goals of our project, since I have never used an anonymous proxy to access Paypal (this being the activity I assume they sought to prevent). It is fortunate that Johann Gutenberg did not rely on Paypal to fund his work on the printing press, which also allowed anonymous publication of information, since his account would probably have been frozen too.
If you are concerned about whether your account might be at risk due to your political opinions you may wish to speak to their PR contact Hani Durzy at (408) 376 7458. If you are an investor and you would like to see what other political opinions Paypal doesn’t like, you may want to speak to their Investor contact Tracey Ford at (408) 376 7205.
They have said that they will refund our outstanding balance ($550) by check, but all of the projects subscriptions have been canceled which is a significant setback. Other means of accepting donations, including E-Gold, are still active. Anyone wishing to make a donation by check should email me directly. Unfortunately neither of these methods are as convenient as Paypal, but we will do our best to find an alternative ASAP.
19th May, 2004 : Paypal grudgingly caves to public pressure
We received a seemingly automatic message from Paypal indicating that our account has been restored:
Thank you for taking the steps to restore your account access. Your patience and efforts increase security for our entire community of users.
Unfortunately, it seems that the steps they refer to involve being a sufficiently high-profile project that it generates potentially damaging publicity, and our concern about Paypal extends beyond those people that are capable of generating significant levels of negative attention.
Our feeling is that in the absence of an explanation or apology from Paypal, we will not continue to advocate usage of their service. Paypal may have a legal right to discontinue service to its customers, but it has a moral obligation to offer a reasonable explanation for its actions, particularly where a faithful and profitable customer such as the Freenet Project Inc is concerned.”