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Paypal Charged Under PATRIOT Act

Posted by Hemos on from the fighting-them-man dept.

A reader writes: "Yahoo has the story: Paypal has been charged under the PATRIOT act for accepting and profiting from transactions with illegal gambling sites. According to their new rules they will no longer allow gambling payments due to the higher chargeback risk. It's good to see them charged for something, even if they have never had to atone for the thousands of customer dollars they have stolen." I know of a number people who've had problems, but I will say that I've had no problems with PayPal - on both my personal account and on the Subscription side of things.

16 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. PATRIOT Act? by MeanMF · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yet more evidence that the PATRIOT act had little or nothing to do with actual terrorism...

    1. Re:PATRIOT Act? by swingkid · · Score: 5, Funny

      well, it terrifies me, if that counts

  2. PATRIOT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How is illegal gambling a matter of national security unless "terrorists" are directly profitting from it?

    1. Re:PATRIOT by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Informative
      Gambling is a *huge* money laundry machine. Nevada cracked down on it, but offshore/foreign gambling sites don't have as many rules.


      If you've got a big stash of illegal cash (drug money. crime money, terrorist money), what better way to legitimize it than claim you just got really lucky?

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    2. Re:PATRIOT by Palos · · Score: 5, Informative

      It was amended to the Patriot act like many other things before it was finalized, because no one would actually oppose the patriot act, and it everyone knew it would be approved quickly. The actual regulations concerning gambling fall under the "Bank Secrecy Act" part of the bill. More details can be found here.

  3. This was coming all along... by Str8Dog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    PayPal has been used for quite a while in the grey market... DSS hacking hardware, Drugs by mail, Betting... It was only a matter of time they got busted for it. They are profiting on illegal activities.

    --


    Str8Dog
    using System.Darkside; public
    1. Re:This was coming all along... by Qzukk · · Score: 5, Funny

      They are profiting on illegal activities.

      In other news, the US mint was raided by the FBI today for producing materials which were often used in illegal transactions, as well as possessed by many terrorists and potential terrorists.

      "We feel that by striking now, we can keep this stuff out of the hands of people who do bad things," one agent said, under condition of anonymity. While stuffing evidence into large bags, he added "This stuff is the root of all evil." The agent declined to comment on rumors that Washington DC area banks would be the next targets of anti-terrorism action, stating that he "didn't want to tip off the bad guys."

      The Homeland Security department heads were unavailable to comment. When pressed, their secretaries indicated that they were currently in a meeting to determine how to confiscate all of "this air stuff" the terrorists seem to be breathing.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    2. Re:This was coming all along... by Str8Dog · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I think that argument is coming to an end soon. Claiming international entity to cover for the fact you are processing illegal transactions is BS legal double speak. The fact still remains this company is based out of CA and will be procecuted as such.

      As for the US Mint Post, that is not the same thing. The US Mint does not have direct knowledge of any transactions and they dont skim a percentage off the top.

      --


      Str8Dog
      using System.Darkside; public
    3. Re:This was coming all along... by whm · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If my bank charges a transaction fee for checks I write, and I write a check for black-market goods, is my bank "profiting on illegal activities"? How is that logical?

      Whether they are legally a bank or not, PayPal's role in the transaction was as a bank, and they are profiting on the transaction, not on the goods. It should not be the responsibility of PayPal to audit all transactions.

  4. It's all in the name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Put patriot in front of something and it doesn't work as advertised:

    Patriot Missle
    PATRIOT Act

    etc..

  5. Laugh or Cry? by micheas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't like PayPal. So seeing them nailed under the Patriot act if kind of funny, But, using the Patriot act this way is confirming the worst fears of everyone aout this act.

    It is truely sad when the fight for our rights is being led by companies like PayPal.

    --
    Work bio at MMWD
  6. Your bad by sevensharpnine · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know of a number people who've had problems, but I will say that I've had no problems with PayPal - on both my personal account and on the Subscription side of things.

    Careful now, Hemos, the advertisements go on the TOP of the page, and the stories go on the BOTTOM. Please be more careful in the future.

    --
    "God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." -Voltaire
  7. Hmmm... by jpmahala · · Score: 5, Funny


    "It's good to see them charged for something, even if they have never had to atone for the thousands of customer dollars they have stolen."

    Sounds like someone has a bit of a grudge, eh?

  8. Not Charged by bellings · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to the linked article (which neither the editor nor the submitter took the time to read, apparently) Paypal has not been charged under the PATRIOT act. Instead, "the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri claims the company's PayPal operation violated part of the USA Patriot Act", which is an entirely different thing.

    Wake me up when the bat-shit insane puritan who runs the Justice Department decides to file real charges, instead of just sending out thinly veiled extortion letters.

    --
    Slashdot is jumping the shark. I'm just driving the boat.
  9. This is screwed up on so many levels by AssFace · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am torn on this one. I use PayPal and have transferred a lot of money back and forth - but never at one time (meaning many small - max under $1000 transactions). They have been just fine for me.
    It is great if you have a household of shared rent and bills and you want to easily pay one central person without any paper checks.

    But I don't think that it is fair that PayPal is allowed to bypass the bank laws for the most part.

    I do know (not personally as in "my mother" but personally in the sense that I have "spoken" with them on the net via e-mail and discussion boards) people that have had 10s of thousands of dollars get locked up by PayPal.
    I trust PayPal for my small $300 transactions, and I even have it hooked up to my bank without too much worry on my part. But from what I have heard of others, I would not keep large sums of money in there (the few people that I know had over $50K in there when it was frozen and then basically taken from them).

    To be fair, the people I know that had their money taken were doing illegal things - so it became very hard for them to seek legal action against PayPal. It would be amusing to approach the athorities and try to explain that PayPal stole from you money that you were not going to claim on taxes and was obtained via non-legal ways.
    Whether or not PayPal kept that money when they realized what was happening, or if they just freeze any high $$ accounts (I had heard that they freeze them all if they are high $$ and/or high traffic so that they can investigate them and then unfreeze them if they are "okay"... not sure what is "okay" and who determines that).

    I know a close friend that used a credit card only once in 2 years, and the one time that they used it was to sign up for a website subscription (not slashdot) via PayPal.
    She then quickly had many charges run up on her card - it was someone that had stolen it. She had to run through circles with PayPal and the cc company to resolve it - in the end, it was someone at PayPal.

    And then the gambling. I personally have no issues with gambling - I don't have a moral issue with it - and the only reason the states really doesn't like it (no matter what moral claims they state), is that it is not something they can tax.
    So I don't personally feel that gambling should some get in trouble for this.

    Were I for some reason allowed to make decisions on all of this - I would want PayPal to be treated legally like a bank, and I would want gambling to be allowed to stay on the continental states and then taxed.
    As for the drug dealers that lose their money... I'm pretty ambivalent on that one.

    --

    There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
  10. Why is anyone surprised? by dafz1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One, the PATRIOT Act was something than Atty. Gen. Ashcroft came up with as a result of an order from dubya not to let 9/11 happen again. The problem is, he sat in his office and came up with all of these wacked security ideas that he never checked with anyone in the administration to make sure it wasn't political suicide. He even wanted to suspend habeas corpus(look that one up on your own) for the first time since the Civil War(all of this is a summary of an article in Newsweek a couple weeks ago). Remember, this guy is Attorney General because he lost the Missouri U.S. Senate race to a man who died a month before the election. Two, in California, there has been a ruling that if you use your credit card to gamble online, not only has the credit card company broken the law, but you can sue them because they "gave" you a method to break the law(not to mention you don't have to pay that part of your credit card bill). So, kill all the lawyers. People need to learn to be responsible for their own actions. It's not PayPal's or your credit card company's responsibilty to make sure you don't break the law. The three biggest lies. 1. Yes, I'll respect you in the morning. 2. The check is in the mail. 3. I'm from the government, I'm here to help you.