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Paypal Reverses Payments Made To Indians

bhagwad writes "Beginning January 28, Paypal has been reversing the payments made to any Indian provider of services. In addition, Indian users have been unable to withdraw their money to their bank accounts. As a result, a large number of Indian Paypal accounts have negative balances running into the thousands of dollars. The worst part is that users weren't informed beforehand — the funds were just whisked away. Indian providers have gone ballistic, with over 2,000 posts on a thread on the reversal of payments and over 700 posts on this thread about the delay in transfers. Paypal hasn't given any explanation to this behavior other than they're looking into it. Although Paypal claims in the above blog post that payments made for 'Services' are not being reversed, this is not true. All payments not made for 'Goods' with a shipping address have been reversed — in fact, the Paypal e-mail tells the Indian sellers to encourage their clients to lie and claim that they're paying for goods with a shipping address instead."

83 of 509 comments (clear)

  1. Makes me wonder... by lag10 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why anyone trusts PayPal with their money.

    1. Re:Makes me wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nobody trusts Paypal, but there is no viable alternative. Not yet, anyway, but that can't take long in light of these shenenigans.

    2. Re:Makes me wonder... by davester666 · · Score: 5, Funny

      New meaning to the racist term "indian giver"...

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    3. Re:Makes me wonder... by MikeFM · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't. They arbitrarily started reversing all my payments after I'd shipped product and provided tracking numbers proving delivery. Cost me thousands of dollars and put me out of business. Now they want me to pay them $800 because they not only cleaned out my account but I guess gave away even more. And you pretty much have no recourse but to keep feeling out online forms asking what the frick is going on. Been using Google Checkout and Amazon Payments and they seem viable alternatives. I don't leave money sitting in accounts attached to order processing though because who knows what they'll do to you. Credit card / order protection is a scam. The venders get ripped for no reason. I think unless fraud can be proven there should be no refund and then it should become a legal matter. The credit companies charge fees but they don't cover any of the costs. It all comes from venders.

      --
      At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
    4. Re:Makes me wonder... by bvankuik · · Score: 4, Interesting

      No viable alternative? What about a normal bank transfer? I used to pay an Indian guy via Paypal but their charges are pretty steep. So I informed with my local European bank for the costs and it turns out this is much cheaper. Problem fixed.

    5. Re:Makes me wonder... by witherstaff · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's not very convenient for instant or simple online sales. Also you normally get hit with a $15 wire transfer fee on top of it. For large purchases it's doable, for paying some coder by the hour it'd be a hassle.

    6. Re:Makes me wonder... by terraformer · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://www.gunpal.net/
      It's an alternative.

      --
      Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
    7. Re:Makes me wonder... by brusk · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, it's a fee you pay for a regular wire transfer from one bank to another. Its absence is what makes PayPal so convenient.

      --
      .sig withheld by request
    8. Re:Makes me wonder... by pete6677 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What would it take to modernize our banking system? Its 2010; paper checks should hardly ever be necessary anymore.

    9. Re:Makes me wonder... by popsicle67 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm sure you've thought of this, but it sounds to me like you should sue Paypal for everything they took from you, plus all the additional damages you've suffered (entire loss of your business), and probably lawyer's fees too. You may even be able to tack some kind of statutory damages on top too.

      After all the time and money it takes to bring suit and win you still have to hound the defendant to get paid. The only recourse to not getting paid is to sue.

    10. Re:Makes me wonder... by Truekaiser · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Digital records can be easily altered and it takes tools most banks don't have to tell when and by whom. Paper records are more secure.

    11. Re:Makes me wonder... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2, Informative

      A internet bank transfer costs zero in Australia.

      Inter- or intra- bank (or both)?

      How do your banks get away with such charges?

      Regulatory capture.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    12. Re:Makes me wonder... by rolfwind · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nobody trusts Paypal, but there is no viable alternative. Not yet, anyway, but that can't take long in light of these shenenigans.

      They've been saying that about the shenanigans since the beginning of the 2000s.

      The fact is that Paypal acts like a bank but without any of the regulations. A bank can't freeze your assets and the like just because they don't like you or what you do -- only the government can do that. Something's got to give here: the last crisis showed banks can't regulate themselves on a trustworthy level.

      There are alternatives: google checkout and a myriad of others. Since ebay doesn't allow competition to their paypal - it makes it harder though...

    13. Re:Makes me wonder... by muphin · · Score: 2, Informative

      there are differences between an internet bank transfer and a wire transfer. Internet banking transfers can only transfer to a bank within the country of origin, the Wire transfer is used for international banks, where there is more overhead processing, therefore is usually a set fee or a percentage of the transfer. In Australia the wire transfer fee is $30 (CBA) and that was transferring $7k

      a majority of people use paypal because its easy, there are protections in place (when they feel like protecting you) and its a trusted platform (you dont have to give your credit card details out to every company you deal with)
      If you rely on paypal for an income your an idiot, as its been well established that any dispute or problem and your money gets held up for months. If your paying a coder you usually keep the money in a escrow account, paying for goods you usually use your credit card (but paying internationally with paypal is cheaper and easier). If i was a coder i would prefer the money to be in escrow (unless your a dodgy indian coder, which i have had my fair share of and refuse to hire anyone indian).

      and you always gotta be wary of people who use western union or transactions in e-gold.

      --
      It's not a typo if you understood the meaning!
    14. Re:Makes me wonder... by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Interesting

      No viable alternative? What about a normal bank transfer?

      The US does not allow for that. The banks don't link into other banking systems seamlessly. They treat the account number as a password (despite it being on the face of every check). The US just doesn't do it. Most of the other countries on the planet have banks that let you transfer money to other banks in that country with a phone call, over the web, in a branch, or maybe even other ways without any problems at all. A large portion of money moves directly between banks electronically (rather than checks, as used in the US).

      Hell, I have a fellow customer at the same branch of a US bank that wanted to send me money. It's impossible, according to Wells Fargo, to transfer more than $1000 from one account holder to another. The person may have been misinformed, but the person trying to get me money tried more than once with different people and couldn't do it. The only option is to not transfer it within the bank (meaning, withdrawal the money completely, the deposit it again, which can be done at the same time at the teller, but can't be done by phone, fax, ATM, online, or such, when such options are available outside the US almost everywhere).

      With that system, I declare that to be "no viable alternative."

    15. Re:Makes me wonder... by AK+Marc · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What would it take to modernize our banking system?

      Burning down all the banks.

      Its 2010; paper checks should hardly ever be necessary anymore.

      The banks like it that way. In most places (outside the US), bank transfers are free. Not in the US. And the banks like it that way, so it will never change. It isn't about tech, it's about business practices.

    16. Re:Makes me wonder... by zuperduperman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The beauty is that you don't really have to trust PayPal. I usually transfer money out of my PayPal account within minutes of it arriving there, and I have made sure never to authorize PayPal to withdraw from any bank account I have.

      Just make sure you have a backup plan so that if / when PayPal suspends your account for some stupid reason you have somewhere else for customers to go.

    17. Re:Makes me wonder... by digitalunity · · Score: 3, Informative

      I think it's important here to make a distinction between an ACH transaction and a wire transfer. My limited understanding of paypal leads me to believe they primarily effect transactions through as an ACH, instead of a wire transfer through the Swift or Fedwire network.

      There are strict regulations on wire transfers in the US under the UCC, but little regulating the fees banks can charge. US domestic wires often cost from $10-$25 depending on whether you're receiving or sending the money. Wire transfers in europe are a lot more popular and negotiations through the EU have led to very low or completely absent wire transfer fees.

      Wire transfers are still the best way to move money internationally, or to move large amounts of money safely. In the US though, the ACH network is much cheaper.

      --
      You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
    18. Re:Makes me wonder... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      What you say is very interesting. I would like to prescribe to your newsletter.

    19. Re:Makes me wonder... by Teun · · Score: 4, Informative
      Meanwhile a large swath of the world gets on:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Number

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    20. Re:Makes me wonder... by 1s44c · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not practical if the payment's coming from the US - my bank charges $40 for an international wire transfer, and that's not out of the ordinary.

      You could always use something like xetrade.com and bypass your banks excessive charge.

    21. Re:Makes me wonder... by memnock · · Score: 3, Informative

      starting in 2018, British banks won't be using personal checks any more. if other countries' banks follow suit, checks won't be an option. that's not going to take effect for several years, but that policy is looming nonetheless.

      if someone is in another country, it will be kind of hard to just walk over to a branch and meet up with them there.

      maybe that's why those Middle Eastern networks (can't recall the name. something like '---hasa'), which feds couldn't stand because terrorist groups liked them, were effective. a phone call and someone spots the cash until it shows up for real.

    22. Re:Makes me wonder... by xZgf6xHx2uhoAj9D · · Score: 2, Informative

      Looks like it's US-only. There are any number of US-only "PayPal alternatives", but in the grand scheme of things, if you're US-only, you're not a PayPal alternative.

    23. Re:Makes me wonder... by tftp · · Score: 2, Insightful

      starting in 2018, British banks won't be using personal checks any more.

      Indeed, UK has many problems :-)

      The advantage of a simple piece of paper is that it is not tied to any technology. Maybe Londoners are well connected, but a good part of rural USA doesn't have computers and doesn't really even need them. They use checks to pay for everything. A payment can be concluded in the middle of a field, if necessary. You can't do that with a card or a telephone.

      This also connects with the problem of receiving payments. If you are a small business that, say, repairs stuff, how are you going to receive non-cash payments from your customers? Check is the only method where you do not incur extra costs. So why in the world would you want to pay a few percent of your revenue (not even profit!) for the service?

      The decision to do away with checks can be only seen as one, last push of credit card companies to insert themselves into the payment stream. And of course banks would be glad to reduce their costs even further, holding billions in other people's money without even having to work for it.

    24. Re:Makes me wonder... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't think you quite understand. It's not practical, not because of technical reasons, but because the banks aren't interested in not charging you money.

    25. Re:Makes me wonder... by Mr.+Freeman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How then, do I safely pay my friend $325 a month for my share of the rent? Cash is too risky if it gets stolen. Credit cards don't work for obvious reasons. Money orders are paper, etc. Paper checks are perfect for what we need.

      --
      -1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
    26. Re:Makes me wonder... by Stanislav_J · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Never, never, EVER use an ATM to make a deposit. I learned that the hard way. That receipt it spits out is worthless if the contents of that envelope are misplaced, lost, or stolen. Until a human being actually verifies those contents, there is no deposit. And if the envelope, or its contents, pull a disappearing act twixt machine and homo sapiens, you're screwed. You can wave the little receipt in their face and yell and scream and make dire threats, and you will simply be told that the machine receipt isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss. After all, think about it from their point of view -- one could put an empty envelope in the thing while punching in a $500 deposit, and then claim that it was stolen or otherwise misplaced. So, there is no deposit until a bank employee says there is a deposit.

      --
      "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
    27. Re:Makes me wonder... by shadowofwind · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As I have posted elsewhere, my wife and I sued Paypal unsuccessfully over something very similar. But the Ohio attorney general got our problem fixed, and the Washington state attorney general contacted us to follow up later, not because we asked them to or lived in Washington, but just because they ran across our case when generally investigating Paypal. So you might try that if you haven't already. I was impressed by the attorneys general, surprised to see the system working the way it is supposed to.

      Yes, Paypal gave us a different lie each time we interacted with them. I thought getting bought by eBay might have cleaned them up, but it sounds like maybe it didn't.

    28. Re:Makes me wonder... by Big_Mamma · · Score: 2, Informative

      No it isn't.

      PayPal isn't just a way to pay for stuff. It's a cross country and currency method to pay and it has an extensive list of options to integrate it with your front and backend. For example, we use it to: receive money for subscriptions, apply the applicable VAT rate according to user location and hook into the payment system for direct activation of accounts with IPN. Especially the last thing is a killer - I haven't seen any PayPal "alternative" to do that yet, and while integrating with my bank with a merchant account is probably possible, the monthly fee plus transaction cost is much more than just 2.5% + 0.30ct per transaction.

      I'd love to see alternative for PayPal, but so far, nothing matches it in flexibility and reach. Most PayPal killers are a joke, the easiest way to identify that is to check the developers section. Instead of hundreds of pages @ PayPal describing everything in detail plus a sandbox, the Gunpal one is a forum with 4 posts? I rest my case.

    29. Re:Makes me wonder... by Rophuine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Paper records can be easily forged and it takes tools most banks don't have to tell when and by whom. Electronic records are more secure.

    30. Re:Makes me wonder... by Rophuine · · Score: 5, Informative

      Anywhere but the US, you just sign in to your internet banking account, key in his branch ID and account number, and away the money floats, on a surge of digital freedom! In the US however, try this approach, and your rent just become $355.

    31. Re:Makes me wonder... by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Some banks (PNC, for example) will do person to person ACH transfers at no cost to you.

    32. Re:Makes me wonder... by Menkhaf · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Oh, right. Just like electronic voting is more safe than old-school pen-and-paper-ballot.

      It all depends on the implementation and those in charge. Neither is automatically more safe than the other.

      --
      A proud member of the Onion-in-Hand alliance
    33. Re:Makes me wonder... by houghi · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I would not mind if they charge some normal amount. I dislike it f they charge more for larger amounts. So they pay for individual electrons that are being transfered?
      Don't forget that all of this money transfer is automated. There is no difference in transfering 1 cent or one gazillion dollars.
      The problem is that they charge each other and just let the customer pay for it as there is no alternatve.

      One of the things you could do is first ask if the receiver has another bank account with a different bank. The fees change from bank to bank. Another option might be the post office. My bank once told me to go to the post office, as that would be much, much cheaper for me. Did the transfer there and it was indeed a LOT cheaper. However this was about 15 years ago, so it might have changed now.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    34. Re:Makes me wonder... by jsoderba · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The question is why the banks have a say in the matter. The obvious solution is for the government to mandate simple and free transfers. Most European governments did this long ago, and the Singe Euro Payments Area will do so for the EEA+Switzerland by the end of this year.

  2. Banking Reform by PingXao · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Banking reform in the US should include subjecting PayPal to all the rules and regulations that apply to banks. I find it strange how they've managed to avoid being classed as a bank all these years in the first place. Current regulations leave a lot to be desired, but making PayPal adhere to them would be a good first step.

    1. Re:Banking Reform by kill-1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, in Europe they claim to be a bank so they don't have to pay VAT on their service charges.

    2. Re:Banking Reform by BondGamer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why should they be a bank? Their primary purpose is enabling transactions not the usual roles of banks.

      Yeah, they only hold, transfer, convert, store, send, give cashback bonuses, interest, etc. They are nothing like a bank at all.

    3. Re:Banking Reform by Tacvek · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What Paypal does is actually very similar to what many banks do at least from the user's perspective. Both hold money in accounts, and provide ways to transfer money. Banks provide checks and debit cards for this purpose.

      I will admit that Paypal does not offer loans, nor does it over things like savings accounts, but from a user experience they are very similar to a bank where they have only a checking account.

      If Paypal does not bother to invest the money sitting dormant in accounts, then many regulations would have only minimal impact on them, since they would be keeping full reserves rather than fractional reserves. The regulations we really want are those that prevent banks from freezing accounts for no valid reason, and from interfering with valid transactions. The procedures already in place for banks on both of these points would really help protect users.

      I will admit though that overall Paypal's primary purpose is more like that of American Express than a bank, but the way they do it is debit based rather than credit based, meaning a whole bunch of regulations that would not apply to AmEx could be applicable.

      --
      Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
    4. Re:Banking Reform by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why should they be a bank? Their primary purpose is enabling transactions not the usual roles of banks.

      They hold user accounts - you can keep money there.
      PayPal credit
      PayPal Money Market funds.

      Sure smells like a bank to me.

    5. Re:Banking Reform by kill-1 · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's pretty common. Most US companies doing business in Europe have a subsidiary in a tax haven like Luxembourg (Amazon, for example) or Ireland (Google).

    6. Re:Banking Reform by GoodNicksAreTaken · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wal-mart would fight this type of regulation to the death as they want all the profitability of offering banking services without all of the regulation and they have the deep pockets to prevent the type of regulation that both Paypal and Wal-mart ought to fall under.

    7. Re:Banking Reform by zuperduperman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      People may *use* PayPal like a bank but if they do they are misusing it.

      PayPal is not your bank. PayPal is the cash till in your register. No business owner leaves cash accumulating in their register day after day. They count it and clear it out at the end of each day and bank it because the register is a fundamentally insecure and unreliable place. If people treated PayPal more like that there would be less issues (not saying PayPal doesn't have problems - just that people's tendency to accumulate large balances is part of the problem).

      If your turnover is such that large balances accumulate even inside a single day then you should really be getting a merchant account somewhere and doing things properly.

  3. Who will be manning the call centers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who will be manning the call centers to handle the complaints?

    1. Re:Who will be manning the call centers... by mysidia · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hehehe....

      Nice.

      However, PayPal doesn't have any call centers.

      They're paypal. The only way you can contact them is by e-mail (which they ignore), or through forms on their site (which you might get a response to in 3-6 months, if you are lucky) -- as for getting your hard-earned money back from your account they randomly chose to freeze, expect it to take 12 - 18 months, again if you are lucky.

      If you are unlucky, 36 to 48 months, or (possibly) never. Your luck depends little more than who you wind up talking to, how you talk to them, what sort of move they are in. And the result of a few rolls of a D20 die.

    2. Re:Who will be manning the call centers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Posted anonymously to keep moderation.

      http://www.paypalwarning.com/paypal_phone_number

  4. Re:Paypal's unspoken motto by markass530 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Should say loosing hundreds and thousands, yes I am an idiot for not reviewing the post first.

  5. Re:PalPal Sucks! by mysidia · · Score: 2, Informative

    What about Google Checkout ?

  6. Due to RBI regulations by kai_hiwatari · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is due to some change in the regulations by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding offshore money transfers. I read somewhere that RBI is demanding some documents form PayPal to make them eligible to transfer money to and from Indian Banks. Apparently PayPal hasn't been able to furnish those documents.

    1. Re:Due to RBI regulations by iammani · · Score: 4, Informative

      Of course. Paypal has to be registered with the RBI to make forex (foreign exchange) transfers. Every time someone converts rupees in dollars or vice-versa, the source and destination of transfer and reason have to made available to the RBI.

      Apart from these, Paypal would also be subjected to regulations governing these transactions.

      The problem is Paypal doesnt want to be regulated as bank but wants to be able to perform what banks do. And this does not go well with the RBI.

  7. Re:Paypal's unspoken motto by TheKidWho · · Score: 4, Funny

    loosing?

  8. Re:Paypal's unspoken motto by biryokumaru · · Score: 4, Funny

    He's getting his fleet of hundreds of thousands underway by loosing the sails.

    --
    When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
  9. My theory by wealthychef · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think PayPal is run by cowboys.

    --
    Currently hooked on AMP
    1. Re:My theory by wealthychef · · Score: 2, Funny

      Neal Young is in the next office down. Neal Armstrong is two doors over on your right.

      --
      Currently hooked on AMP
  10. Dear PayPal by codepunk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Please do the needful!

    --


    Got Code?
    1. Re:Dear PayPal by tc3driver · · Score: 2

      Someone with mod point please mod parent up!

      This is funny as hell!

      --
      42 69 6C 6C 20 47 61 74 65 73 20 69 73 20 61 20 77 68 6F 72 65 21
  11. Yet another reason by Dracos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why PayPal needs to be regulated as a bank, and why I refuse to use it.

  12. Money laundering and terrorism by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Where would you hide a tree? In a forest of course. Every time there is a new technology is found, the terrorists and criminals use it first and the law enforcement is way behind and always plays catch up. The Mumbai attackers were using prepaid satellite phones and VOIP routed through New Jersy to get constant feed back while they were on their rampage inside the Taj hotel. Wait for a day or two, and you will see that angle will be mentioned. Whether sincerely or as a diversionary tactic by Paypal or by RBI I don't know. But it is a well known fact the terrorists use havala trading systems very effectively and Paypal would not be a big step for them.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  13. Paypal Sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.paypalsucks.com/

    I got burned by these bozos once. Make sure you read the terms and conditions carefully. They refund only under very tight circumstances. If there was an alternative, i'd use them instead.
    I had no problems on about 50 transactions ... I got bitten for several hundred dollars once...

    Seriously, PayPal sucks...

  14. Re:PalPal Sucks! by mysidia · · Score: 3, Informative

    Seller terms

    The seller must legally be able to do business in the US, and have a US bank account (since Google is US-based).

    The buyer does not have to be in the US.

  15. Re:PalPal Sucks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ebay owns paypal.. so I don't see this stopping anytime soon.

  16. Re:Paypal is not a bank by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2, Informative

    How do you figure this? In the US the only entitiy that "creates" money is the US Govenment (through the US Mint).

    It's called Fractional-reserve lending. You deposit $100 into your bank and they led out $900.

    If they're paying you 2% interest and charging 4.5% interest in their loans, their profit is (roughly) 4.5% * 9 - 2%. So, they're making 38% or so on your deposit.

    This is why banking is so profitable despite the seemingly low rates. It's also what creates the problems of 'runs on banks', but with the FDIC in place, the banks may lend as recklessly as possible, and if they fail (a handful a week are, currently) the losses are socialized among the taxpayers. Private profits, socialized losses. You'd think bankers were running the government.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  17. Re:Paypal is not a bank by smallfries · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No you are completely and utterly wrong. There is a very authoritative document from the Fed that explains how banks expand the money supply, but a simple starting point for you would be the wiki page on Fractional Reserve Banking.

    --
    Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
  18. Re:Paypal is not a bank by socsoc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It wasn't created. This is what caused the Great Depression, if you were asleep through that class.

  19. Re:Paypal's unspoken motto by MollyB · · Score: 3, Informative

    Too late for lose/loose. It seems to be viral, perhaps intentionally to drive boomers nuts. Also on the 'endangered' list: affect/effect; their/there/they're; dissent/descent; and the biggie-- your/you're.
    The cracks first started years ago when traffic crossings started omitting the apostrophe in "DONT WALK" signs decades ago. I knew things were pointing downhill even then.
    Never saw a mixup of sales and sails, tho.

  20. Re:You don't seem to understand what a bank is. by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Informative

    You don't understand how the regulation was sold. The regulation was needed because banks lend (you call it creating and destroying money, others call it lending). This allows a bank to fail. Paypal *can't* fail from that. They hold money, but don't lend or borrow against it. So I understand your point. But, from how the regulation was sold to the people, you are 100% wrong. It was never sold as "banks create and destroy money, so they need regulation." It was sold as "banks have your money, and to make sure that they give you your money when you ask for it, they need to be regulated." From the manner in which banking regulation is sold to the America public, Paypal is a bank and should be regulated like one.

    I understand that your argument is that the sale of that regulation was a lie, and the banking industry isn't about holding money (but borrowing and lending against it), but I think you are wrong.

    Not to mention, you are begging the question. You assume that they don't lend against the money they hold. Even if I agreed with your logic (and I don't) you have assumed a premise that has never been addressed. When you prove Paypal doesn't lend money (and I consider buying stock or bonds to be lending money, for this exercise, as one could default on that debt and have the same result), then we can address the logic I don't agree with.

  21. Holy shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Somebody used "begging the question" correctly.

  22. Re:Paypal is not a bank by Khyber · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Actually what caused the great depression is that the market started getting rocky, so everyone pulled their money out at the same time... something which the banks were unable to do"

    BECAUSE OF.....

    " * You deposit $100 at the bank.
            * The bank sets $10 aside as a reserve
            * The bank loans $90 to bob, with interest

    Now, while you still have your $100 (its in the bank), there is someone else running around with $90"

    The banks couldn't give people their money back because they already fucked up loaning it out to other people. This is basic history, not even fucking economics.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  23. Re:Paypal is not a bank by canajin56 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You're only allowing for one iteration! I put $100 in bank A, the bank loans out $80 to you. What do you do with it? Burn it? Probably not. Probably you spend it. Wherever you spend it, it ends up in a bank account. Now bank B (or maybe bank A) has $80, and so at 20% reserve, they can loan out $64 more. That $64 end up in bank A, B, or C, and they can lend out 80% of that, too. sum (i = 1 .. infinity) ($100 x 80%^i) = $400. The "wrong" number of $900 is what happens to the sum if the reserve rate is 10% not 20%. $400 or $900, the banks are still creating many times more fictional money than they actually have. Now, some money does get lost, some money gets spent buying things that goes to employees that goes to cash that maybe doesn't all end up in a bank. But it's pretty damn close. In fact, in the link you said doesn't support the $900 number, they cite a bank operating on a ratio of about 11.5%. Meaning that just every $100 in an account that was cash, there is $850 that is fictional.

    --
    ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
  24. Paypal have always been sleazy by 1s44c · · Score: 2, Informative

    Paypal have been dodgy for years now, but if they have to go on a robbing spree I guess Indians are as good a target as anyone else.

    Anyone that doesn't know about paypal's sleazy practices should treat this as a wake up call, close their account, and cancel any credit cards paypal know about.

  25. Re:Nothing New by phoenix321 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    People cannot be trialed for the same crime EVENT multiple times. But they can be trialed for unlimited separate events of the same type of crime.

    Example: OJ Simpson was trialed and acquitted for the alleged murder of Nicole Brown Simpson. He cannot be re-trialed for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, but he can be trialed for any other murders he is suspected of having committed.

    If that wasn't the case, Alice could, after being acquitted of murdering Bob, not only kill Charlie and Eve, but go on a nationwide killing spree without breaking the law. That would be disturbing to say the least.

    But I don't know if that is just an Urban Myth, since verdicts are commonly overturned by higher courts and that could mean a re-trial after the suspect was acquitted or convicted.

    On the other hand, corporations cannot commit crimes, their employees and owners do. Corporations can be sued in civil courts, though.

    Also, civil lawsuits are a completely different matter and with the usual IANAL warning, I certainly think you cannot sue for the same even multiple times, but through several levels.

    A corporation still can be sued many times over for similar events, which I am very thankful for, otherwise we would have one person suing carmaker X for faulty brakes and everyone else crashing their cars with no recourse.

  26. Fail to see the problem by pla · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As a result, a large number of Indian Paypal accounts have a negative balances running into the thousands of dollars.

    Does anyone else see that as a good opportunity to cease their relationship with PayPay (for those stupid enough to have kept using them anytime in the past, oh, decade)?

    Remember - Not a bank, by their own maneuverings. You can't actually owe PayPal money, because they don't sell anything or provide any (direct for-cost) services. Sure, you can owe their other customers money, but PayPal itself?

    Negative balance? Yeah, time to close that account. Thanks, PayPal, but you can keep "my" negative money. Funny thing, about forced arbitration clauses - You can stack the system as much in your favor as you want, but to get government sponsored armed thugs to go shake down your clients, you need to step in to a real court of law and risk setting some seriously unfavorable precedents.

  27. Re:Paypal's unspoken motto by zippthorne · · Score: 2, Funny

    Aren't they the same? I mean, for all intensive purposes...

    --
    Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  28. Re: doesn't always work by nulldaemon · · Score: 2, Informative

    The beauty is that you don't really have to trust PayPal. I usually transfer money out of my PayPal account within minutes of it arriving there, and I have made sure never to authorize PayPal to withdraw from any bank account I have.

    Just make sure you have a backup plan so that if / when PayPal suspends your account for some stupid reason you have somewhere else for customers to go.

    My sister sold some concert tickets on ebay paid for in full on PayPal. The guy came to her house & picked up the tickets and my sister withdrew the much needed money from PayPal.

    About 4 weeks later my sister started receiving many e-mails from PayPal which, as she had no further business with PayPal, she assumed was spam and just ignored them. About 2 weeks ago she received a letter informing her PayPal has listed her with a credit reporting agency (yes, that means no credit cards, phone plans, mortgages for 5+ years) because she failed to pay them back $500 --- the guy had collected the tickets from my sister and saw the concert but then the bastard called PayPal to say he never received the tickets! PayPal simply put my sisters account into negative and started collections proceedings. When my sister finally figured out what had happened she explained the situation to PayPal & they just said too bad she didn't have proof that she gave him the tickets.

    So yes, if you withdraw your money it makes it harder for PayPal to take it away from you, but that doesn't mean they can't screw you financially just for using their services

  29. Re:Simple Search by mrmeval · · Score: 2, Informative

    We gave to the indians and then took it back. We are the indian giver.

    --
    I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
  30. Re:MOD THIS UP!!! PAYPAL NEEDS TO DIE. by Omestes · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Note that gunpal is the official payment processor of http://www.auctionarms.com/ [auctionarms.com] It's not some little fly-by-night company.

    As a person who has never heard of "auctionarms.com" until this very moment, I don't understand how this precludes them from being a "fly-by-night" company. And even if working with this somewhat obscure website (at least I have never heard of it) gives it a patina of legitimacy, that still means nothing. Ebay is a VERY large and popular company, meaning (by your logic) Paypal is not a fly-by-night company, but Paypal still sucks and operates in the most ethically dubious of manners.

    Sorry for being a bit confrontational. I've always viewed Paypal, and any other company that operates in the same niche as highly dubious. And just having the endorsement of the NRA doesn't cut it. I have nothing against the NRA, but they do, often, attract the lunatic fringe. The association itself, doesn't lend too much credibility.

    --
    A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
  31. Re:Paypal is not a bank by nedlohs · · Score: 2, Informative

    Your profit calculation is just plain ridiculous.

    The only way they loan out $900 is if you are counting all the iterations: ie. $100 gets deposited, so they loan out $90, that $90 ends up back in the bank as a deposit at some point, so they loan another $81 out, and so on and so on.

    But you ignored that they have to pay out that deposit interest on all those deposit iterations not just the initial $100.

    And you also can't count it as profit against that $100 deposited, since $1000 ends up being deposited. It makes no difference that the money was created by the banking systems money multiplier and not by plain old printing. The bank still has $1000 of liabilities on the sheet.

  32. Re:Paypal is not a bank by nedlohs · · Score: 2, Informative

    At every point in time the money is either in cash or in a bank.

    It doesn't matter that I spent most of what I earned last year. Since the money just ends up in the bank under a different name (the grocery store, the farmer who supplied the grocery store, the chemical company who supplied the farmer, etc, etc).

    Microsoft buying securities is irrelevant, that just means the money was transferred to whomever sold the securities to them. And they either put it in the bank, or held it in cash, or bought some other asset with it - in which case we just follow the chain another link since they bought the asset from someone who now has the money in a bank or in cash.

    There simply isn't enough cash for it not to end up mostly back in the hands of a bank. And the banks get their hands on the money that is "in transaction" too most of the time.

    The "paper profits" of asset holdings aren't in a bank account, that is true - but that isn't what is being discussed - the money creation of a $100 cash deposit is.

  33. Re:Paypal is not a bank by nedlohs · · Score: 2, Informative

    I buy a car with the money. The car dealer puts the money in the bank. Sure not all of it he pays some wages - by putting it in the bank account of the worker. He sends a check off to a supplier - who deposits the check in his bank account.

    No one is saying that the person who borrows the money puts it in the bank. They are saying that that money makes its way through the system over thousands of transactions and at some steps a little of it is left in the bank (and all of it transitions through the bank in most cases). After enough transactions it is all in the bank (other than the what is horded as cash, as in physical currency).

  34. My solution: "sandbox" bank account for PayPal by wealthychef · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I use a separate account at ING Direct. They let you set up as many bank accounts as you want under one umbrella, so you can just use a special account for PayPal with minimum funds in it. I call this my "sandbox" after the idea of sandboxing software in a chroot jail etc. to mitigate its damage potential. No matter what PayPal does, they cannot take more funds than you have in that account, as that is the authorized account. The only thing left they might do I suppose is thrash your credit. I'm not a big seller so I'm unlikely to run into the types of problems others have in this regard. I'm mainly concerned they will abscond with my cash.

    --
    Currently hooked on AMP
  35. Re: doesn't always work by mysidia · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It sounds like a possible double-whammy, FCBA, and FCRA (failure to give required proper notice before negative information is reported) violation on PayPal's part looming.

    An e-mail message is not a proper/valid notice of a debt, and fraudulently constructing and attempting to collect on a non-debt, would also be a violation of FDCPA (Reporting false information on a consumer's credit report or threatening to do so in the process of collection).

    PayPal is not a court, and their independent decision to award a counterparty their money back is not binding on you, and doesn't create obligations on your part, unless you signed an agreement to that effect (and maybe not even then -- since a creditor cannot legally have any individual sign over FCRA/FCBA dispute rights, as long as you are a consumer, and not a business) .

    The sister should then probably do something like going to each credit reporting agency and dispute PayPal's report to that credit reporting agency, state that the amount reported is not owed, and demand the erroneous information be validated / removed.

    And make sure to send PayPal certified mail disputing the amount of the debt within 60 days of the 1st statement you received that was in error.

    The CRA then has a period of time, to investigate the reporting. If PayPal then 'constructs' fraudulent information to 'validate' the debt, then there is a FCRA violation.

    Send PayPal a demand they strike the erroneous debt, certified mail demand letter.

    Then if they persist, sue Paypal in small claims court, for statutory damages on both counts.

    PayPal can potentially be in the hole >$1,000 in statutory fees, plus reasonable attorney costs, if they have indeed violated one of those laws...

    You really should find some sort of proof that you exchanged the tickets, however.

    Or file suit against in small claims the person you sold the tickets to, for slander, and get a lawyer to subpoena someone (or some people) who were there to stand as witness that the person at least attended the concert.

    And also, perform discovery, (assuming you can figure out ticket numbers), to determine if those tickets were actually used.

    But then, maybe all the hassle in attempting this isn't worth the $500...

  36. Re:Paypal is not a bank by ArsenneLupin · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's called Fractional-reserve lending

    No, it's called Fractional reserve banking. You even got it right in your link, but strangely not in the text.

    You deposit $100 into your bank and they led out $900.

    That's not how it works. The "fractional reserve" applies to the deposit, not the loan. You deposit $100, they keey $10, and lend out $90. When banks "make" money, they do not actually "print" money, so they're pretty much stuck with lending out less than what they take as deposits.

    The way that banks "make" money is by enabling people to still use their deposits for payments. Those $100 that you deposited are not lost to you, you can still wire them to a merchant to make a purchase (so then they become the merchant's deposit). So, where there were only $100 in circulation to begin with, there are now $190.

    And the way multiply lending money works is that those $90 that the borrower got will eventually come back to the bank as a deposit (because the borrower buys something from it, and the seller deposits that money). Out of those $90, the bank will be able to lend out $81 more. Adding everything up together, you get 100+90+81+72.9+... = $1000

    If they're paying you 2% interest and charging 4.5% interest in their loans, their profit is (roughly) 4.5% * 9 - 2%. So, they're making 38% or so on your deposit.

    Even though banks make insane margins, it's not quite as bad. Indeed, the $1000 created from the $100 were not made out of a single deposit, but from multiple deposit transaction, on each of which the bank paid interest. In order to calculate profit, concentrate on a single deposit/loan pair: for the $100 you deposit, the banks gives you $2, the $10 that they keep as a reserve is basically dead weight, and from the $90 they lend out, they get $4 ($90 * 4.5%). So, rather than making $38 on the deal, they only make $2.

    Think about it. If your calculation was correct, the bank would still making profit if they paid you 40% interest... which is obviously not true.

    This is why banking is so profitable despite the seemingly low rates.

    What makes a bank so profitable is the huge amounts they move, not the high percentage that they make on each transaction.

    Moreover, from a bank owner's perspective, the money made is compared to his own investment (relatively small), rather than to the total amount (huge) that moves through the system. It's this way that he gets extremely high returns.

  37. Re:MOD THIS UP!!! PAYPAL NEEDS TO DIE. by Neoprofin · · Score: 2, Insightful
    They may not have the street cred you're looking for, but as you point out:

    they do, often, attract the lunatic fringe

    and a highly armed lunatic fringe at that. Sounds like a dangerous customer base to screw around with.