Slashdot Mirror
PayPal Denies Twitch Troll $50,000 Worth In Refunds (ubergizmo.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Trolling is commonplace on the internet. On Twitch, one of the many ways people troll Twitch streamers is by making donations, only to get a refund from PayPal at the very last minute, thus tricking streamers into thinking they've been given large sums of money. A troll by the name of iNexus_Ninja has been doing exactly this. However, when he tried to go to PayPal to refund the charges, PayPal decided to deny his request which ultimately left the troll $50,000 in debt. Twitch streamers apparently fought against his request for a refund and won. Meanwhile, Russia is paying state-sponsored trolls, elevating the troll to the level of professional propagandists.
One of the many reasons I'm not using PayPal is because they thrive of these refunds and using any excuse possible to lock large sums of money in their system. Obviously they continue claiming they're "not a bank" and therefore don't have to follow any of the rules that any other merchant account needs to. With a little bit of looking around you can find cheaper options to PayPal, even solid merchant accounts for credit card processing.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Am I missing something here? I've never heard of Twitch.
Yes, you're apparently missing the ability to do a simple Google search.
This may help you:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+t...
(hint: click any of the 10 results on the first page)
But when you see a commercial on TV about product XX you've never heard of, you don't wonder "why are they talking about XX", right?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Am I missing something here? I've never heard of Twitch.
Don't you people have *any* social awareness?
tWitch is a popular dancer who made his name on season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
WTF does this story have to do with Russia? Who added this aside, anonymous submitter or BeauHD? It fucking retarded to believe that other governments, law firms, ngo's, lobbyists, and other entities involved with "messaging" don't engage in the same type of activities. The current interest about Russian trolls is due to some batshit looney neocon paranoid conspiracy that Putin is trying to get Trump in the White House because he's scared of Hillary(!).
PayPal may suck, but they redeemed themselves with this action.
LOL @ iNexus_Ninja.
Giving PayPal access to $50,000 of your funds: Priceless.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
If only they had some sort of video evidence of his actual donation live and in realtime...and full HD 60FPS. OH WAIT.
It doesn't sound to me like the service was in the wrong, denying a refund in this situation? If you're just using the service to troll people, requesting transfers of funds you know up-front you don't *really* want to transfer, it seems like it's YOUR problem if the payment processor grows tired of participating in your game and declares your funds transfer final.
As someone who was forced to deal with PayPal's antics as part of the "package deal" selling on eBay when the two of them formed a cartel, I can think of SO many more legitimate situations to complain about PayPal over than this one.
But when you see a commercial on TV about product XX you've never heard of, you don't wonder "why are they talking about XX", right?
Because they can't do XXX on TV?
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
The easiest way to stay above it all is to not ask, and still not know what it is, and not even tell anybody. I'm so hip, nobody knows how hip I am. I don't even know, because I don't have time to worry about if I'm the only one who doesn't know the new fad.
If you attempt a chargeback without cause, they'll dispute it and win, your card will get canceled, and you'll potentially be unable to get a credit card for a few years because of credit abuse. Fake chargebacks are no joke, because they deal with banks.
The reason the trolls can do this with paypal is only because paypal isn't a bank, and so isn't held to the industry standards.
Actually, no. Twitch has been very quick to crack down on anything remotely sexual. At most you'll find attractive female streamers wearing low cut tops while playing games, but not much beyond that. The donations bit tends to come more from the fact that the best streamers are entertaining, because not only are they good at the game, but they're good at narrating what they're doing, and making it more interesting to watch.
To try and explain it better, imagine if instead of just watching Aaron Rodgers play football (or any other pro athlete in their sport), but instead of maybe having a couple of outside commentators, you're watching him play, from his point of view, while he tells you what he's doing and why, chatting and interacting with you, and giving you tips on how to do better in your own games. How cool would that be? Nevermind that you can also chat with everyone else watching, too. And while most of the gamers on Twitch aren't on quite that level, even some of those with a smaller following can do alright, with people chipping in to buy pizza for them. Some of them will also run promotions, give away codes for free games, etc. It's probably not for everyone, but it can be very entertaining.
> WTF? How the fuck is this even a troll.
Because he didn't do it right away, he'd wait until the streamers had spent the money, and then try to issue the refund with PayPal, which would then cause PayPal to charge the streamer back for the money. In essence, he was putting the streamers in debt.
Really, he ought to go to jail for that, but at least in this case he got stiffed.
"Person who uses the internet to cause other people emotional grief, frustration and anger for his own amusement."
See also "Douchebag"
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
OMG! Israel donated $50k to Twitch accounts via PayPal... and then they asked for a refund!!! And they've been doing that for 15 years!
Sigh.
They reverse the charges because they think it's funny.
Normally when you make a donation you also get to send a short text message. Sometimes this message will get read out loud. So you donate a couple of dollars, have your troll message read and then reclaim your money and think that it's funny that you both tricked the streamer into thinking (s)he got money and also you tricked the system into giving you a "free" billboard message out (which is often mean or silly).
From such a reliable and impartial source as Breitbart.com, how could I possibly doubt the veracity of this report?
Oh, wait...
You're linking to a hard right "news" source that is known for lying in public?
Best Slashdot Co
OK, this makes sense in a perverse sort of way.
Have gnu, will travel.
No kidding. My daughters have grown up in a house with only streaming TV. When we're at a hotel and have the TV on, they complain loudly when commercials come on, because their show went away and they don't want to watch whatever this other junk is. I don't blame them one bit. At least they're getting old enough to understand it when it happens.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
He's the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, in U.S. professional football. I tried to pick someone that was both "good", and also not known for being a jerk/disliked by various people.
:)
Maybe I should have gone with a car analogy, and cited a Nascar driver, but I'm not as familiar to make a choice there.