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PayPal's Donation Tools Stiff Some Charities, New Class Action Lawsuit Alleges (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the sounds-fishy dept.

Charitable donations made through PayPal's Giving Fund platform may never reach their intended recipients, a federal class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Chicago has alleged. From a report on CNBC: When charitable accounts are not set up correctly, PayPal continues to accept donations on their behalf, the suit alleges. Instead of notifying donors and nonprofits of the error, PayPal takes the money after six months and redirects it to another charity "without regard to the intention, beliefs, or desires of the donor," the lawsuit claims. The class action status of the suit still needs to be certified by a judge.

24 comments

  1. Does not surprise me one bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    eBay already takes a significant percentage of the funds to "maintain" the giving program so the receiving parties don't really get a lot of the money as it is.

  2. Re: eBay by hackwrench · · Score: 2

    eBay and PayPal have been separate companies again for quite awhile now.

  3. I'm shocked, I tell you! by jenningsthecat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    PayPal is evil? Who knew?

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  4. Nothing new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    PayPal has been robbing people and charities since it's existed.

    1. Re:Nothing new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed. One of my favorite scams is where they deliberately include interest free purchases in the minimum payment. That way they can collect interest on money they claim to be interest free.

      My other favorite scam of theirs is where they refuse to relay payments or refund them because they don't feel like it. Taking ownership of money that's earmarked for transfer is pretty shitty.

  5. Is PayPal Christophobic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I needed to transfer (aka give) some money during Christmas time using PayPal. The page offered nice some "holiday" cards to add a message. Mainly a bunch of cards with holidayish abstract colors (Starbucks style). One pretty stood card out with an Elephant, which I chose only to discover it contained a Hannukah message. That's cool, but I'm not jewish so it would be weird to randomly send that. That's when I realized, oh no Christmas cards during Christmas only one Hannukah card because the holidays coincide. So a little bit of Christophobic discrimination by PayPal there.

    1. Re:Is PayPal Christophobic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Christ was Jewish, you insensitive clod! Sad!

  6. Silicon Valley is insular and out of touch. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're so out of touch, they don't know what stealing means, so they just do it. And I bet the charity they redirect the money to is some leftist charity too.

    1. Re:Silicon Valley is insular and out of touch. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What Charity? The HRC for President in 2016 committee, The Clinton Foundation or what's the name of that charity that used to be Obama's election committee?

      I mean they are out of touch in the same way and do the same things...

  7. Also relevant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The CEO of PayPal has his own charity. Any guesses on where that lost money is being redirected?

  8. The dark side by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Paypal is the dark side of Elon Musk.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:The dark side by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Paypal is the dark side of Elon Musk.

      It must be nice to be a 0.01%'er in karma. You are gonna get it soooo bad!

      Musk is the new geek hero/god. He took over from Steve Jobs. At least Jobs entered the labyrinth and battled the Gates giant/monitor - er - minotaur - with just a mouse and keyboard and didn't do appearances on TV and in movies. (Why is it "on" tv and "in" movies?)

      You remember back in the 90s. Anything critical of Jobs or Apple was modded down to oblivion. The user was put on everyone's freak list. He was forced to have a red letter 'H' for "Hater" put next to his UID.

      Damn, the Musker religious police are gonna kick your ass! I suggest you repent!

      Repent! Go and buy a Tesla or at least put a deposit down on a Model S. Praise His Holy Name!

      Eeee-l-ah-ah-ah-n. Eeeeee-lon.

      Do many prostrations - but be careful and don't get prostrate cancer.

      "Eeeeeeee-l-ah-ah-ah-N" "Eeeeeeee-l-ah-ah-ah-N" "Eeeeeeee-l-ah-ah-ah-N" "Eeeeeeee-l-ah-ah-ah-N"

    2. Re:The dark side by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right about everything except: "and didn't do appearances on TV "

      Steve Jobs was on TV giving interviews all the damn time. I mean heck, that was pretty much his job, as it is every CEO's.

  9. Paypal is not a bank and we don't have to follow t by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    Paypal is not a bank and we don't have to follow the bank rules!

  10. Re:Paypal is not a bank and we don't have to follo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know you said it half-jokingly, but that is 100% correct.
    They are under no obligation what-so-ever, and there are
    many thousands of stories like this. I don't do that; I'd use
    COD. It's peoples greed that keep institutions like that going.

    CAP === 'solvable' so funny, this is really what it was!

  11. Oh please by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 2

    Paypal has been ripping people since they day they opened their doors. This is just one more method they're dreamed up to fuck people over.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  12. Not quite true... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It is a Luxembourg-based bank in Europe.

  13. You're all quick to judge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But Paypal wouldn't be where it is today without that other pesky guy who tweets and is also under the banner of Trump. Not that guy, the other one! Yeah they both are. Funny that.

  14. PayPal.... New Class Action Lawsuit..... by colin_faber · · Score: 1

    TL;DR: Paypal does shitty things, screws customers, people get mad and sue. Let's talk about Comcast next.

    1. Re:PayPal.... New Class Action Lawsuit..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So Comcast takes money for service then provides it to random person in another city instead of you? Yeah, that happens all the time.

      The Paypal news is news because despite their long history of screwing people over they can continue to do so because many people still don't know. A reasonably intelligent engineer where I work had no idea Paypal had any history of screwing people. It hadn't happened to him and he never felt the need to read Paypal news items so he remained ignorant.

      Perhaps instead of witty TL;DR's on Slashdot you could go inform some people instead. Or are you already making the world the place you want it to be through your wit?

  15. Class Action? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What happened to their arbitration clauses?

  16. paypal is evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    paypal is evil

  17. Fraudulent Tax Returns? by ahenryop · · Score: 1

    I wonder how many people reported false charitable donations because they thought they were giving directly to the organization, rather than to the PayPal 501c.