A warning for Paypal users
Here's a complaint letter I just sent to Paypal, after my account was locked out due to "suspicious activity". The activity in question was an attempt by me to conduct a transaction while traveling. What I didn't know at the time was that they still took the money out of my bank account and placed it in my paypal account before locking it down.
While I was able to restore access after jumping through some hoops, they refused to tell me how I could prevent this from happening again while traveling. Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up if they weren't already aware of this security "feature". If someone does try to access your account fraudulently, they may not be able to complete the transaction, but that money will still be withdrawn until you straighten things out. In my case I'm using an account that I pretty much only use for paypal transactions, but I'm still not happy about their policy.
The letter:
Subject: Complaints regarding your security procedures
To: resolution@paypal.com
Hello,
In late August I attempted a transaction while traveling, which
caused my account to be locked. As I was out of internet contact for
the following week I didn't realize it had occurred until I returned.
Not being an urgent matter, it wasn't until several weeks later that I
decided to deal with the locked account, at which point I realized that
while you prevented the transaction, you still transferred the money
from my bank account into my paypal account before locking it. To add
insult to injury, I no longer have a land line phone to verify my
location, and would have had to wait for a piece of mail! I contacted
your customer service and to your credit they unlocked my account over
the phone.
This experience has left me with a number of complaints regarding
your service, and your poorly thought out measures to "protect" me.
Allow me to enumerate my complaints:
1. Your security procedure locks my account if some unknown amount is
spent from a remote location. If I don't know that amount (and
customer service would not reveal that information) I'm very unlikely
to attempt using your service at all while traveling, and that
significantly reduces paypal's usefulness to me.
2. If someone _were_ accessing my account without my knowledge and
paypal was going to deny the transaction, the very last thing I would
want would be for you to take the money out of _my_ bank account, place
it into paypal, and then lock my account until I could prove my
identity. Especially given that this would likely happen while I was
traveling, this could easily result in me bouncing a check or not
having sufficient funds to cover automatic bill payments.
3. Finally, like many residents of the 21st century, I no longer have
a land line, and use my cell phone exclusively. Requiring identity
confirmation by land line or mail is rather inconvenient, in particular
if this "security measure" trips while one is traveling away from home.
To close, I recognize that the intent of this measure is to protect
your customers from unauthorized access. I hope you will agree that it
has some serious flaws, and at the very least expect you will
reconsider your policy of transferring money from the user's account
into paypal and then locking the account. As it stands I feel
compelled to warn all of my friends about this policy and the risks of
using paypal.
Sincerely,
Gerard Deckert
While I was able to restore access after jumping through some hoops, they refused to tell me how I could prevent this from happening again while traveling. Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up if they weren't already aware of this security "feature". If someone does try to access your account fraudulently, they may not be able to complete the transaction, but that money will still be withdrawn until you straighten things out. In my case I'm using an account that I pretty much only use for paypal transactions, but I'm still not happy about their policy.
The letter:
Subject: Complaints regarding your security procedures
To: resolution@paypal.com
Hello,
In late August I attempted a transaction while traveling, which
caused my account to be locked. As I was out of internet contact for
the following week I didn't realize it had occurred until I returned.
Not being an urgent matter, it wasn't until several weeks later that I
decided to deal with the locked account, at which point I realized that
while you prevented the transaction, you still transferred the money
from my bank account into my paypal account before locking it. To add
insult to injury, I no longer have a land line phone to verify my
location, and would have had to wait for a piece of mail! I contacted
your customer service and to your credit they unlocked my account over
the phone.
This experience has left me with a number of complaints regarding
your service, and your poorly thought out measures to "protect" me.
Allow me to enumerate my complaints:
1. Your security procedure locks my account if some unknown amount is
spent from a remote location. If I don't know that amount (and
customer service would not reveal that information) I'm very unlikely
to attempt using your service at all while traveling, and that
significantly reduces paypal's usefulness to me.
2. If someone _were_ accessing my account without my knowledge and
paypal was going to deny the transaction, the very last thing I would
want would be for you to take the money out of _my_ bank account, place
it into paypal, and then lock my account until I could prove my
identity. Especially given that this would likely happen while I was
traveling, this could easily result in me bouncing a check or not
having sufficient funds to cover automatic bill payments.
3. Finally, like many residents of the 21st century, I no longer have
a land line, and use my cell phone exclusively. Requiring identity
confirmation by land line or mail is rather inconvenient, in particular
if this "security measure" trips while one is traveling away from home.
To close, I recognize that the intent of this measure is to protect
your customers from unauthorized access. I hope you will agree that it
has some serious flaws, and at the very least expect you will
reconsider your policy of transferring money from the user's account
into paypal and then locking the account. As it stands I feel
compelled to warn all of my friends about this policy and the risks of
using paypal.
Sincerely,
Gerard Deckert