News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:PayPal is no GayPal: another PayPal horror story by steve19 on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @05:17PM (#2010058)
Say what you want about PayPal but they don't discriminate. They screw everyone regardless of race, religion, sex or sexuality.

To the OP: Like so many people, I lost money when PrayPal[0] locked me out of my account. No amount of faxing documents, emails or phone calls would convince them that it was my account and my money. I ended up just walking away.

A suggestion might be to go talk to a gay rights group and try turn this into a civil rights / discrimination issue ... they won't want the bad press.

[0] PrayPal: Put money in and pray you get it back out again.

Re:PayPal is no GayPal: another PayPal horror story by tjarratt on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @05:19PM (#2010065)
I agree, attacking this from a gay rights angle will probably be the best approach. If he can get a major publication to run with this, PayPal will have to respond.
Re:PayPal is no GayPal: another PayPal horror story by axod on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @06:18PM (#2010267)
Really sad to see this idea, and even more to see it upvoted.

It's obvious the account wasn't shutdown due to 'gay rights'.

This is like an incompetent woman who was sacked suing for sexual discrimination.

Re:PayPal is no GayPal: another PayPal horror story by noonespecial on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @07:21PM (#2010541)
Except that the incompetent woman really did deserve to be sacked. This guy did not deserve to have his money kept from him. He is also probably correct that some brainless automatic filter went off over gay phone sex.

Paypal cheats. Hard. End of story. The more money they can lock up for longer, the more they make. It's a great big moral hazard built right into their business model that creates a disincentive to operate fairly so huge that even Mother Theresa would have a tough go of it.

Squeak whatever wheel needs squeaking to get attention. Even if it's a gay wheel.

Re:PayPal is no GayPal: another PayPal horror story by nailer on Thursday December 16, 2010 @08:43AM (#2011947)
No. Paypal being unethical doesn't give the OP the right to be unethical.

There are people who are actually being discriminated against because they're gay.

Using it as a level because your site triggered a stupid 'phone sex' filter via user-generated-content is wrong.

Re:PayPal is no GayPal: another PayPal horror story by axod on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @07:27PM (#2010566)
Paypal probably has to cope with millions of $ worth of fraud a day. The fact one or two false positives crop up from time to time isn't surprising.

The terms of service clearly state that sites of a sexual nature are not accepted.

Re:PayPal is no GayPal: another PayPal horror story by Rantenki on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @08:41PM (#2010765)
While false positives are a fact of life with any filtering system, they have no incentive to FIX the problem, as those false positives lead to their being able to hold funds indefinitely, earning interest at least, and potentially absorbing the entire balance.

This is called a moral hazard, and it should be pretty clear to you.

Paypal has a very long, very well documented history of triggering holds on accounts, and never resolving them.

Re:PayPal is no GayPal: another PayPal horror story by kapitalx on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @06:00PM (#2010203)
Definitely. My account was recently frozen under a 'random check' to very my phone number. They didn't like the fact that I didn't have a land line phone number, cell phones are not accepted! It took 3 weeks to get it verified through their customer service.
Re:PayPal is no GayPal: another PayPal horror story by boredguy8 on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @06:56PM (#2010440)
That's an issue, since I haven't had a land line since 2002 or so. I don't even know my direct cell line any more: every 5 or 6 months I have to look it up in Google Voice.
Re:PayPal is no GayPal: another PayPal horror story by kapitalx on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @07:24PM (#2010552)
eventually someone picked up on customer service that didn't care and just verified it without asking any questions.. others though wouldn't do it.