A while ago I used paypal for transactions and I left some in the account so there was 100 grand. Six months later I tried to take some of it out and they froze the account despite no other recent activity. They said they'd keep it six months. Eight months or so after that, I asked about it, and they said they needed to freeze it for another six months. So soon we'll be at basically 18 months after the funds were earned.

The whole thing is dumb though, so I honestly don't even attribute malice. It's a ~17 year old account and I've processed millions(?) of dollars through it. The killing they earned on the transaction fees dwarfs the interest they earn on the float over the period of time they are holding it. The only way this wouldn't be the case is if a lot of people just give up and never get their money out, which, frankly, sounds possible. So either they do this intentionally because people give up, or they think I'll never sell stuff online again (I sell stuff online, right now), or they're just kindof dumb and have an overactive suppression team.