Paypal froze my account today

[Brad Gosse]

If you are trying to buy my WSO's please hold off. Paypal has decided to arbitrarily freeze my account. I got an email about selling "ponzi schemes" which I don't do.

I am switching to a secondary processor now.

I called them and they promised to look into things and get back to me in 24-48 hours.

In the mean time I can't accept payments or withdraw funds.

I have been with paypal since the year they opened. One of their biz dev managers coaxed me into joining and now this, left in the cold.

A warning to those who rely on paypal.

[David Wolfman]

Thanks for warning, I was just about to do that myself.

Has that happened to anyone else?

Keep us informed about the outcome, please.

[l23bc]

had the same problem with my ebay selling account and im marketing payments into paypal, they frozen my account too


hope you get it sorted

[Scott Ames]

Some flunky hired to weed out accounts probably pulled the trigger without understanding your business. Gotta love these big companies.

[l23bc]

Originally Posted by Scott Ames

Some flunky hired to weed out accounts probably pulled the trigger without understanding your business. Gotta love these big companies.

think my sitution was with paypal directly scott
i think it was i hit my receiving limit because when i could raise the limits the account became good as new

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by Clearview

Maybe something set off a flag? Their next step is to investigate, which is what they are doing. I, for one, am glad that Paypal takes steps like this to ensure that they run a tight ship and people can't be scammed as easily.

Safeguards like this are a good thing. It's not necessarily a case of "big, bad Paypal" being "big, bad Paypal".

It just sucks, if what you said is true, that it happened to be you that was affected this time. Hope it all works out for you quickly.

I have been with them 9 years and they keep a MASSIVE 6 month rolling reserve to protect themselves. A phone call to my office could have sorted this out. I do enough volume to warrant that.

[abo28]

Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

If you are trying to buy my WSO's please hold off. Paypal has decided to arbitrarily freeze my account. I got an email about selling "ponzi schemes" which I don't do.

What exactly did you sell? What is the cause of this confusion? I'm asking because I want to avoid such a tperil in the future.

I'm very sorry for what happened.

[homeworkin]

I used to work at eBay, answering phones for PowerSellers. Yes, this does happen to a lot of people. One poor guy I talked to was using Sam's Club (discount club membership store run by Walmart, for those of you outside the US) as his "warehouse." Selling stuff on eBay, then purchasing it at a discount and shipping as items were ordered. His business was really picking up - then frozen overnight because his sales were so good PayPal decided something must be wrong. He could not even log in to refund customers. Painful but valuable lesson learned.

If you do rely on PayPal, it is smart to clean out your account on a twice weekly basis if you have real money coming in. If you are in the habit of moving it to your bank account regularly, it means you are less likely to end up without your money for a long time. PayPal can and does freeze accounts for up to 6 months while they "investigate."

As for what you can do now, obviously you are already working on a new processor, but I recommend politely inquiring every single day until you can get someone on the phone. They are notorious for not revealing what tipped them off - but that can make it tough to explain to them what is really going on.

I have heard others' accused of Ponzi schemes by PayPal when they were reselling IM products intended to help people make money themselves. To PayPal, this can look like a pyramid -though you'd think they'd be used to online marketing business models by now. You might try Googling "PayPal" and "Ponzi" to see if you can learn what has helped others in the same boat.

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by abo28

What exactly did you sell? What is the cause of this confusion? I'm asking because I want to avoid such a tperil in the future.

I'm very sorry for what happened.

They can't even see what the issue is. I think somone reported I was selling ponzi schemes (which I DON'T) and now they have me flagged.

Beed there done that .. Sorry for your trouble Brad, I know how stressful that can be. I been there for I think 8 years now and the security team every once in awhile decides to get a itch and start hitting keys.

Many should wait until 2011 when they really crack down due to the government forcing them to do so.. I suspect you will see many accounts gone.

James

[jameswatson]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Many should wait until 2011 when they really crack down due to the government forcing them to do so.. I suspect you will see many accounts gone.

Sorry, what's going to happen in 2011 then?

James

Originally Posted by jameswatson

Sorry, what's going to happen in 2011 then?

James

All earnings will be reported to the IRS ... So all those people (and there are many) that work under the table and do not file taxes are going to be in for a surprise...

http://internetbiztaxtips.com/2008/0...ns-to-the-irs/

James

[Steven Fullman]

Originally Posted by jameswatson

Sorry, what's going to happen in 2011 then?

James

US Government crackdown, sounds like.

Brad,

Get someone on the phone. If they can't help, demand their supervisor. Carry on until you talk to someone who can.

[Scott Ames]

Brad I feel sorry for you today. That really sucks. You have to scramble and figure out a way to get it resolved. As you said, they could have just given you a phone call, but they never do.

I had an eBay account and an Adwords account revoked the same way. Both I had been with for eons and neither would tell me the exact reason.

Its so frustrating when there are really bad thieves and scammers out there, but they pick on legit business people.

[SiteSeller52]

I have been a PayPal member for over 5 years and in that time they have frozen my Premier Business Account 6 or 7 times for processing “digital sales”.
Every time I have had a large or fairly large product launch PayPal decides I am doing something wrong and they end up freezing my account to do an independent investigation.
This investigation consists of PayPal sending an email to several randomly selected buyers. In this email they ask the buyer if “they” purchased the product or if their account information was stolen and then used to buy the product.

This process takes forever; PayPal will be investigating until the buzz from your product dissipates.

[Ross Dalangin]

Thanks for the warning. It's sad that you've come into this situation. We all know that there are so many paypal users and being frozed is a nightmare

I am hoping that your account will switch back to make it active right away.

Ross

[Mr Money Maker]

Sorry to here that, it's a major pain I know.....happen to me before

[Brad Gosse]

Your Account Access is Fully Restored

Thank you for taking the steps to restore your account access. Your patience and efforts increase security for our entire community of users.

PayPal takes the safety of your account, business, and financial data as seriously as you do, and these ongoing checks of our system contribute to our high level of security.

[Brad Gosse]

In the last 2 hours I have moved 5 figures in monthly sales volume over to clickbank. Not moving it back.

[Josh Anderson]

Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

In the last 2 hours I have moved 5 figures in monthly sales volume over to clickbank. Not moving it back.

I wouldn't move it back either...

But I certainly would not move it to clickbank.

Get a couple merchant accounts instead...

Because by moving it to clickbank you just went from paying 2-3% to paypal to 7.5% to clickbank...

That means you will loose 4.5% + of your revenue that you were keeping when you were processing with Paypal.

Clickbank is the most expensive processing solution I know of... and its feature poor to boot.

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by Josh Anderson

I wouldn't move it back either...

But I certainly would not move it to clickbank.

Get a couple merchant accounts instead...

Because by moving it to clickbank you just went from paying 2-3% to paypal to 7.5% to clickbank...

That means you will loose 4.5% + of your revenue that you were keeping when you were processing with Paypal.

Clickbank is the most expensive processing solution I know of... and its feature poor to boot.

I have a merchant account now. Looking for a good processing solution.

[TeddyP]

This is infuriating.

Nothing Brad sells even resembles a ponzi scheme - like not even close. Weird, maybe paypal uses the term Ponzi Scheme to cover a wider range of things than I know about.

Oh well, I guess it can be chalked up to a lesson learned. I just wish Paypal didn't treat our livelihoods so superfluously. They obviously know the numbers Brad is dealing with, so they should know how significant shutting down his payments could be.

A simple phone call would have saved Brad money, saved paypal money and in the end been a quicker resolution to this whole situation.

[Josh Anderson]

Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

I have a merchant account now. Looking for a good processing solution.

What do you mean by processing solution?

Are you looking for a gateway that is compatible with you merchant account or a shoppingcart that works with your gateway that provides the features you are seeking?

Feel free to contact me via PM if I can help you... merchant accounts, gateways, and ecommerce processing is what we help people do all day every day :-)

Btw... I had the same thing happen with PayPal to me years ago...

I told them that there was nothing in my business even remotely associated with mlm or ponzi and simply asked them to review my account...

In less than 24 hours they wrote back apologizing for their mistake and its never been an issue since.

[TheDebtEliminator]

Hello Brad,

This a wakeup call for many here.

I will try to obtain at least 2 more alternate ways to collect money from customers.

It is possible to go direct to Credit Card companies ... just go for the higher rates and one that will handle things like casinos as they will not cut you off easily.

All the Best

[JBorhez]

Wow! Very enlightening thread!

Glad to hear you've resolved...at least with Paypal.

[jgand]

Yeah, I've noticed paypal is getting more aggressive as of late, maybe its do to a number of complaints. But it will only lose them business.

[dean_holland]

Hi

A little advice for those that dont already do so or ma yneed to in the future ...

If you are doing a big launch or expecting more money going into your paypal account than normal then call them. Tell them what you are doing and a rough estimate of the funds you expect to recieve and over what time period.

I myself did this a week prior to my 5 figure launch and had no problem at all, it was recorded on their system what was happening and all was fine.

A friend I know has taken 6 figures in less than a week into paypal and using this plan of telling them what is going to happen worked for him too.

I expect most of you already do so but for those that dont it's certainly better to do this than to not IMO

Hope that helps a little

Dean

[Brad Gosse]

FYI they unfroze my account...

I did the smart thing and tried to withdraw some funds.

Now my account is closed for "suspicious withdraws"

Who wouldn't clear their account after having it frozen?

My advice is to stay clear of paypal. They are holding a few grand for the next 6 months on me while I scramble to get my merchant gateway up.

HATE Paypal. I can't even pay for my WSO bumps until I get my wife to setup a personal account.

[hard-bounce]

I had been using paypal quite hapily for 5 years then did a big promo launch and put a significant amount of money through Paypal in a few hours, result, freeze the account.

I had also as a matter of precaution called them to tell them I would be putting 6 figures through in a short space of time as I always do before launches.

I am not alone, a good friend of mine recently had his account froze after a similar thing.

Be careful as the word is Paypal is getting jittery about all the FTC crackdown on IMers

I have use 2CO as well for some time with good success and also world pay, it pays to have a back up or 2 just in case.

Neil

[Lisa Gergets]

WOW that just bites. I am so sorry you're going through this.

[Richelo Killian]

Think it's time to go and dust off my trusty old 2CO account! They accept PayPal also, so, people can still pay with PayPal if they want.

[MikeLantz]

Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

FYI they unfroze my account...

I did the smart thing and tried to withdraw some funds.

Now my account is closed for "suspicious withdraws"

Who wouldn't clear their account after having it frozen?

My advice is to stay clear of paypal. They are holding a few grand for the next 6 months on me while I scramble to get my merchant gateway up.

HATE Paypal. I can't even pay for my WSO bumps until I get my wife to setup a personal account.

Hey Brad,

If you need me to run your transactions for WSO Pro stuff for you, and some WSO bumps, let me know. I am glad to help out.

Mike

[tecHead]

Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

Your Account Access is Fully Restored

Thank you for taking the steps to restore your account access. Your patience and efforts increase security for our entire community of users.

PayPal takes the safety of your account, business, and financial data as seriously as you do, and these ongoing checks of our system contribute to our high level of security.

I don't get it.

Yes, you were inconvenienced. Yes, you may have lost some sales.

But, here you have a more than legitimate explanation of the reasoning behind their actions; yet you still bash their practices and take them as a personal attack.

You rant on here about how unfair they are. You spread biased misinformation about PayPal to the newbies on this board who look to the senior Warriors for guidance... when more than one, (including myself), senior Warrior has explained more than once that if you inform PayPal ahead of time that your volume will be changing, you will run into NO problems, (there's even a reference or two about this in this thread).

They release the hold on your account based on the merits of you cooperating with their (granted rather weighted) request. Then get pissed when they suspend your account because you try to do the unsmart thing of withdrawing all your money before the original red flag even turns to yellow... bring this thread back to life to spread more biased misinformation.

I don't get it.

Do you not see that PayPal is in the business of allowing anyone in the world; (just about); to open a virtual bank account in which to move money in and out of for FREE??

Have you taken the time to take into account the possible international repercussions and ripple effect that would ensue should PayPal take a more relaxed approach to their security?

- Money laundering
- Terrorist group funding
- Terrorist cell funding
- Insurance scams
- Money theft embezzlement

Just to name a few. I am sure everyone is much more grateful these types of security measures are in place when they don't have to worry about their local cafe getting blown up by a suicide bomber who just got funded for that last piece of the bomb through his PayPal account.

PEOPLE UNDERSTAND
It is NOT the burden of PayPal, (or any international transaction engine, for that matter) to be prudent in checking your legitimacy status.

It is YOUR burden to establish trust that you ARE legit. That's your obligation as a business owner.

Stay strong and THINK
PLP,
tecHead

[TelegramSam]

Let us know if you ever find out what the problem was.

Have you had any complaints or too many refunds?

We have 3 different merchant accounts so that we don't have all of our eggs in one basket.

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by tecHead

It is YOUR burden to establish trust that you ARE legit. That's your obligation as a business owner.

Stay strong and THINK
PLP,
tecHead

The op stated that he has had the account since Paypal opened it's doors. If that isn't enough time for them to decide whether or not he is legit, then there's something wrong with their process ... and withdrawing YOUR money at ANY time should not raise a red flag. It IS YOUR money ... not Paypal's.

Originally Posted by tecHead

Do you not see that PayPal is in the business of allowing anyone in the world; (just about); to open a virtual bank account in which to move money in and out of for FREE??

They aren't free. They make plenty of money from these transactions.

[Mark Collard]

Great discussion here for a newbie. I have a PayPal account, and CB, and I prefer to use the former only because the commissions are lower, and you can get at your money much quicker.

But, what I DON'T like about PayPal is that they discriminate against customers who don't have a PayPal account and choose to use their credit card. In all cases, they are not directed automatically to the product's download page. And the link to "return to merchant" is so small, 80% of my customers miss it.

I guess it's a trade off - good access to sales, but dodgey forwarding to my download page...

[tecHead]

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

The op stated that he has had the account since Paypal opened it's doors. If that isn't enough time for them to decide whether or not he is legit, then there's something wrong with their process ... and withdrawing YOUR money at ANY time should not raise a red flag. It IS YOUR money ... not Paypal's.

This is naive in thinking that if you just got your account frozen/limited that it wouldn't raise a bigger red flag by removing all funds; when the original concern of PayPal was being able to handle possible refund requests, should they arise.

I'm sure if at least 35% or more was left in the account, there wouldn't have been a justifiable reason for PayPal to take disciplinary action.

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

They aren't free. They make plenty of money from these transactions.

They are free in the sense that they do not require setup fees; as are required with merchant accounts, (and even ClickBank).

[tecHead]

Originally Posted by Mark Collard

Great discussion here for a newbie. I have a PayPal account, and CB, and I prefer to use the former only because the commissions are lower, and you can get at your money much quicker.

But, what I DON'T like about PayPal is that they discriminate against customers who don't have a PayPal account and choose to use their credit card. In all cases, they are not directed automatically to the product's download page. And the link to "return to merchant" is so small, 80% of my customers miss it.

I guess it's a trade off - good access to sales, but dodgey forwarding to my download page...

Do you have the "auto-return" feature turned on?

[JayXtreme]

Brad

Bravo for moving your action away from Paypal in such rapid fashion.... BUT

Do yourself a favour..

Merchant Accounts, dude.

Clickbank is gonna turn you over in fees... and all for a flawed system

Just a word

Peace

Jay

[JayXtreme]

Originally Posted by tecHead

This is naive in thinking that if you just got your account frozen/limited that it wouldn't raise a bigger red flag by removing all funds; when the original concern of PayPal was being able to handle possible refund requests, should they arise.

I'm sure if at least 35% or more was left in the account, there wouldn't have been a justifiable reason for PayPal to take disciplinary action.

Just a sidenote..

To any of us who are doing big numbers through Paypal, they hold a 10% of your funds for this reason above..

There is no reason to leave any of your remaining cash in the account.

Paypal holds a big fat chunk of change, just to keep us honest...lol

Peace

Jay

[Profit-smart]

Solution:

Plimus.com

If you absolutely MUST be able to process paypal payments.

Also, for infovendors;

Kunaki.com

Ships a hardcopy!

Meaning you have 2 layers of protection.

[Lance K]

Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

I have been with them 9 years and they keep a MASSIVE 6 month rolling reserve to protect themselves. A phone call to my office could have sorted this out. I do enough volume to warrant that.

Exactly!

The quest for quality control is no excuse for bypassing common sense and good customer service.

[Bucky769]

Same thing happened to me, they froze my account no warning....total BS

[Lance K]

Originally Posted by Josh Anderson

What do you mean by processing solution?

Are you looking for a gateway that is compatible with you merchant account or a shoppingcart that works with your gateway that provides the features you are seeking?

Feel free to contact me via PM if I can help you... merchant accounts, gateways, and ecommerce processing is what we help people do all day every day :-)

Btw... I had the same thing happen with PayPal to me years ago...

I told them that there was nothing in my business even remotely associated with mlm or ponzi and simply asked them to review my account...

In less than 24 hours they wrote back apologizing for their mistake and its never been an issue since.

Brad,

Talk to Josh and set up an account with nanacast. You won't be sorry!

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by tecHead

I don't get it.

Yes, you were inconvenienced. Yes, you may have lost some sales.

But, here you have a more than legitimate explanation of the reasoning behind their actions; yet you still bash their practices and take them as a personal attack.

You rant on here about how unfair they are. You spread biased misinformation about PayPal to the newbies on this board who look to the senior Warriors for guidance... when more than one, (including myself), senior Warrior has explained more than once that if you inform PayPal ahead of time that your volume will be changing, you will run into NO problems, (there's even a reference or two about this in this thread).

They release the hold on your account based on the merits of you cooperating with their (granted rather weighted) request. Then get pissed when they suspend your account because you try to do the unsmart thing of withdrawing all your money before the original red flag even turns to yellow... bring this thread back to life to spread more biased misinformation.

I don't get it.

Do you not see that PayPal is in the business of allowing anyone in the world; (just about); to open a virtual bank account in which to move money in and out of for FREE??

Have you taken the time to take into account the possible international repercussions and ripple effect that would ensue should PayPal take a more relaxed approach to their security?

- Money laundering
- Terrorist group funding
- Terrorist cell funding
- Insurance scams
- Money theft embezzlement

Just to name a few. I am sure everyone is much more grateful these types of security measures are in place when they don't have to worry about their local cafe getting blown up by a suicide bomber who just got funded for that last piece of the bomb through his PayPal account.

PEOPLE UNDERSTAND
It is NOT the burden of PayPal, (or any international transaction engine, for that matter) to be prudent in checking your legitimacy status.

It is YOUR burden to establish trust that you ARE legit. That's your obligation as a business owner.

Stay strong and THINK
PLP,
tecHead

I can't even begin to argue this with you. Fact is I have been with them since the start and was COLD CALLED to join by one of their execs.

I have had a 10% rolling reserve forever and they are sitting on huge money there.

What's so wrong with taking a withdrawal?

FYI My complaints and chargebacks are WAY below the 1% standard.

YES I am biased and YES I will tell everyone I know to RUN don't walk, leave paypal now before they freeze your account with no explanation.

[JaniG]

Paypal suck, thats all i got to say

[DAS_Matt]

Hmm.. interesting thread.. sucks what happened to be sure as it costs you business but Paypal also has to protect their customers, etc.

[Heuristic]

Hi Brad,

Thanks for the info. I am on the verge of starting a membership site and stories like this make me cringe. After all, when you are relying on this money to live on, it can be stressful thinking they can take it away at any time. I believe I will apply at 2checkout and have a backup before I launch.

Steve

[MarshallWayne]

I've had over $40,000 frozen. It eventually got resolved but it ended up costing me an awful lot of money in sales that weren't able to come in due to the account being frozen.

They can really be a hassle if they don't fully understand our businesses.

[Sonomacats]

If you have a big launch going and think paypal is going to be a problem, use 1shoppingcart.com or something similar. It's worth it. I've contacted Paypal when I've put something new and big together and didn't have a problem, but I never do anything with them where there's going to be a huge spike in mone coming in because I've heard too many horror stories.

If you're going to do a big sudden launch, I'd recommend getting a merchant account and have a Paypal option (with a pre-launch call to Paypay), or get another processor. Frankly, they're worried about losing money on a slim chance you're running a fraud.

On the other hand, I've had my account with them for over 6 years and I'm super careful what I run through them and how I handle them. I also have other options (like 1shoppingcart or other vendors) so I don't have to worry. But I also let them know when something big is about to happen.

On the other hand, I seldom run big launch type things, so that keeps me out of their cross-hairs. If you avoid that big launch thing, the sales you make will seem normal to the powers-that-be at Paypal and you're less likely to have a problem. Just let them know that you "might" have a spike (when you have something new) and that should take care of it. It has for me.

But there are other options, so if you're into the big launch thing, you might be better off with those.