Among other dodgy activities Paypal engage in, this is a doozy:

In order to validate an account, one must provide data proving US residence, bank account, tax status, etc.

The problem is that they allow non-USA accounts, but if there are any complaints about them or their automated system “flags an account for possible fraud” then they lock it – requiring the validation stuff above before they’ll even look at an appeal.

Needless to say, anyone outside the USA isn’t able to provide such data.

My account got locked down in exactly this way without my even having accessed it – it was created, had USD100 in it and was locked
less than 24 hours later when the balance was checked.

Goven PayPal’s subsuming of idle accounts, it’s an easy earner for them to steal money from foreigners by simply doing this to low value accounts, garnishing the interest until they finally get to claw the account back into the main cash pool.

Most accounts I’ve heard of this happening to are USD10-100 value – too small for most people to be bothered pursuing given the enormous time and aggrivation factor trying to chase American companies from outside the USA.

There’s potential for a large class action suit against the company, not to mention varous federal and california state charges. Hello Comptroller of currency….