Blunderov
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"We think in generalities, we live in details"
  
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RE: virus: Paypal police
« on: 2005-10-24 05:09:39 » |
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[Blunderov] I know that I have complained in the past about the amorality of
corporations. Apparently though, the opposite is at least as bad; the
corporation-as-moral-zealot is something to be reckoned with indeed.
It's a complicated world, and privacy is a qualified concept; the
authorities are justified in not allowing criminal financial transactions to
take place if they can prevent them. But how much latitude should we allow
authority to also infringe upon the privacy of the law abiding citizen in
this cause? This question is quite a useful litmus test of
conservative/progressive attitudes in my experience - conservatives will
usually answer 'as much as necessary' and progressives 'not at lot, if any'.
Whatever the case, it is one thing to obey and co-operate with the law of
the land, and it certainly behoves us to insist that corporations do so.
Here we have though, a rather different kettle of fish; Paypal has
apparently arrogated to itself the role of Frank Zappa's 'Central
Scrutiniser' to the extent of enforcing even "all the laws which haven't
been passed yet."
And by dint of great ingenuity, they have found a way of doing so that
actually makes money for them too. How about them apples? Ironically though,
Paypal's social conscience does not seem to extend as far as protecting its
own clients from the consequences of internet fraud.
Best regards.
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8915
Paypal police by Ray Boyd (28 Sept, 2005)
The premier online money manager is a big bad corporation with big bad law
enforcement complex... and they're going after marijuana drug-related
businesses and you.
There it is, on the e-commerce websites of people selling bongs, cannabis
seeds, weighing scales, hydroponics equipment, and cannabis cultivation
books. It's on the websites of marijuana advocates, left-wing activist
groups, environmental organizations, gun dealers, and Bible wholesalers.
What is it? None other than the famous PayPal logo, usually accompanied by a
cheerful statement proclaiming PayPal is an easy, safe and effective way to
do business on the Internet.
Too bad PayPal isn't really a safe, effective way to engage in e-commerce.
In reality, PayPal is a corporate volunteer in the war on drugs and free
speech.
Not My Pal
The genesis for this article came when a marijuana entrepreneur called me to
complain about PayPal. The website for his company does a lot of Internet
business, retail and wholesale. None of his products are illegal; they are
sold in hundreds of retail outlets worldwide.
"They've got thousands of dollars of my money," he screamed into the phone,
panic-stricken. "I've been doing business through them for years. Now
they're holding months of payments made to us by customers using PayPal.
"They say they'll hold it for six months. We have bills to pay, we need the
money, but they've frozen the damn account. When I called them, they got
nasty. They said if I were smart I wouldn't raise any noise about this,
because they had a lot of information on my customers and me.
"They threatened to nark me out! They have a lot of personal information
that would be harmful if it was disclosed to law enforcement. I can't do
anything to get people's private information off my account. They've got it
locked down." My friend reported that he spent hundreds of dollars on long
distance phone calls and registered mail, trying to get his money and
prevent his customers' information from being provided to police agencies.
"The way they treat you is like shit," he said. "They transferred me around,
gave me false information, and held on to my money as long as they could.
They so much as said that they are an information-gathering source for the
police. That's the shit I want people to pay attention to the most."
My friend's experience reveals that using PayPal means giving up sensitive
financial and personal information and the right to keep that information
private.
The PayPal user agreement makes clear you've signed your privacy away when
you become a PayPal user. You've also given PayPal the right to determine
which of your e-commerce transactions are acceptable or unacceptable, as
defined by PayPal. If you're a pothead or a pot entrepreneur, using PayPal
means you've given the company the right to help get you busted.
PayPal also bans sales of "paraphernalia," and says, "Sale of [some other
drugs] may be legal in certain jurisdictions or circumstances, [but] due to
safety concerns, PayPal also prohibits the sale of GHB (gamma hydroxyl
butyrate), Rohypnol, and anabolic steroids."
PayPal's definition of paraphernalia is whatever PayPal says it is. In cases
where it's not absolutely clear whether a product is illegal or affiliated
with use of an illegal substance, PayPal actually examines the product.
They look at its marketing, the company selling it, and its packaging to
determine if the product glorifies illegal drugs, or if the product is a
drug use accessory marketed to illegal drug users.
Usually, only law enforcement officers, Justice Department attorneys, and
prosecutors are allowed make such determinations; it appears that PayPal
sees itself as a quasi-law enforcement regulatory agency.
PayPal takes voluntary action against marijuana-related sites and
individuals who visit them. Such was the case with Planet Skunk, an Irish
cannabis-related site. In 2003, Planet Skunk's site administrator received
simultaneous account cancellation notices from PayPal and from an Australian
licensed version of PayPal called PayMate.
Planet Skunk stated on its website that PayPal closed the company's account
without notice and would not give them the money in their account for 180
days. PayMate closed Planet Skunk's account without notice and kept the
company's PayMate registration fee.
Economic Warfare
Because PayPal and eBay are dominant, pervasive facilitators of e-commerce,
their attacks against the cannabis community can be seen as part of the drug
war's arsenal of economic weapons. These weapons used to only include
arrests, property thefts and asset forfeitures conducted by law enforcement
agencies and prosecutors.
But now, PayPal is practicing its own form of asset forfeiture by
temporarily holding money owed to people who've used PayPal to receive
payment. And because there are few other easy methods for e-commerce
entrepreneurs to receive payments from customers, being banned from PayPal
is often a deathblow to e-commerce merchants.
In March 2005, Dutch cannabis entrepreneur Nol Van Schaik received a sudden
and rude notice from PayPal.
"Dear Nol van Schaik," PayPal's email said. "The PayPal User Agreement
states that PayPal, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to close an
account for any violation of the User Agreement, including the Acceptable
Use Policy.
"Under the Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be used to send or receive
payments for narcotics, steroids, controlled substances or drug
paraphernalia.
"We are hereby notifying you that, after a recent review of your account
activity, it has been determined that you are in violation of PayPal's
Acceptable Use Policy.
"Therefore, your account has been closed. You will need to remove all
references to PayPal from your website(s) and/or auction(s). This includes
not only removing PayPal as a payment option, but also the PayPal logo
and/or shopping cart. We thank you in advance for your cooperation."
Van Schaik complied with PayPal's corporate drug war policy, and was forced
to shut down his Internet web shop as a result.
Similar economic warfare has hit members of British Columbia's cannabis
activism family.
In December 2003, Cannabis Culture publisher and international cannabis
genetics purveyor Marc Emery was victimized when PayPal prevented him from
using PayPal to receive donations to his Pot-TV.net Internet media network.
PayPal informed Emery of its suspension of his account "privileges" without
prior notice, claiming that Pot-TV.net was "acquiring and promoting drug
paraphernalia."
Bubbleman, whose bubblebag water extraction production method is used to
source medicinal glands from a variety of plants, says PayPal suspended his
account in 2004, and kept $10,000 of his money for 180 days, without paying
him a penny of interest.
Renee Boje, a Canada-based drug war refugee who retails legal medicinal
herbs through her innovative Urban Shaman Entheobotanicals store, was
repeatedly frustrated by PayPal's corporate reps when she tried to find out
why PayPal had canceled her account.
PayPal finally sent her a cryptic unsigned email, dated Feb. 7, 2005. The
email said Boje's PayPal access was being suspended "regarding the sale of
salvia divinorum, herbal ecstasy and other items.
The email explained, "Under the Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be
used in the sale of any dietary supplements banned by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) or on the FDA's Alerts list."
At first glance, PayPal's email seemed to contain at least partial support
for its contention that Boje violated the corporation's draconian Acceptable
Use agreement, but closer examination showed the FDA had NOT stated that
specific products Boje was selling were illegal substances in the US or
Canada.
It is also of note that PayPal's email indicated that the company was
closely monitoring Boje's business transactions and the geographic location
of her customers.
Not Just Pot
PayPal doesn't just go after herbal products and pot people. It also smashes
progressive political activists and organizations.
In 2004, PayPal reportedly canceled an account maintained by the Leonard
Peltier Defense Committee. PayPal gave as reason for its cancellation the
fact that Peltier is a convicted felon. Of course Peltier's Defense
Committee knows he's a convicted felon: its members, along with thousands of
other people, consider Peltier to be an innocent Native American activist
framed during the 1973 Wounded Knee uprising for crimes he did not commit.
The Committee's work can hardly be considered illegal- it is an advocacy
organization seeking judicial review of Peltier's conviction. Yet, PayPal
allegedly closed the Committee's account.
In response, Michael Snedeker of the National Center for Reason and Justice
sent a protest letter to PayPal, stating that his organization was canceling
its account with PayPal.
"The Peltier matter alerts us that PayPal, through its anonymous informants,
has assumed the role of admitting those it deems worthy of democratic
participation and rejecting those it deems unworthy," Snedeker told PayPal.
"No doubt selecting your customers is your legal prerogative. It is also our
prerogative to stop giving you our money. If you wish to change your policy
and start doing business with anyone carrying on the crucial, legal act of
raising money for political causes - including the Peltier committee - we
will be happy to sign up again with PayPal.
"Until then, we will help publicize what we believe is your misguided,
dangerous misuse of corporate power."
Snedeker isn't the only person threatening to publicize PayPal's "misguided,
dangerous misuse of corporate power."
There are entire websites, among them www.PayPalsucks.com and
www.PayPalwarning.com that feature thousands of complaints, action alerts,
and boycott strategies designed to challenge PayPal and its parent company,
eBay.
Don't pay this pal!
So I called PayPal and tried to get their reps to answer a series of
questions. I was transferred from phone to phone, and the answers people
gave were non-answers and refusals to comment substantively, all designed to
put me off.
I emailed PayPal. It took PayPal representatives a long time to get back to
me. Initially PayPal press spokesperson Sara Bettencourt said she'd answer
the questions, then she refused to answer them unless I told her which
magazine I was writing for.
When I finally did get her answers, they did little to clarify whether
PayPal is an active nark outfit that also steals money from users. Indeed,
Bettencourt referred back to the user agreement, which I had already
thoroughly reviewed, as a premise for most of her answers.
She did provide confirmation that PayPal is a nark corporation by admitting
that PayPal reports illegal internet activity to police "in compliance with
federal and state laws."
In regards to claims that PayPal is taking too long to give users their
money, she said, "PayPal will limit accounts if users are in blatant
violation of our acceptable use policy. If a user's account is limited,
PayPal will investigate the matter promptly.
"If the investigation is not in a user's favor, PayPal may continue to limit
the account access for up to 180 days as is necessary to protect against the
risk of chargebacks, or may close the account by giving the user notice and
mailing a check for any funds in the account."
According to Sara, despite claims to the contrary by Peltier's advocates and
many other political groups, "PayPal does not evaluate users' political
views when reviewing a site for violation of our acceptable use policy."
On the other hand, she admits that "PayPal has a dedicated team that is
focused on reviewing sites for user policy compliance, and they will
determine after thorough investigation if an account is in violation of our
policies. We maintain a proactive compliance team whose sole purpose is to
stop illegal or unauthorized use of our service.
"PayPal also uses sophisticated analytical systems and third party services
to help detect and stop the use of our system or illegal activities. We also
work closely with our community of users to alert us to any illegal or
unauthorized use of the PayPal service."
I asked her if PayPal's acceptable use policies reflect the fact that
medical marijuana is currently legal in 11 states, and could be federally
legal if the Supreme Court backs state medpot laws in its ruling on the
Ashcroft versus Raich-Monson case.
She said, "We are not in the position to speculate on future federal or
state policy decisions. PayPal's acceptable use policy currently prohibits
our service to be used for the sale of marijuana, and we have not announced
any plans to change this policy."
Of course, this answer does not explain why PayPal closed Bubbleman's
account, given that he was not selling anything illegal at all!
Bettencourt refused to reveal how many users have had accounts suspended due
to violations of PayPal's drug-related acceptable use policies. She also
refused to discuss if her company has been sued by account holders seeking
compensation for PayPal's actions.
PayPal Alternatives?
Some pot entrepreneurs say there are PayPal clones that offer discreet,
truly safe payment options for herbalists and others who've run afoul of
PayPal's corporate conservatism.
The homepage of a website called www.aboutPayPal.org sounds like it provides
an alternative purchasing system; it also contains dozens of PayPal horror
stories that include people losing thousands of dollars when hackers broke
into PayPal accounts and created false transactions that left the customer,
not PayPal, on the hook for monies owed.
"PayPal Provides you with a PayPal account, not a real merchant account,"
the site warns. "Your money is deposited into a PayPal account, which PayPal
controls, rather than your own bank account.
"If PayPal even wonders for a second about the validity of a transaction,
they can freeze your PayPal account immediately and suck all your money out.
"They can even pull your money directly out of your personal bank account,
many times without even a phone call or e-mail.
"If you think PayPal treated you unfairly and want to dispute their
decision, you will be at their mercy, as PayPal plays the role of the
Investigator, Judge, Jury and Executioner in all issues regarding your
account. (You agreed to all of this, when you signed up.)
"Sound fair? We don't think so. Explaining your version of what happened, in
most cases seems to make no difference. They will refuse to provide you with
detailed information from their investigation and will not disclose
documents they relied upon to make their decisions."
As bad as PayPal is for counterculture people, the corporation apparently
isn't the only electronic payment service company that mistreats pot people.
For example, after having his account terminated by PayPal, Bubbleman signed
on with www.beanstream.com, a Victoria, B.C.-based Canada electronic cash
transaction service.
"They froze over $10,000 for 180 days, saying the bubblebags were related to
marijuana," Bubbleman says. So Bubbleman tried a Montreal company
www.paysystems.com.
"They terminated our account in September 2004," he laments. "Over 200 days
later they still have $7000 U.S. of our money, and they have no intention of
handing it over. We did $600,000 worth of business through them up to that
point; no complaints, nothing at all illegal. In fact, they complimented us
on having an excellent record of customer satisfaction.
"PaySystems makes two to five percent on every transaction. They made
$12,000 to $30,000 handling our sales, and then they ditch us, freeze our
account, and won't hand over our money at all."
Bubbleman's internet payment system saga unhappily continued when he tried
using www.2checkout.com.
"We went with www.2checkout.com and yes, they cancelled our account and have
held $6000 U.S. They told us they aren't giving us the money, and 'good luck
trying,'" he reports.
Bubbleman's experience mirrors my friend's reality. PayPal froze my friend's
business PayPal account; apparently he never got all the money PayPal owed
him. He lost about $4,000, he says, and his business credit rating was
negatively affected.
He gave up trying to get fairness from PayPal when two of his customers told
him they got busted because of information PayPal provided to police about
their PayPal purchases of cannabis-related equipment from him or from
another merchant.
"These customers were pros and they didn't make any other security
mistakes," he said. "The only possible vector for them going down was
purchasing through PayPal. We're convinced PayPal is a corporation that
thinks it's a police force. Every time you do something through PayPal, they
are scrutinizing it, to see if you're violating marijuana laws.
"I tell everybody: Make a political statement against corporate pigs - don't
use PayPal or eBay. Meet people in person. Barter. Send money orders or wire
money. Use Western Union. Send a cheque. Send an ounce of gold.
"Just don't use PayPal. They're fucking narks!"
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