[Infowarrior] - More on....PayPal shuts down HFC

[Richard Forno]

(c/o Anonymous)

Update: PayPal corrects situation:

http://www.hackersforcharity.org/265/paypal-makes-good/


Begin forwarded message:

> From: Richard Forno <rforno at infowarrior.org>
> Date: July 15, 2009 7:32:09 AM EDT
> To: Infowarrior List <infowarrior at attrition.org>
> Subject: PayPal shuts down HFC
>
> (h/t jericho)
>
> PayPal shuts us down
>
> http://www.hackersforcharity.org/259/paypal-shuts-us-down/
>
> I had a subscription system running under WP-MEMBER for about a year  
> before that software flaked out on me. Multiple domains caused  
> problems that were irreconcilable. I had donations for our work in  
> Africa coming in (not through wp-member) and a few hundred  
> subscribers to Informer through wp-member. All said, when I switched  
> to Suma, I had 10,000$US in my personal paypal account. That was my  
> family’s support money as well as money for our food program in Kenya.
> So I shopped around and picked up Suma. In the process, we had to  
> switch to a business account (although I don’t understand why…wp- 
> member was happily doing recurring payments without a business  
> account). That’s when all hell broke loose. Paypal required a proof  
> of non-profit status (we’re not a non-profit yet, no 501c3 paperwork  
> from IRS) which we don’t have (I selected the wrong box I guess) a  
> printed bank statement (harder to get than you might realize, being  
> overseas) which because a REAL problem because the account was in my  
> name, not the business name and other information. Because I  
> couldn’t provide some of the info (501c3 paper) and the other info  
> (bank stuff) took a LONG time, PayPal restricted my account, meaning  
> my subscription payments are bouncing, and I can’t transfer money  
> out of my account.
>
> PayPal has frozen my assets. We have no source of income beyond the  
> car money we just spent in Kampala on Monday. I may very well have  
> to return to Kampala and get the car payment money back to live off  
> of. We are stranded financially and physically without a vehicle  
> because of PayPal.
>
> I’ve called (Contact PayPal Customer Support toll-free at  
> 1-888-221-1161) to lift the restrictions, but they tell me to email  
> service. Emailing service is ridiculous, and a week goes by between  
> responses. Last I got from them was that I couldn’t talk to them  
> because I emailed from an address that wasn’t on the PayPal account.  
> So I had to create another email account, and try again (a painful  
> process).
>
> Now they are telling me that the bank info I provided isn’t correct  
> because the bank account isn’t in the business name. Now I have to  
> switch bank accounts in PayPal (again, overseas, less that dial-up,  
> VERY HARD), get another statement to them and hope they accept it.
>
> At that point they will probably deny me again because I haven’t  
> sent them the 501c3 papers.
>
> I asked to switch to a for-profit account (even though we’re not)  
> through the “PayPal resolution center” but have received no  
> response. This would remove the requirement for the 501c3 paperwork,  
> but I have no faith in this process because everything submitted to  
> the resolution center must be in a graphic format (png, jpg, etc)  
> and I was forced to take a screen cap of a text document explaining  
> my case. (I mean seriously??) Nothing from them on switching to a  
> for-profit account.
>
> I’d love to go back to having a personal account, but I can’t even  
> imagine how I would request that, how long it would take, or if it  
> would even be possible,
>
> The bottom line is PayPal has frozen my assets (which aren’t  
> theirs.. how can they do this?) including all the support money my  
> family is relying on.
>
> I’ve spent hours on the phone (on hold) to PayPal at approximately  
> 30 cents a minute to try to get this resolved only to be told to use  
> email. I’m considering legal action over this.
>
> HFC is at a complete standstill. We can not order shirts for the  
> conference. Subscriptions are bouncing. Informer is down.  
> Subscribers are (rightly) pissed because they don’t have what  
> they’ve paid for. I can’t order the items for the DEFCON auction.  
> There are too many problems to list here. The biggest is that PayPal  
> has locked down my family’s survival money.
>
> I have no clue what to do at this point.
>
> Does the EFF have any leverage? I can’t tell you how tempted I am to  
> just turn to the dark side here and…