PayPal allegedly stole money from frozen accounts

PayPal has long been a quasi-standard on the Internet for everyone who does not (want to) use a credit card. However, the company is also repeatedly the target and means of scammers and has to freeze accounts. A class action lawsuit accuses PayPal of having unfairly enriched itself. What is PayPal allowed to do when it comes to cracking down on illegal and suspicious activity? That is one of the questions that a court in the USA is currently or will soon be addressing.

As Ars Technica reports, the payment service is accused of violating organized crime laws because PayPal has frozen accounts without giving specific reasons. In principle, the plaintiffs accuse PayPal of theft. Because after those affected contacted the company, they were only told that they had violated the terms of use, but not exactly how and which ones. In at least one case, the user was told that he would need to obtain a subpoena against PayPal to find out why.

PayPal is the number one online payment service The class action lawsuit alleges PayPal not only did not know why the ban occurred, but also that they were not told how to get the funds released and how they could prevent future steps of this kind.

Did PayPal “stole” the money?

According to the plaintiffs, PayPal claims the money for itself after 180 days, in the present case it is said to have been around 250,000 dollars. The three plaintiffs are a man who sold so-called hyaluronic pens (hyaluronic acid against wrinkles), a woman who apparently had yoga clothing on offer and another woman who organized poker tournaments. Poker also plays a role in a fourth case, with poker pro Chris Moneymaker claiming that PayPal owes him $12,000 and is believed to be the organizer of the class action lawsuit.