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Old 08-29-2008
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Question Steele et al. v. PayPal, Inc. - Class Action

I just received a strange e-mail. I am sure it is spam, but I'd like to know where they got my e-mail address from. Or is it just sheer coincidence? Has anyone else received this message? Here is a copy:

Steele et al. v. PayPal, Inc. et al., Civil Action No. 1:05-CV-01720 (ILG)(VVP)

Notice from Federal Court. Please Read.

You may be eligible to receive a benefit from a class action settlement if you funded a PayPal transaction using a source other than your credit card between February 1, 2004 and the present.

A federal court has directed that this notice be sent to inform you of a proposed class action settlement. Records show that you may be eligible to receive a benefit under the proposed settlement.

The settlement will resolve a lawsuit against eBay Inc. and PayPal, Inc. (collectively, "Defendants") involving claims arising out of representations in the PayPal User Agreement regarding PayPal's policies and practices for responding to refund requests from those customers who pay for transactions through PayPal using funds from funding sources other than credit cards. Under the settlement, Defendants have agreed to establish a settlement fund of $3.5 million to pay claims to potential class members. The proposed Class is defined as:

all U.S. based PayPal account holders who funded a PayPal transaction after February 1, 2004, using a source other than a credit card: (i) who subsequently requested a reversal of the transaction through PayPal's prevailing Buyer Complaint Policy and/or Buyer Protection Policy (collectively, "Policies"); (ii) who did not receive a refund equal to 100% of their transaction payment in response to such request from PayPal or their bank; and (iii) who, through the timely submission of a Claim Form under oath, attest to a reasonable and good faith belief that they would have received a full reversal of such payment had they used a valid credit card in their possession at the time of the subject transaction to fund the payment and filed a timely chargeback request with their credit card issuing bank. Excluded from the Class are any judicial officer to whom this Litigation is assigned; PayPal, eBay and any of its affiliates; any current or former employees, officers, or directors of PayPal or eBay; any Persons currently residing outside of the United States; and, all Persons who timely and validly request exclusion from the Class pursuant to the Notice.

To see if you are a Class Member and to obtain full notice of the Settlement, the required procedures, the deadlines, your obligations, and your options, you must visit Steele Settlement Website. This email is only a brief summary of the full notice that is posted on the website.

If you are an eligible Settlement Class Member, you have rights, obligations, and options under the proposed settlement. You have until December 14, 2008 to file your Claim Form and Certification Form. Your legal rights are affected whether you act or not.

1. Submit The Claim Form And The Certification Form By Mail

This is the only way to get a settlement payment. You must: (1) print and fill out the Claim Form and return it by mail to the address provided on the Claim Form; and (2) print the Certification Page of your Claim Form, sign it, and return it by mail to the address provided on the Claim Form. Your Claim Form and signed Certification Page must be mailed and postmarked no later than December 14, 2008. For more information on these deadlines, the Effective Date of the settlement, the Claim Form procedures, and the settlement benefit, you must visit Steele Settlement Website.

2. Exclude Yourself – Opt Out of the Settlement

If you do not want to remain a member of the Class and participate in the Amended Settlement, then you may exclude yourself (opt-out) from the Class by mailing or delivering (email is not permitted) your written request. Your original, signed request for exclusion must be RECEIVED on or before October 31, 2008 and mailed to the following address:

PayPal/Steele Class Action Settlement
c/o The Garden City Group, Inc.
P.O. Box 9309
Dublin, OH 43017-4209


Your request for exclusion must contain your name and address, be signed by you, and include the reference "Steele et al. v. PayPal, Inc. et al., Civil Action No. 1:05-CV-01720." If you exclude yourself from the Class, you will not participate in the Amended Settlement and will not receive any payment from the Amended Settlement.

3. Object

Write to the Court about why you do not like the settlement. Your objection must be filed with the Clerk of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn Main Office, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York 11201, no later than October 31, 2008. Pursuant to the Court's Order, you may not be heard on or entitled to contest the Court's decision unless you have filed written objections no later than October 31, 2008. A hearing ("Settlement Hearing") shall be held before Hon. I Leo Glasser on November 17, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Courtroom 8B South, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York 11201.

4. Do Nothing

You will automatically be included in the Settlement Class and give up your right to be part of any other lawsuit about the claims in this case, but you will not be eligible to receive a settlement benefit unless you submit a Claim Form.

To get complete information about the proposed Settlement, the required procedures, the deadlines, your obligations, and your options, you must visit Steele Settlement Website.

Please do not contact PayPal, or PayPal's customer support about this Notice, or the Settlement. Instead, you must visit Steele Settlement Website for complete information about the proposed Settlement, the required procedures, the deadlines, your obligations, and your options.

Please do not reply to this message. We are unable to respond to inquiries sent in reply to this email. To contact us, please access the official settlement website at Steele Settlement Website.
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Old 08-29-2008
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I am not so sure. It seems like many many people have received this message today. I just did a simple Google Search and found this site; the comments are very interesting:

PayPal Class Action Lawsuit - A Hoax or Real - You Decide « Trading Assistant Journal

I don't feel very comfortable about giving information like they ask for on the website mentioned in the e-mail.
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Old 08-29-2008
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Ok, I guess I just found the answer in the eBay forum:

eBay Forums: Email from "Steele Settlement" re: eBay ...

Amanda from PayPal: Hi All,

I can confirm that in September 2006, PayPal reached a settlement agreement with a proposed class of PayPal customers in an action pending in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. The suit was filed in 2005 on behalf of a class alleging that PayPal did not clearly communicate information about its consumer protection programs related to specific types of transactions. And I can confirm that the settlement administrator (Garden City Group) was slated to send email notice to the possible claimants starting August 29, 2008. PayPal settled the case to avoid further costs of litigation and devote resources to more productive aspects of our business.

To get additional information about the settlement and whether or not you are eligible to participate in the settlement, please visit the settlement website at: Steele Settlement Website.

Amanda
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I received this same notice but has anyone filled out the claim form?
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I guess I know why I have received this e-mail. Back in 2006 I used PayPal to pay for some electronics on a website. The merchandise was valued at aroudn $350. I received a trackingnumber from the store, but a day before the estimated delivery date the shipment was sent back to the sender on his request. I filed a dispute - as many others did I had to find out later - but PayPal was only able to recover around $100.

So I will most definitly file the claim. If you print out the final form (pdf) it asks you to attach proof of the transaction which will require me to log in to my old accounts which I currently do not want to do from any of my computers or IP's.

So helpme1. do you know the reason why you are on their mailing list?
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hi, i just on to ask this same question. I too got this email but only on my email that i had account with them way back. To be honest, i don't even remember my username and password. But i was going to ask to how did they get my email? I too bought many things and didn't receive full refunds but did the courts really look at all the accounts that didn't get full refunds? I really doubt it, but if thats the case I applaud the courts for doing such a thing. Now they should look into ebay robbing us sellers for fees that are getting ridiculous out of control.

Anybody read anywhere on that steele website how they obtained past email addresses of users? I would really like to know. My first guess to was this was another phishing email getting more sophisticated.
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Old 08-30-2008
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floridian, I don't know why I'am on the list because I have bought and sold many things in the past and used paypal and I also had claims for items not received with no refund. I guess we all will find out about this deal more. Anybody filing a claim? I think I will jump on the band wagon before its to late.
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Well, in my case it is relatively simple to file the claim, since I know exactly when the transaction I have not received a full refund for took place.

I would log in to the affected account and look into the resolution center. All cases, even closed ones, are saved there.

I will file for the claim next week. Maybe I'll see some of my money back
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It's a crapshoot, often these result in just a few bucks, sometimes you get lucky. The ones I hate are when you get a free or discounted service. Brighthouse Networks (cable) has one where the lovely prize is a free or discounted video download... what a crock. Kaybee Toys had one and the prize was a discount on buying something else. I believe I missed the deadline for the Airborne cold remedy (sued because it does not cure the common cold lol) where the lovely prize was cash- full refund of up to 5 or 10 products I believe, no receipts required (unlimited I do believe if you had receipts.)

I would look at it this way. We all got the email because Paypal had to give emails and they weren't about to go sorting through and figure out who was eligible and who was not ahead of claims submitted, so they just sent to their entire distribution list. The lawyers and judge are not about to go through millions of responses and look into each one to check who is entitled and who is not. They say they will do this later, but most of the time they don't actually verify anything. By sending in the claim form, you get a share of the money, likely $2m after lawyers' cuts divided by claims, prorated by claim amounts.

The kicker is you have to receive the money via Paypal or $1 will be deducted from the check amount. Who wants to bet they won't use masspay and Paypal will charge us a transaction fee lol

The actual number of valid claims should be relatively small because you have to do all of the following: fund a transaction other than with credit card (ie bank transfer) AND request a reversal via Paypal AND not received 100% of the transaction AND "believe" filing a chargeback instead with a credit card would have given you back all your money.

If anyone wants to be a real pain (ahem cough cough Modee...) send a form excluding yourself and file a separate lawsuit making the same claims. You have to mail the exclusion form to 3 addresses. My guess is one of the 3 contacts you for a real settlement. They also say not to call Paypal of course, so each and everyone of us could call anyway just to ask lol

And we wondered why Paypal was being so overly sided with the buyers in disputes :o)
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Quote:
We all got the email because Paypal had to give emails and they weren't about to go sorting through and figure out who was eligible and who was not ahead of claims submitted, so they just sent to their entire distribution list.
Not true, this message was only send to the e-mail address I used on my very first account which was suspended. Following your theorie I should have received this e-mail to all my other accounts, too.

There are also people in this forum who never received it, right?
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Old 08-31-2008
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"we" as in all of us who posted that we did. Maybe there was a screen maybe there wasn't, no one will know for sure and it doesn't really matter. Did you check your spam folder? lol It's a comment not a theory lol

But I can tell you this. I received the email and I do not believe I met the criteria for the class action on that account. There were date ranges, so maybe they screened by when your account was opened. I'm not going to try and get inside paypal's collective mind for something so trivial.
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well then hopefully most people deleted thinking it was spam and I will collect a good sum lol
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Where they say, funding methods other than a CC - would this mean I could be illegible for a claim if the transaction was funded purely by my paypal balance?
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Old 09-09-2008
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Quote:
Where they say, funding methods other than a CC - would this mean I could be illegible for a claim if the transaction was funded purely by my paypal balance?
Yes. I think the idea is that you can intiate a charge back with your credit card issuer, so you would be protected under their policy. Therefore every other payment method should be covered under PayPal's buyer protection, incl. debit cards and PayPal balance.

I just went to the Kinght's Inn parking lot to print out receipts for the original transaction (my first account), so tomorrow morning I will send in my claim.
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Old 09-09-2008
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LOL! That lawsuit got so much attention?? Maybe I dont understand this...Its not fair since you used a bank account funding, didnt get a refund, whereas if you used a credit card you would have...meaning, your CC company would have refunded you?

Big deal, ive been ripped off my PP for far worse things than that. Hmm, I'm assuming your balance from payments is "other than credit card." I think I have a transaction currently pending that falls directly into this and have had a few others since 04 but I never got an email...anyway...maybe i'll get my 75 bucks back w/i 5 yrs
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Old 09-19-2008
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The real point of this story is that Paypal will tighten the screws even further on holding sellers funds.

We can all look forward to more holds on our money....
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