Several paypal accounts limited for a weird reason.

[stepia2]

I had several accounts limited today. Reason: "It's been a little while since you used your account. So, we just want to make sure that you authorized some recent transactions."

I've logged on some of them using the same IP or sometimes the same cookies etc, however I've been logging on Paypal accounts using sometimes the same IP's for months and never had a problem like this. Normally I would use the same IP and cookies that I used for a limited account and have no issues. Something else must have triggered this. Also I'm not sure if IP is what they all got linked by.

A couple of weeks ago, while sending a payment to someone in Europe, I was asked to do phone verification to make sure that the transaction is authorized. Paypal never asked me to do this before.

Yesterday I made two small payments to someone, and within a few hours after that they limited a bunch of my accounts. By the reason given, it sounds like they suspected unauthorized activity. So it looks like the trigger was sending money to other people who might not necessary have a strong established account. And once they suspect unauthorized activity, they actually start linking accounts by IP, cookies etc. It's strange because they never bother to link accounts if an account gets limited for other reasons like "We need more information about you or your recent transactions".

So here's the actions, as I think, that might be triggering this suspicion of an unauthorized activity: logging on a Paypal account with a new IP and no cookies to send a payment to someone's not very established account or an account abroad.

If someone had their accounts mass banned recently (today maybe?) or has an opinion on why they mass limited a bunch of my accounts, I would very much like to hear about that.

In before someone tries to blame everything on using the same IP, again, when it comes to Paypal, I haven't bothered much about IP's for a long time, even if I used that IP for limited accounts, and had no issues until now.

[FandangoKango]

Your problem is that you didn't think using the same ip would be a problem, but it finally caught on with you. You can last a while, but not forever. I suggest you record every ip you use and to which account it logs into and never cross the ips. This should take care of your problems!

[stepia2]

Yeah, definitely using different IP's will solve this kind of issues in the future. I just don't like changing it every time if I know ways to avoid this sort of problem. I'm wondering what the limitation was all about and why they suspected unauthorized activity: "It's been a little while since you used your account. So, we just want to make sure that you authorized some recent transactions."

If someone had this sort of limitation, I would like to hear what they did to get it.

[last3379]

I think you are fine using the same IP address UNTIL something goes wrong with just 1 of those accounts - then they are all automatically linked. I am usually okay using the same IP address but I wouldnt dare log into another account without clearing cookies first!

[rsot]

@last, kind of dangerous but if it works - all the best.

[GTB]

the ip is not the problem as much here,its the cookies

you logging into different accounts without clearing cookies is a big issue you need to resolve

you mite aswell of rang them up and told which accounts are yours

this is not good practice for stealth

i don't understand how you can think it was for any other reason,if you had of kept them all separate this would not of happened!!!

you linked your accounts through pure lazyness,end of story

the stealth guide clearly states to clear cookies or use a different user account for each stealth paypal

just bcoz it dont happen straight away doesn't mean it wont happen eventually

if you want have successful accounts you need to keep everything separate for a start

[rsot]

New Windows user account per account will keep cookies separate.

[stepia2]

No, it's deeper than that. After that banwave I posted about, I made several new accounts again, COMPLETELY separated, i.e, unique IP's, cookies, windows users and new ebay accounts for them; however, they all went down in 2-3 days as well. I now think the Paypal computer found a pattern between all those limited accounts that were initially linked by IP's and cookies. And now they are closing every account with this pattern: same geographic area, ISP, bank, ebay category, price range, windows and browser version, browser pluggins, method of opening, daily volume, how soon sales start after opening, etc, etc.. Statistically, I doubt anyone else beside me has this same pattern.

[GreenBean]

One of your IPs is on the black list....are you aware of that