Hey folks,
I have a good story to share.
I had a personal PayPal account for many months before deciding to create a business account this month so I can try a variety of online businesses. However, I was not aware of the Acceptable Use Policy, and I used my PayPal business account to pay out my adult cam girls who were in my online studio. Basically, the girls got paid by their clients (viewers) with viewer-purchased tokens which were in turn deposited to my Chaturbate studio account, and I then had the obligation to pay certain percentage back to my cam girls in cash as agreed.
I wanted to expand my business skills in order to get more cash flowing into my bank from all directions (greedy, I know hehehe), so this time I opened a family-friendly website where professionals would make videos and sell the license to big studios who would use them in commercial productions like advertisements etc. I wanted to use PayPal to do mass-payments and revenue share with the video professionals.
This was when I discovered the Acceptable Use Policy via PayPal Developers website, which says I must first ask PayPal for permission if I am to use PayPal for certain digital goods.
So I sent a request asking for permission. Guess what I got as a response?:
Quote:
Dear Xxx Xxxxx,
We have recently reviewed your PayPal account activity, and determined that
you are in violation of PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy regarding your use
of PayPal to pay Broadcasters on Chaturbate and for your intended use
of PayPal on X.
Please refer to the following examples:
- Transaction 123ABC, 123XYZ, 123EFG
As a result, your account has been permanently limited and this cannot be appealed.
Per the PayPal User Agreement, which you read and accepted when you created your account, we reserve the right to permanently limit an account due to an Acceptable Use Policy violation. We may hold any available balance in your PayPal account for up to 180 days. In addition, you may be liable for
any amount of damages PayPal incurs for each violation of the Acceptable
Use Policy.
To read more about your liability, the actions we may take and other
relevant information pertaining to the PayPal User Agreement, please refer
to the following URL: https://Xxx
Please 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 PayPal shopping cart.
The PayPal User Agreement states that PayPal reserves the right to limit
an account for any violation of the PayPal User Agreement, including the
Acceptable Use Policy.
Under the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be used to send or
receive payments for certain sexually oriented materials or services or for
items that could be considered obscene.
You can view the complete PayPal Acceptable Use Policy by clicking the
"Legal" link at the bottom of any PayPal page and clicking "PayPal
Acceptable Use Policy". You can also find some more information on the
PayPal Acceptable Use Policy on our Help Center.
We thank you in advance for your cooperation. If you have any questions,
please contact the PayPal Brand Risk Management Department at aup@paypal.com.
Sincerely,
Xxx
PayPal, Brand Risk Management
PayPal
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They did the same to my personal PayPal account too. I was so enraged. They permanently banned me for three transactions I made via my business account. So I looked online to see if there was a solution, and I found this website and many others, and all the threads I read showed that there's no way to get back to PayPal other than to make another account with different personal information.
I called PayPal customer service and they said they can't help me with this and that I should contact the Brand Risk Management team (aup at Paypal dot com). I did that and they said unfortunately I'm permanently banned and that they will not unban me.
So I crafted an honest letter which I mildly modified and resent every 24 hours, usually a few minutes after receiving the same copy-pasted "Appeal rejected" message. Example of my letter:
Quote:
I had a personal PayPal account for a long time and obeyed the rules. However, a few weeks ago I opened a business account. There I made three transactions which my new business lawyer identified as probably not adhering to PayPal acceptable use policy. Then I immediately stopped, and asked PayPal to review my account for pre-approval for my new family-friendly website X, which will be like iStockPhoto but with videos instead, where companies can buy commercial licenses and request custom video production. But instead, my personal and business accounts got permanently limited. Please help me. I'm trying to be on the right side.
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So after a third try, this morning I received an email from PayPal:
Quote:
Dear Xxxx Xxxxxxxx,
Thank you for contacting PayPal with your concern regarding the limitation on your account.
At this time, the limitation on your PayPal account cannot be removed until the below issues are resolved.
In order to comply with our Acceptable Use Policy and return your account to good standing, you will need to:
- Submit the online Acceptable Use Policy affidavit.
Please complete the provided checklist within the specified timeframe. If we do not receive this information, your access to some account features, such as sending or requesting funds may be limited. We appreciate your prompt cooperation in this matter and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
To view the checklist, please follow the instructions below.
Go to the PayPal website and log in to your account.
Click Resolution Center at the top of your Account Overview page.
Complete the requirements listed to return your account to full access.
We appreciate your cooperation and thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. If you have any further questions or need our support, please contact the PayPal Brand Risk Management Department at aup@paypal.com.
Sincerely,
X
PayPal, Brand Risk Management
PayPal
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So I quickly logged into my PayPal business account and saw a link to the Resolution Center where there's a button that said something like "Resolve Now". I clicked it and it revealed the Acceptable Use Policy, which asked me to type "I Agree" into a form box. I did that, and a few seconds later received an email from PayPal:
Quote:
Dear Xxxxx Xxxxx,
Your PayPal Account has been Restored
We have completed our review and have restored your account.
Thank you for your patience during this process and for helping to make
PayPal the safest and most trusted online payment solution.
Sincerely,
PayPal
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I logged into my business account and it was fully restored!!
But my personal account was still saying "permanently limited" and said the decision cannot be appealed, so I sent an email to Brand Risk Management, explaining that the personal account was only banned due to the business account's activity, and that the business account has been fully restored. So they finally restored my personal account too!!!
I am so happy, and wish luck to others struggling to get back on PayPal.