121–130 of 216 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why specifically a civic responsibility?
There's probably a better word but it resonates with some people. The desire to preserve other planets for the remote chance that there's life there and we can study it before turning up anyway and ruining things is misguided. We are the only known life in the universe, it's incredibly irresponsible to not propagate such things (just in case)
Per [0], a possible answer to this seems to be that an arms dealer had connections to a company called Tardigrade Ltd. and all transactions with firms like these are prohibited which is why the word "Tardigrade" made it into PayPal's filter. As long as companies like PayPal have issues like that, or with moderation in case of Youtube, Twitter or Facebook, I'd claim neither of these companies have actually solved scal…
Are you telling me I can start website called "ebay ltd" and get donations from paypal for hosting wikileaks and snowden leaks and paypay might block ebay transactions along with my ebay ltd?
Per [0], a possible answer to this seems to be that an arms dealer had connections to a company called Tardigrade Ltd. and all transactions with firms like these are prohibited which is why the word "Tardigrade" made it into PayPal's filter. As long as companies like PayPal have issues like that, or with moderation in case of Youtube, Twitter or Facebook, I'd claim neither of these companies have actually solved scal…
If any match those strings it's flagged for a review.
This is more or less legally required for any company that moves money in the United States of America. You will probably find the same issues with the same terms on any other banking for financial body.
Technically, these aren't being blocked. They're being audited. The payments will still go through. The way this is taking place is following very specific legally "known good" pathways - so that when paypal does accidentally let a payment through to a sanctioned entity they are able to argue that they took every available precaution and should not have to pay the $250k per transaction fine.
The last time PayPal had to pay these fines - for example - it was ~$7m. That's not including legal fees. https://fcpablog.com/2015/03/27/ofac-fines-paypal-77-million...
Based on my experience as a developer and user I can't understand how PayPal got so big and ubiquitous. I had the worst experience ever in trying to set up our recurring billing system with them, wasting several days of work, to the point that I simply gave up, switched to Stripe, and got everything up and running, in production, in hours. Even as a consumer I had a terrible experience when trying to send money abroa…
I'm not from the US and to me PayPal was always only a way to avoid filling in credit cards details on (random) websites. it always feels a bit weird to see people elsewhere rely on it for much more.
And this is the answer.
Paypal's existence comes down to the fact that they are the sole "legitimate" vector into the US financial system for a vast majority of the rest of the world. Because that's such a massive financial incentive, they can basically treat users however they wish and get away with it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the kind of thinking that lead to the TSA putting infants, and even a US Senator, on the US no-fly list because their names matched those of "known terrorists." The Washington concept of NATIONAL SECURITY is a brain-eating parasite that seemingly renders compliance managers unable to tell the difference between categorically different things, such as US Senators and IRA terrorists, or Serbian companies named…
> […] because their names matched those of "known terrorists." As Bruce Schneier (IIRC) observed: these people are 'too dangerous' to let fly, but not dangerous enough to arrest. Safe enough for firearms as well: > In a 2010 report, the Government Accountability Office noted that "Membership in a terrorist organization does not prohibit a person from possessing firearms or explosives under current federal law," and i…
But then I think another part of the reason is that most of the international terrorist types that were originally expected to be blocked by the No Fly List were generally not in the US, and so not subjects to US Gov charges or even gathering evidence.
Farther down the thread: A few people mentioned OFAC sanctions, so I investigated a bit more. In Dec 2019, US Dept of Treasury sanctioned companies linked to Serbian arms dealer Slobodan Tesic, including Cyprus-based Tardigrade Ltd. So PayPal flags tardigrade ornaments by mistake.
Part of this is no doubt Paypal's fault, but part of it is also the fault of the US's over-the-top trade sanctions laws. The penalties for getting it wrong are so severe, it creates a strong incentive for companies to err on the side of caution even when doing so produces idiotic outcomes like this one.
Per [0], a possible answer to this seems to be that an arms dealer had connections to a company called Tardigrade Ltd. and all transactions with firms like these are prohibited which is why the word "Tardigrade" made it into PayPal's filter. As long as companies like PayPal have issues like that, or with moderation in case of Youtube, Twitter or Facebook, I'd claim neither of these companies have actually solved scal…
PayPal gets a list of banned strings from the Office of Foreign Asset controls. If any match those strings it's flagged for a review. This is more or less legally required for any company that moves money in the United States of America. You will probably find the same issues with the same terms on any other banking for financial body. Technically, these aren't being blocked. They're being audited. The payments will…
Same for the word "Bitcoin". If you try to send something with this word to somebody it will block their and your account. For me this is an (kamikaze) attack vector.
I mean, why stop at just "Bitcoin". Might as well put a bunch of the words in there to increase your chances (eg. iran, nuclear, uranium enrichment, north korea, isis etc.), kind of like https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=tiananm...
Per [0], a possible answer to this seems to be that an arms dealer had connections to a company called Tardigrade Ltd. and all transactions with firms like these are prohibited which is why the word "Tardigrade" made it into PayPal's filter. As long as companies like PayPal have issues like that, or with moderation in case of Youtube, Twitter or Facebook, I'd claim neither of these companies have actually solved scal…
When they ban the new code word, they'll just switch again, once again screwing over the legitimate users of that word.
its wackamole only stupider because at least wackamole at the arcade gives you prize tickets.
I had a horrible experience with PayPal earlier this year. I needed to send $500 to an individual buying our house, they were paying cash and on such a tight timeline for closing that the closing docs were written up before they got back their inspection report and asked for an allowance. Paypal kept blocking the transaction even though it was just a simple person to person transfer. I was on chat with their support…
I made one and linked my card but rarely used it. Once I had to pay to an online merchant and for some reason the card didn't work so I hooked up my savings account. Months go by and since I never came around to using the service again, I wanted the account closed.
But before that, as a personal preference, I wanted to manually remove the card and account link. The card worked fine but it won't let me do it with the bank account. Took 3 separate chats over a week to get it done and I finally closed it to never look back. I have no idea of the dark patterns exist anymore.
Now I just use cashapp to send and receive money with my friends. Left such a salty taste in my mouth, I'll never give PayPal any business anymore, just seems sketch.