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Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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You are here: Home / Paypal is Pissing Me Off

Paypal is Pissing Me Off

by | 43 Comments

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Any other paypal users being required to upload a copy of their SSN, photo id, and other various shit?

I’m wondering if this is some new hoop I have to jump through since I lost my wallet a month ago and requested a new paypal card, or new regulations that they just decided to hit me with. Hey assholes- I lost my wallet. I have no social security card atm.

arglebarglegetoffmygrass

And no, it is not a scam. It is inside the paypal site.

Reader Interactions

43Comments

  3. 3.

    robertdsc-PowerBook & 27 titles

    I’m looking at the Paypal Security Center & don’t notice anything new. I think it’s a scam.

  5. 5.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Sounds like a scam. I have used PayPal in the past few days and had no such issues. Also, too, I thought we were moving away from using the SSN for these types of things since it’s technically against the law.

  6. 6.

    eemom

    I’m sorry John, but you have blasphemed against Jane Hamsher, Supreme Ayatoless Of The Left.

    The Fatwa has been issued.

    Paypal is only the beginnning.

  7. 7.

    KG

    @arguingwithsignposts: um, not technically, completely against the law, and has been for at least a decade. I remember when it happened, because I was in college and my student ID number changed because we use to use are SSN. I did not like having to learn a new number.

  8. 8.

    Violet

    Sounds phishy. You shouldn’t have to enter your SSN for anything like that. Does Paypal have a FAQ you can check or anything?

  9. 9.

    BethanyAnne

    Nope, nothing new for me. Type in the URL by hand into a restarted browser. See if the requirements are still there.

  10. 10.

    cdmarine

    Errrr… I don’t care if it’s all the way inside Paypal’s asshole. I wouldn’t do any of that shit over the Internet. Call their customer service line and talk to a human. Seriously.

  11. 11.

    Corner Stone

    Seriously? Far Beyond Driven is the much superior Pantera album.
    This can not be debated.

  12. 12.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @KG:
    I used “technically” because too many organizations don’t follow that particular part of the law.

    The only reason I knew about it was that I had a former boss who refused to give his SSN for anything. period. And if you read the tiny print on the back of the SSN cards, it’s stated pretty clearly.

    WRT the student ID numbers, I went through that too, and am frankly happy they did away with SSN IDs. I knew too many students who were victims of identity theft because of those SSN IDs.

  13. 13.

    Anne Laurie

    I ended up having to call their ‘Live Help’ number when the Spousal Unit’s laptop got stolen back in February and all our passwords had to be “reset”. IIRC, the number is well-hidden, but if you click thru enough false fronts on the help-with-your-account screen you’ll get there eventually. Took three techs & an off-line supervisors more than an hour to actually reset their damned system, repeatedly, and they all acted like this was… not so unusual. Were I you, therefore, I’d start hunting & be prepared to spend some quality phone time.

  14. 14.

    Corner Stone

    Any other paypal users being required to upload a copy of their SSN, photo id, and other various shit?

    You’re out of your damn mind to do this. For any reason.
    Are you the newest Ambassador to Hotbabeistan?
    Then never give this info up in this manner.

  15. 15.

    Wordsmith

    Sounds terribly fishy and/or phishy to me, too. I have Paypal’s card. Please keep in mind I’m coping with an estrogen leak somewheres, soo…. I don’t ever recall having to use SSN or scan photo ID, etc.

  16. 16.

    Non-Existent Patricia

    I have nothing to add about PayPal, but I loves me some Pantera, so I hope those kids keep getting on the grass.

  17. 17.

    Karatist Preacher

    I agree with most of the comments – I just switched banks and did a paypal transaction in the past day – I’ve never had to give them that info.

  18. 18.

    Corner Stone

    And while this isn’t an OT, let me just say, center cut hand breaded baked pork chops for the absolute win.

  20. 20.

    Fred Fnord

    FYI, PayPal has been doing stuff like this for ages. And because I refuse to either give them my bank account information (so they can withdraw money from my account if they decide that I owe someone, because they don’t like it when people dispute charges on their credit cards) and I won’t fax them my California photo ID and my SSN and a lot of other identifying information, I can’t use them to do business with the two companies that I purchase from most on the internet. (Because both require that you be a ‘verified paypal customer’ or some shit like that.)

    Paypal is as obnoxious as a hatful of assholes.

    —fred

  22. 22.

    Non-Existent Patricia

    I think “hatful of assholes” should replace the vanilla “Assholes” tag. Although I am partial to a fistful of assholes which I have shamelessly stolen from Norah.

  23. 23.

    Vole

    This does sound scammish, but Paypal is still a pain in the ass. I run the website for a new nonprofit. I put up a paypal donate button on the site only to discover that when someone wants to donate using their credit card, they have to open a paypal account to do so. Just what you want when you’re asking people to donate some of their hard earned money–to make them fill out forms and open an account they might never use.

  24. 24.

    Ailuridae

    I can’t speak to paypal but I get paid online and the requirements to set up e-check accounts etc. are far more out of control than this. My current e-checks account took weeks to set up and involved about a dozen emails and five trips to the post office/Fed Ex.

  26. 26.

    mclaren

    If you lost your social security card, you’re in a world of hurt. You need to show your original social security card to renew your drivers license. Without a drivers license, you’re burned — you can’t drive a car, you can’t open a bank account, you can’t get on a bus or a plane or a train, you can’t enter a lot of official buildings, you’re an unperson.

    People make fools of themselves by ridiculing me for pointing out we’ve turned into a “papers please” police state. See how far you get renewing your drivers license without a social security card, and you’ll get an education in just what kind of police state we now live in.

  27. 27.

    Ailuridae

    @mclaren:

    Err, you can get you SS card with nothing but your birth certificate. Which you can typically get by calling a hospital with your date of birth, date and time of birth etc.

    Worst case a parent or a relative with the same surname can get it for you.

    This would all be solved (as well as eliminating identity theft) with biometrically linked national ID cards.

  28. 28.

    DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective

    I never use Pay Pal and will not do business with anyone online that requires it. Period.

    Slightly but not really off topic, did you know that credit card merchant agreements specifically exclude asking customers for ID as a condition of card acceptance?

    They have moved the webpage that contains this info, but it’s been part of the Visa merchant agreement for years.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @mclaren:

    If you lost your social security card, you’re in a world of hurt.

    Well, until you walk down to your local Social Security office, show them your birth certificate, and get a duplicate printed up.

    But I’m sure that for the half an hour or so you have to wait for that, you’re really in a world of hurt.

    If you can’t get a copy of your birth certificate for some reason, that’s when you’re in a world of hurt, because you can get a driver’s license with just a birth certificate. You can get hired for a job with a birth certificate and a driver’s license as long as you have your SSN memorized. Read the I-9 sometime — a Social Security card is not required. It’s just one of 8 possible eligibility documents you can present.

  31. 31.

    Malron aka eclecticbrotha

    John, don’t submit that info. I just went to my Paypal site and I didn’t see any such requirements.

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Oh, and you don’t need a Social Security card to get a passport, just your birth certificate, and you can bypass the need to supply two forms of ID for employment by presenting that passport. So there’s really virtually no need for a SS card once a number’s been issued, except that it’s easier to carry around than your birth certificate or passport.

  33. 33.

    mclaren

    @Mnemosyne: Hey, there, ignorant kook, thanks for spouting gibberish!

    Apparently you’re not aware that many states require picture ID in order to get a copy of your birth certificate. New York, Connecticut, many other states now demand picture ID before they’ll give you a copy of your birth certificate.

    Yes indeedy, lose your wallet with your drivers license and SS card, and you’re burned.

    Before you open your mouth, learn something about the police state in which we live. A police state in which many thousands of U.S. citizens are now unable to get picture ID or a passport. Here’s an example of someone unable to get ID for obvious reasons — lost his original birth certificate, can’t get a new one without valid picture ID, can’t get valid picture ID without a certified copy of his birth certificate.

  35. 35.

    mclaren

    Here’s another example of our crazy out-of-control “Papers please!” police state, this time from Oregon:

    Everyone attempting to obtain a new, replacement or renewal license will not only be required to provide a SSN, but also to present a document that includes the SSN. DMV will verify SSNs with the Social Security Administration database. This database is notoriously rife with errors, including name and birth date discrepancies. A recent review of the SSA’s pilot verification program found an error rate of 9.8 percent for naturalized U.S. citizens.

    Even if you’re in the SSA database, if there is any discrepancy with your name or birth date, you will not be able to obtain a license or renewal. Instead, DMV likely will issue a temporary card (with no photograph) and require you to resolve the discrepancies with the SSA. For some, it may be an easy resolution; for others, there may be no way to provide the required documents to the SSA to resolve the problem. If there is no resolution, DMV will not issue a driver license.

    We raised another concern that also was ignored: Federal buildings require a person to present photo identification to enter the building, so those who have to go to the SSA and who do not have current photo identification may not be able to enter the building, putting them in a Catch-22.
    Non-citizens will need to produce specific federal immigration documents. That requirement (already in place under the Governor’s Executive Order) has already created problems. DMV has turned people away who had legal federal immigration documents but those documents were either not on the DMV approved list or did not look as DMV expected. This is one of the concerns we have had; namely that state agencies do not have the expertise to recognize the many different lawful federal immigration documents available. For example, in April, the ACLU of Oregon agreed to assist a non-US citizen who can legally work in this country but was wrongly dismissed from her job because her green card appeared to have expired. She has begun the naturalization process and as a result, was told by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) that she does not need to renew her green card. But a local government in Oregon received different information from ICE and terminated her.

    In addition to SSN verification, one will have to produce either a certified birth certificate or a U.S. passport (current or no more than 5 years expired) to prove lawful presence in this country and U.S. citizenship. (There are other documents for U.S. citizens born abroad, naturalized citizens, permanent residents or members of federally recognized tribes, but for most it will be birth certificate or passport.) If one’s name has changed since the issuance of these documents, particularly since issuance of a birth certificate, legal documents reflecting those name changes must also be produced (in certified form). This will most affect women who have had name changes from marriage or divorce as well as anyone who has been adopted or gone through any other legal name change.

    For many, it may be easy to produce a certified birth certificate, especially those born in this state who already have a certified copy or have the time and financial resources to track down and obtain a new certified copy. But for many, this will be an insurmountable obstacle, particularly those born out of state. It may take significant time to locate and contact the right out-of-state agency that issued the birth certificate and significant cost to actually get a certified copy. (Again, if the state requires picture identification, a person may be in yet another Catch-22 with no photo identification.)

    Source: ACLU on Oregon drivers license law SB1080, 2007

    You people are deeply stupid. I know American citizens who’ve lived here all their lives who are now caught in this Catch-22.

  36. 36.

    DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective

    You people are deeply stupid.

    I love you, man. No matter how obnoxious I get, I can always point to you as worse.

    Thank yewww!

  37. 37.

    HeartlandLiberal

    Item one, before I go further, PayPal sucked, and since becoming owned by Ebay, PayPal sucks along with Ebay.

    That being said:

    John, what sort of PayPal account do you have? Personal or business? That may make a difference.

    Under your profile, look on the “Identity Preferences” option. I note on mine that using social security number is an option, but another option was available, providing routing info to a bank account. That is the one I used to verify my identity, and into which proceeds from my hobby sales are transferred.

    Note, since, as I said, PayPal sucks in so many ways, and cannot be trusted, I never maintain a balance of more than the $500 minimum my bank requires me to keep in the account to have it free of fees for business use. The same day any payment is transferred to that account from PayPal of Google Checkout, I immediately transfer it to a second bank account that I have not registered with PayPal. I would not trust PayPal not to arbitrarily decide I owed them money and try to transfer it out of my account. In fact, I think there were instances of that a few years ago, when there were lawsuits against PayPal for some of it practices. I just looked, at the website http://www.paypalsucks.com/ is still in existence, you can check it out for details.

    Bottom line, I am not getting any demand for soc sec nbr from PayPal, but that is probably because I have a business account registered with a bank account to verify my identity.

    However, I think it is insane that they should demand soc sec nbr, and have to wonder if the laws passed as far back as 1975 would not make that demand problematical legally. I mean, even states have moved away from putting soc sec nbr on drivers licenses, for petes sake, as here in Indiana. The state just creates a unique drivers license number.

  39. 39.

    Zach

    I got kicked out of PayPal and separated from my $8.00 in my account because someone apparently tried to hack my account and I don’t recall the number of a bank account I had seven or eight years ago when I made the account. I routinely get e-mails about someone trying to (and failing) to access my locked account.

  40. 40.

    Shoe

    when i was traveling europe paypal smacked me with a ‘random’ security sweep like 3 times

    at least in my case, faxing crap in was only one of the options; i could also choose to verify with a phone call or through them making a temporary charge to my credit card that had a special # that would appear on the statement

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @mclaren:

    Yes, let’s look at those horrible, onerous, impossible standards for providing your SSN to the state of Oregon, shall we? From the actual state DMV website:

    A Social Security Card or other SSA documentation, which may be laminated (metal souvenir cards and photocopies are not acceptable);
    A copy of a state or federal tax document;
    An employment record containing the SSN;
    A military document containing the SSN;
    A document from the SSA validating the SSN, such as a benefits letter;
    An out-of-state driver license, permit or ID card containing the SSN;
    Tribal ID Card containing the SSN;
    Medical Benefits Card containing the SSN; or
    Any acceptable document submitted as proof of legal presence/identity or residence address containing the SSN.

    Oh, and it looks like the ACLU kinda forgot to mention that you can get a driver’s license in Oregon without a SSN as long as you can show you’re not actually eligible for one:

    A document issued by the SSA;
    A document issued by a Federal agency or Federal court which demonstrates the customer is ineligible for an SSN;
    An I-94, CBP I-94, CBP I-94A without the stamp noting “Employment Authorized”; or
    IRS Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN)

    So, yes, if you lose every piece of picture ID that you own, have no copy of your birth certificate at home, and have never filed taxes or held a job so there’s no record of you ever having a SSN, you’re probably kind of screwed.

    I have a feeling that there aren’t too many American citizens with zero forms of picture ID, no birth certificate, no passport, no paystubs, and no tax records, but I guess you’re one of the lucky ones who just happened to carry every single one of those things with you in your wallet when you lost it.

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Also, I notice that you posted the article about Colorado’s onerous laws and didn’t even notice that they’ve been suspended under a court order because they’re too strict. I guess it ruins your Police State narrative when one part of the Police State says another part can’t do something, so you just ignore reality and keep building your lovely fantasy world in your head.

  43. 43.

    Badtux

    @Mnemosyne: You can’t get into federal buildings without showing an official state-issued ID or, if you’re a juvenile, having your parent there to show an official state-issued ID. Things Have Changed since September 11, 2001. Didn’t you get the memo? Security has been tightened to keep unidentified people out of federal buildings, because despite the fact that the 9/11 terrorists had official state-issued ID’s, requiring state-issued ID’s would have stopped them (say wha?!). So… let’s recap. The SSA office is in the federal building. You need your SS card to get an official state-issued ID. You need your official state-issued ID to get into the federal building. But you can’t get your official state-issued ID until you get into the federal building. Furthermore, Form SS-5 Page 2 says you need your official state-issued ID to get a replacement Social Security card, the same Social Security card that you need in order to get your official state-issued ID.

    Kafka, anybody?

    Oh — financial institutions are required by federal laws to have Social Security numbers on file so that they can issue the 1099’s to narc on how much interest you earned to the IRS. And private businesses like PayPal are not regulated at all insofar as use of the Social Security number, they can ask for it, and you can refuse to provide it, at will. They can also refuse to do business with you. Which is their choice, since they’re a private business, not government… as long as their refusal to do business with you is not based on race or other protected class, there’s no law saying they have to do business with you if you refuse to provide your SSN. Just lettin’ ya know that bit of legal stuff…

    – Badtux the Memory Hole Penguin

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