That's asking for a lot, PayPal

PayPal has sent out notifications requiring confirmation of identity by 1/27/19.  Failure to do so will mean you can't maintain a PayPal balance.  Money will have to be transferred to a bank when received.

I suspect this will also mean a fee will have to be paid to transfer money back in to send anything via PayPal. 

I have always maintained a PayPal balance.  It's how I pay most of you for the car crap I can't stop buying.

The confirmation process requires verification of full legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, and home address.

I'm not cool with this.  Thoughts?

I haven't been notified of anything like this. How did you get the notification?

I'd be really suspicious. PayPal doesn't need all that stuff. I'd find a number for them and call them directly.

Sounds like a scam.

I have not received notification either.

That's a lot to ask for.

Did they state a reason? other than the usual claim of making it more secure.

Agreed, it sounds like a scam.

In reply to Floating Doc :

I was suspicious.

I received the email Thursday.  I suspect their email list is massive, so it will probably take a few days.

I checked their website.  The notifications are there too.  I don't think it is a scam.

Check your PayPal notifications.  I'm pretty sure we all have the same notification.

I wasn’t able to find it in my notifications.  

Do you have some premium features that might make yours unique compared to other accounts?

Is that different from any other bank account?

When you consider that they really are in effect a bank it’s not a lot.  I’d bet they are required by the government to do so. 

No such notice here either. 

Funny enough, I don't even have a clue of how to get pay-pal money out of pay-pal and into a bank account. I have just used it as a floating balance to buy car E36 M3.  If the below is true, I guess this is going to have to change; I think I can still buy stuff, just cant sell it. 

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/why-do-i-have-to-confirm-my-identity-on-my-paypal-account-to-hold-a-balance-when-i-haven%E2%80%99t-been-asked-before-faq3834#personal

Why do I have to confirm my identity on my PayPal account to hold a balance when I haven’t been asked before?

Personal

Business

 

Even though PayPal isn’t a bank, we need to comply with the same government regulations as other financial institutions. We’re asking for identifying information so you can continue to keep and spend money directly from your PayPal balance.

If you don’t provide identifying information, or we’re unable to confirm the identifying information you provide us, you will not be able to use your PayPal balance to send money or make purchases. However, you’ll still be able to use your preferred payment method or backup payment method such as your bank or debit or credit card to send money or to make purchases.

Did this help?

YesNo

I have no notifications like that or emails from them on it. But I may have given them that info a decade or more ago - in essence they are a bank (though not regulated quite the same) and may be falling under further fed scrutiny to fight money laundering/ etc. Maybe you just hit some sort of threshold for amount of money sent/received through PayPal and triggered this requirement? I used to sell online for a living so would have passed any such threshold long ago.

They do not charge a fee to transfer money in or out, that I know of. That may change if you have to do it for every payment in or out but I don’t know that. 

In reply to SVreX :

Well, sounds like I was wrong. That's too bad, looks like you're going to have to deal with this.

I don't keep any money in my PayPal account I just use it to make payments, and they pull the money from my bank account each time.

I wonder if my requirements will be different.

It feels invasive and is one more online cache of personal information that will be compromised. I expect that it is also primarily done to comply with regulations and as they say, " fight money laundering and fraud". I'll probably do it after I take the time to read the fine print and opt-out of any disclosures and sharing that is allowed. In reality, I know that my privacy has already been violated in several major breaches and one more will not change things.

I do not have an unusual account. Very basic, and I’ve had it for a very long time. 

I sold my residence a few months ago. They may have caught up that I no longer live there, but they are now asking for a lot more info. 

It really frustrates me when people ask for my SS number. 

They have all accounts linked to a bank account. That should offer plenty enough regulation and identification to satisfy the Feds. 

There’s always bitcoin..

Haha!

PayPal is NOT a bank. And deposits are not insured. 

SSN is only required by the Feds when a transaction exceeds $10,000, or when credit is being extended. Neither of those apply to me, and it would be really easy for PayPal to put those limitations on accounts. 

I don’t really have any reason to believe PayPal has the security systems in place to protect the integrity of this info, nor the regulatory systems to check.

This stuff is frustrating. 

I see what you are saying and I agree. I don’t reply see how PP isn’t technically a “bank” if you can maintain a balance. 

In reply to OHSCrifle :

You can maintain a credit balance at your local corner grocery store or hardware store too. 

...but they DO NOT have the need for your SSN. 

And there is another issue....

Even if I chose to give my SSN to my local corner grocer, he does not have a world wide exposure risk and potential for abuse. 

PayPal does. 

I got the notification, too, and my first thought was to be alarmed that a scammer was able to send me a spoof email with my actual name...

So I logged directly into paypal, and sure enough, there was the same notification.

I don't normally carry a balance because I rarely sell anything via ebay or the like, and for now, I guess I'll probably just do the "send it to the bank" thing. But I don't like it.

IIRC when I started the process before thinking better of it, it was only the last four of the SSN. Which is still more than I want to give, but different from the whole thing.

I got it yesterday I think.  I almost never have a balance, I use it almost exclusively to pay through a credit card. I have not looked into it, but I hate to more info out there and depend on their security.

Then again, with the rediculous number of breaches The majority of people already have some exposure and I suspect PayPal, because of its nature has pretty significant security.

Floating Doc said:

I don't keep any money in my PayPal account I just use it to make payments, and they pull the money from my bank account each time.

I wonder if my requirements will be different.

I haven't seen an email yet either, and do the same thing as Floating Doc.  I'm curious as well.

berkeley em. If they want all that, I won't deal with them. If a seller (not just on EBay) only deals with PayPal then, unfortunately,  I won't deal with them. It might make it more difficult, but I'll make the choice, not someone else. 

SVreX said:

In reply to OHSCrifle :

You can maintain a credit balance at your local corner grocery store or hardware store too. 

I suspect that if your corner grocer started taking deposits and carrying balances for people all over the world that the feds would start requiring them to Id their customers too. They did 450 billion in transactions last year. If you don’t trust them with the last four of your ssn then what on earth are you doing trusting them with your money and access to your bank accounts?

In reply to dculberson :

I’d have no problem with the last 4.  I don’t like the entire SSN being misused. 

I think you are assuming the Feds are requiring it. I don’t think that is the case. I think it’s just a company policy.