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.
Davis X. Machina
Sounds phishy to me….
carlos the dwarf
That sounds like a scam.
robertdsc-PowerBook & 27 titles
I’m looking at the Paypal Security Center & don’t notice anything new. I think it’s a scam.
sherifffruitfly
Gotta admit – it *does* sound quite scammish.
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.
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.
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.
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?
BethanyAnne
Nope, nothing new for me. Type in the URL by hand into a restarted browser. See if the requirements are still there.
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.
Corner Stone
Seriously? Far Beyond Driven is the much superior Pantera album.
This can not be debated.
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.
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.
Corner Stone
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.
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.
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.
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.
Corner Stone
And while this isn’t an OT, let me just say, center cut hand breaded baked pork chops for the absolute win.
Corner Stone
@Wordsmith: I’m…sorry?
What?
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
TaMara (BHF)
Wasn’t that the same day you found Rosie? Maybe she ate it.
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.
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.
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.
The Raven
PayPal is under a consent decree in 26 states for playing fast and loose with consent practices. Prudent birds count their claws after roosting nearby.
Contact numbers:
http://consumerist.com/2007/10/302-phone-numbers-to-reach-a-human-at-paypal.html
Lots of PayPal dirt:
http://consumerist.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=paypal&__mode=tag&IncludeBlogs=1&limit=20&page=1
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.
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.
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.
Morbo
Relevant to both this conversation and one of last night’s (I think) open threads: hostile otters.
Mnemosyne
@mclaren:
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.
Malron aka eclecticbrotha
John, don’t submit that info. I just went to my Paypal site and I didn’t see any such requirements.
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.
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.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
@Mnemosyne:
The rules vary by state.
mclaren
Here’s another example of our crazy out-of-control “Papers please!” police state, this time from Oregon:
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.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
I love you, man. No matter how obnoxious I get, I can always point to you as worse.
Thank yewww!
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.
Wordsmith
@Corner Stone:
mmmm – wottt?
Was it the reference to leaking estrogen? Word-finding difficulties, et al.
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.
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
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:
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:
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.
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.
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