PayPal in Court...wtf?
 

Just got a really long email from PayPal informing me of some class action settlement for anyone who opened a PayPal account between Oct '99 and Jan '04.

Anyone else get this? eek:

does this mean you get money or something.

Theres something on hardocp frontpage about it in yesterdays news section, think if you signed up before a certain date they have to pay you back a certain cash amount or some shit.

Yeah, apparently someone's suing PayPal on behalf of all those users. It looks legit, but you never can tell.

[quote:d08c7]The lawsuit alleges that PayPal violated the federal Electronic Fund Transfer Act ("EFTA"), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1693 et seq., including provisions requiring PayPal to supply customers with information about dispute resolution procedures and to follow certain procedures when investigating complaints of unauthorized or incorrect electronic fund transfers. For example, the lawsuit claims that PayPal did not provide account statements in the manner required by the EFTA. The lawsuit further alleges that PayPal has placed inappropriate restrictions or other limits on customers' accounts and engaged in other improper practices.[/quote:d08c7]

Whoa

i made an account in 2002
1337

i made one in 03' but havent touched it, do i get?

i made mine a long time ago. no email yet tho

Damnit! Whyd I have to sign up in March.. oOo:

i got it too, it is legit, you just have to fill out all the forms... its a 9.2 million dollar settlement, each person in the class will get paid out, but likely there will be several million in the class, so the chance of big bucks is slim, but i'm going to do it... unless it fucks you over with PayPal in the future... maybe i'll get my lawyer to look at it...

You basicly get a check for 20-50$.I've allready got mine happy:

honest?...

class action: means that teh victims collect like 50 cents while the scumbag trial lawyers (Like John Edwards) collect millions.

4shizzlewizzle oOo: biggrin:

weird I signed up in december. I better get this email soon cause paypal sucks. Keep telling me my pw is wrong then giving me shit. And now when I am in mid order of a new HDD they tell me the iste is down until 3am pdt for corrections. bs

I'm not gonna bother. Meh.

I signed up in March of 2000 and I haven't received an email eek: Someone mind forwarding me theirs? So long as it doesn't contain any personal information of course. adam@cygnus-sys.com Thanks happy:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5550334

PayPal settlement e-mails confuse recipients
Some think notice of class action case is a hoax
By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent

Updated: 6:57 p.m. ET July 29, 2004

Millions of PayPal users received an e-mail this week offering them a chance to receive a little money just for filling out an online form -- and for once, the e-mail wasn't a fake.

The notice tells PayPal customers that they may be eligible to receive payment as part of a class-action lawsuit settlement the eBay-owned Web signed last month. The suit alleged that, beginning in 1999, PayPal unfairly froze thousands of user accounts, preventing consumers from getting access to their money.

In the settlement, PayPal agreed to set aside $9.25 million to compensate users who feel they were treated unfairly. The company admits no wrongdoing.

"We believe that based on the information we've been provided that it's a fair settlement," said A. J. De Bartolomeo, the attorney for one of the plaintiffs who filed the suit.

Starting this week, consumers can log in to a special Web site and sign up for a portion of the money by filling out a complaint form and documenting their experience. Anyone who had their PayPal account frozen, or did not receive a timely response from PayPal customer service related to an account freeze, is eligible.

Depending on how many consumers sign up for the settlement, individuals may only receive a tiny sliver of that cash. But the settlement also imposes other restrictions on PayPal, says Eric Gray, who operates PayPalSucks.com, and that's the real good news. Now, PayPal will have to detail its fraud case to the consumer when the firm freezes an account.

"Money is not the big victory. This will pull PayPal into responsible business practices. That's the victory," Gray said.

PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires said long ago the firm had improved its freeze procedures, and now works to loosen restrictions on consumers' accounts within two hours.

"Most of the items in the settlement PayPal has long ago complied with," she said.

Some businesses crippled
Account freezes became an issue in 1999, when PayPal became one of the main ways that eBay users paid for their auction purchases. As the system grew quickly, so did incidences of fraud. PayPal, which was later purchased by eBay, took to freezing member accounts -- at times for months -- while the firm investigated fraud complaints. Since PayPal is not a bank, it is not regulated by federal banking laws, and innocent users often didn't know how to go about getting their money back.

Some eBay users claimed such account freezes crippled their trading activity, and at times, their livelihood, said online auction watchdog Rosalinda Baldwin.

"People said they were bankrupted by this," Baldwin said.

Claimants can file either a long or a short form in the case. Short form filers can only apply for up to $50, De Bartolomeo said. The payout for all such claims is capped at $1 million.

The rest of the money set aside will be distributed to those who chose to fill out a long form, requiring much more documentation.

The e-mail notification of potential participation in the class action lawsuit was a bit unusual, and consumers were skeptical this week when the e-mails began to arrive -- many believed the e-mail was an attempt to steal personal information, known as a "phishing" e-mail.

"This email below looks legit but I am still suspicious of it," wrote one in an e-mail to MSNBC.com "I have not had any problems with my PayPal account so I have no reason to participate in this class action lawsuit...if there really is such a thing."

PayPal agreed to send an e-mail to every customer it had -- ten of millions of e-mails, Pires said.

Some alert consumers forwarded the e-mail to PayPal, asking if it was hoax -- and got an automated reply saying it was, De Bartolomeo said.

"We were not happy about that," she said. PayPal agreed to fix the problem quickly, she said.