Friday, July 30, 2010

Someday Syndrome by US Congressman Ed Foreman and Paypal problems

I am posting this video because its a reminder for me to research for more information about Paypal issues. I am stuck with the Someday Syndrome US Congressman Ed Foreman is talking about. I heard about Congressman Foreman from Mr. Jack Canfield's Success Principles when he quoted him with the statement below:

"Winners are those people who make a habit of doing the things losers are uncomfortable doing. – Former US Congressman Ed Foreman"

So I researched this man who made such a powerful statement and the first hit after his name is this video of the Someday Syndrome. Kewego generously shares the video to bloggers.

Someday Syndrome by Ed Foreman - kewego
http://www.edforeman.com The Someday Syndrome by former US Congressman and speaking legend Ed Foreman. This syndrome can be avoided if you take time to be happy here and now.


So how is this related to Paypal? A lot of the issues, mostly unpleasant ones, I heard from Paypal users include having their money stuck or their account frozen at a long period of time because they took a long time to respond to Paypal or at least pester Paypal for updates about their issues. In short, they procrastinate. According to Wikepedia, "Procrastination refers to the counterproductive deferment of actions or tasks to a later time."

Retrieved from (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination)

They're thinking I'm too busy, there are more important things I have to do, I'll do it over the weekends, there's nothing to worry my money is just in Paypal its not like they can get it from me and so on and so forth.

The procrastination has resulted to inaction for weeks and then months and the next thing you know your money has been in Paypal for years. You can't remember when exactly your account was given a limited access status.

My action for today is to do my research so I can posts more articles tomorrow on better ways to handle these Paypal account issues.

As Jack Canfield said E + R = O. Events + Respones = Outcomes. The events in our life are already given. If if were a mathematical problem then it can be said that 2 + 2 = 4. If you want to have 5 as a sum, you cannot change the events. That's already a given as a 2. What you can change are your responses. Therefore if you want to make a 5, you just have to give out a 3. That's something you can control.

I bid adieu for now and see you soon.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

The transaction is still being reviewed by PAYPAL

On July 15, my friend received an e-mail from this merchandiser telling him that his payment was still not credited because his transaction was still being reviewed by Paypal. My friend was advised by the merchandiser to wait for about a week. He assured him that what happened to him was a rare occurrence but it does happen. However, one question really looms in our mind? If the merchandiser does not have the money in his account and it is also not in my friend's account according to the bank, then where is it? And what right does Paypal have to hold money for a week? or even for a day? or even for just a few hours. It's not their money!!! This is sleeping money. Money that will not earn interest? Money that is just floating there somewhere? Money that as some people said in other blogs frozen for years because they cannot get Paypal to return it! My friend and I share the same emotion. That feeling that this is utterly and obviously NOT RIGHT! It's like the same feeling that you have been robbed under your nose. For the inconvenience, for the time spent, for the unnecessary phone calls and document preparations? What is it for? And why is there no definite actions listed in the Paypal site which tells you where and when do these occurrences normally happen?

Like for example: Does it happen when you add a credit card? But my friend did that before and he did not get this limited access account from Paypal? Is it because you used the newly added card right away? But that was also done before? Is it because one was not able to enter the verification code in the Paypal site? But that's also bollocks because the last time my friend verified his first card he had to wait for the bill which was normally after 25 days and he's account was not limited. For the new card, the card was verified in a week's time? So what was different? What went wrong?

Or is there someone in Paypal who reviews these transactions subjectively and when he does not feel like it or he's not in a good mood, he'll slap every account that goes in his desk with a limited account access issue. My rantings may be figments of my imagination but then again what happened with my friend's account was also absurd. And now Paypal holds the money indefinitely with no advice whatsoever besides a note "The transaction is still being reviewed by PAYPAL".

Finally on July 16, Paypal has moved from Step 2 to Step 3 of the Resolution process.
They sent a letter to my merchandiser who in turn forwarded the e-mail to me. It says:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 10:19 AM
Subject: A payment has been reversed
To: xxx


Hello xxx,

We've concluded our investigation into the transaction detailed below.

Because we determined that you did not meet the eligibility requirements
for the PayPal Seller Protection Policy, you are being charged for this
reversed transaction. We've returned the funds to the PayPal account
holder, and your account will be debited for the amount of this transaction.

-----------------------------------
Helping ensure safe transactions
-----------------------------------

Most of the payments you receive will be from, honest buyers. PayPal wants
to help ensure that your transactions are as safe as possible.

You can often reduce your risk by paying close attention to payment details
and unusual requests.

* Watch for address inconsistencies:
It's fairly common for a buyer's shipping address to be different from the
billing address. In some cases, though, it could indicate fraud. For
instance, a high-priced item that has a billing address in one country and
a shipping address in another may be suspicious.

* Beware of unusual requests that could indicate suspicious activity, such
as:
- Buyers who want rush shipment at any cost
- Buyers who send partial payments from different PayPal accounts
- Do not make payment in full

Go to the PayPal Security Center for more information.

-----------------------------------
Transaction Details
-----------------------------------


Buyer's name: xxx
Buyer's email: xxx
Transaction ID: xxx

Transaction date: Jul 8, 2010
Transaction amount: xxx
Your transaction ID: xxx
Case number: xxx


Thanks,

PayPal

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you
will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account
and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 1999-2010 PayPal. All rights reserved.

Consumer advisory- PayPal Pte. Ltd., the holder of PayPal’s stored value
facility, does not require the approval of the Monetary Authority of
Singapore.
Users are advised to read the terms and conditions carefully.

PPID xxx

At this time the merchandiser has relinquished his responsibility to Paypal since the payment has been reversed. My friend was thankful for the prompt communication between his merchandiser and him. However, now the problem was my friend was stuck with no payment to his merchandiser, a floating money and no advice from Paypal whatsoever as to what happened to the money he sent. There's no e-mail from them what to expect next instead they sent my friend something that he thinks was kinda inappropriate at that time.

To find out what was that, tune in to tomorrow's blog.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Your PayPal Account Access Has Been Restored

In less than 24 hours of submitting the documents, my friend received this e-mail from Paypal telling him that his Paypal Account Access has been restored. This was the first e-mail which he opened early the next morning. When his account was restored, he described the feeling to somewhat like the same feeling when you have a stubborn splinter finally removed or a hangnail finally clipped.

--- On Tue, 7/13/10, service@intl.paypal.com wrote:

> From: service@intl.paypal.com
> Subject: Your PayPal Account Access Has Been Restored
> To: xxx
> Date: Tuesday, 13 July, 2010, 10:32 PM

Hello xxx,

Our review is complete and we have restored your account.

We appreciate your patience and thank you for your help in making PayPal
the safest and most trusted online payment solution.

Thanks,
Kelly
PayPal

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you
will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account
and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 1999-2010 PayPal. All rights reserved.

Consumer advisory- PayPal Pte. Ltd., the holder of PayPals stored value
facility, does not require the approval of the Monetary Authority of
Singapore.
Users are advised to read the terms and conditions carefully.

PPID xxx

However, the issue is not yet over. As I mentioned in my other blog "Paypal Problems in the Philippines 8", I said there that "Step 3 is the most crucial for my friend's case by the way". What is step 3 again of the Paypal resolution process. Let me refresh your memory.

Step 3 - Payment is completed or reversed

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, the payment will be completed or reversed.

So my friend, e-mailed the merchandiser to notify him that the issue is cleared already on his side. For the merchant's reply, you'll have to read the next blog.

:)

Just kidding....

Anyway, the merchandiser replied the same day, July 14, telling my friend that the payment is still not clear on his side.

Oh no! What does this mean? My friend returned to his Paypal account and checked the steps and notifications. The once previously numbered tasks for verification is gone which means he was able to verify everything. The only thing left unresolved is the open case. Please note that my friend was able to lift his limited access account by July 13 and he informed the merchandiser July 14. However, according to Paypal's history of cases, they sent a letter to the seller on July 15, 2010. This is a day after my friend's account was cleared. The merchandiser responded the same day which resulted to the transaction being reversed. Hence, when my friend informed the merchandiser on July 14 that his account was cleared already, Paypal was still in the process of going from Step 2 to 3 of the resolution process.

What is Step 2 again, you may ask?

Step 2 - PayPal reviews transaction

PayPal reviews the details of transaction and may request additional information from you.


Date Actor Action Details
Jul 15, 2010 PayPal Transaction reversed and case closed
Jul 15, 2010 PayPal Email sent to seller
Jul 12, 2010 Seller Response received from seller
Jul 12, 2010 PayPal Email sent to seller
Jul 10, 2010 PayPal Email sent to seller

For what to do after your transaction was reversed, you have to read the next blog. Seriously dude, because I have a play to watch, Equus, from the Repertory Philippines. So see you soon!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Paypal Problems in the Philippines 8

Before I go deep on the things my friend and I found out about Paypal's limited access account, let's go back to the original topic which is what happened to my friend after his account was frozen because of Paypal's limited access notification to him.

So we contacted the seller from where my friend bought the item. The seller confirmed that there is a problem.

--- On Fri, 7/9/10, xxx wrote:

From: xxx
Subject: Re: Fw: Re: Welcome, xxx!
To: "xxx"
Date: Friday, 9 July, 2010, 10:20 PM
Something is wrong with the transaction.
Please check your paypal account and the bank's credit card connected to the paypal account.

Paypal said you did not authorize this transaction...

Again, it's better to OPEN first your paypal account.
Then call up the bank regarding the transaction on your card amounting to P xxx.
Please DO NOT use logic in this. Just do as I say above.

Thanks,
xxx

At this time, we cannot figure out where the money is. According to our bank, our credit card was surely deducted for the amount we paid while the seller also claims that he did not receive the money because our Paypal transaction was not authorized. My friend went back to his Paypal account and read for the nth time the instructions he found in the Resolution Center Tab. By the way, this tab is found in between the History and Profile Tab.

In a nutshell, my friend was asked to do the following things:
1. set up security questions
2, verify proof of name and address - sent a scan of billing statements
3. authorize transaction - which means to verify that the buyer (my friend)was really buying something from the seller
4. confirmation of credit card - a verification code of Paypal sent to the credit card company plus 1 dollar payment that is refundable
5. a password change

My friend was able to get all the information ready by July 13, 2010. It took him four days to prepare the documents, pester his credit card company for the Paypal verification code and research on what was safe from him to do. He knows it is inevitable to send personal documents but it is necessary to verify his name and address. So he chose to send the billing statement of his credit card company. He also added a billing statement of his telephone bill just to show that he has other regular subscription as well. He did not scan personal identification anymore such as government-issued ID's. There were two options to choose from to send these documents: either you can attach the scanned documents to the website or you can fax it. My friend opted for the first one. It was just like attaching a photo in Facebook. Although if the file size of the picture is too big it will take time to attach it or may even result to several failed attempts of attaching the document. There is no advice from the Paypal site as to the limit of the photo size should be but just the same we lowered the resolution because it was taking more than 10 minutes to attach one page of document.

After completing the five tasks Paypal asked my friend to do, it was shown that we have completed four out five of the steps successfully. It shows a label "Completed" beside each task. The only thing that was not completely resolved was the verification of the name and address. For this, my friend and I thought that it is only logical that they cannot verify right away so we just informed the seller that we are trying to resolved the verification process and to extend more patience regarding the matter.

There is also an opened case regarding the transaction. When my friend clicked on the open case, Paypal listed the things it did for us to contact the seller. Unfortunately, I cannot attach a printscreen of the process because it will divulge personal information but let me just summarize it here.

Date Actor Action Details
Jul 15, 2010 PayPal Transaction reversed and case closed
Jul 15, 2010 PayPal Email sent to seller
Jul 12, 2010 Seller Response received from seller
Jul 12, 2010 PayPal Email sent to seller
Jul 10, 2010 PayPal Email sent to seller

By the time I am writing this letter, this case have jumped several steps. No worries, for those waiting for specific details I will gladly provide that in my subsequent blogs.

Basically, what I want to show here is that while Paypal was contacting me it was also trying to contact my seller. As you can see, e-mails were sent on July 10 and 12. My friend bought the item July 8 and was able to complete the tasks to be able to lift his limited access account by July 13. Paypal noted that the verification of the name and address may take a few days (we cannot remember the exact number of days). Hence, it is the only pending task.

So at this time all we have to do is wait. While waiting, my friend poked here in there in his Paypal account just to really familiarize himself on the site. He found out this useful information.

Steps to Resolve Your Case

Unable to determine case status

At this time, we are unable to determine which steps you have completed. For an overview of the dispute resolution process, please review the "Steps" on the left.

Step 1 - PayPal identifies transaction for review

PayPal is constantly monitoring site activity and reviewing transactions. This payment has been selected for review and is being investigated.

Step 2 - PayPal reviews transaction

PayPal reviews the details of transaction and may request additional information from you.

Step 3 - Payment is completed or reversed

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, the payment will be completed or reversed.

(To see past cases you can go to the Resolution Center tab, click the drop down menu of View and choose which case you want to open such as Open cases, closed cases or all cases. I find this tab very very helpful. For this Kudos Paypal for thinking of something like this.)

Step 3 is the most crucial for my friend's case by the way and I will tell you more about it in the next blog. See you then.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Paypal Problems in the Philippines 7

As discussed yesterday, learning more about limited account access from Paypal brought out more related problems. I have listed some of the items we have unearthed and some I discovered myself. Let's limit our scope in the Philippines first.

1. According to Pinoymoneytalk.com, that a notification about a limited account access from "Paypal" can actually be a phishing e-mail. In this site they defined this kind of e-mail as "Phishing emails, also known as fake or spoof emails, are designed to direct recipients to a fraudulent website where they are asked to provide personal information. These information are then used for identity or credit card theft."

These phishing e-mails can either ask you to: click on a link or download something.

The solution according to their post can be done in two ways.

A. If you are able to log into your PayPal account:

1. Log in to your account at https://www.paypal.com
2. Select the “Resolution Center” subtab.
3. Click “Open a dispute.”
4. Select “Unauthorized transaction,” then click “Continue.”
5. Enter or select the transaction ID for the transaction you would like to dispute, then click “Continue.”
6. Complete the report for Unauthorized Use on a PayPal Account, then click “Continue.”
7. Confirm that the claim is correct, then click “Submit.”

If you cannot log in to your account:

1. Go to https://www.paypal.com
2. Click on the “Security Center” link located at the bottom of any page.
3. Under the “Report a Problem” column, click on “Unauthorized Transaction.”
4. Click “Continue” under “Unable to log in?”
5. Confirm that the transaction in question is unauthorized then click “Continue.”
6. Complete the report for Unauthorized Use on a PayPal Account, then click “Preview.”
7. Confirm that the claim is correct, then click “Submit.”
8. Confirm your account ownership by entering the financial information requested, then click “Continue.”

If you have time, I really suggest you click on the links of Pinoymoneytalk.com and read the articles in detail. It will help you a lot because it helped me.

2. You should also be wary on sites you visit to get information. Make sure you have set up programs such as Web of Trust to tell you which sites are safe to go. While going through the sites where I can get information, I received a notification from McAfee and Web of Trust that the site below may contain harmful content which prevented me from opening the site. I was surprised because this site is in the top ten sites you will encounter once you research on Paypal Problems in the Philippines.





3. Lastly, a site named Yugatech.com also lists also other horror stories such as Paypal account being locked down which was defined as "unexplained Paypal account cancellation without refund". What struck me is the word "NO REFUND". To read more about this horror story visit the site. Anyway, I think this is really one of those worst-case-scenarios. So I read the comments and it seems like the audience are a bit torn. Some expressed their hesitation in using Paypal, some felt strongly on why people should not use Paypal; while others are saying to avoid this mess all you really have to do is to have your account verified which takes you a couple of minutes as soon as you get the 4-digit code for that Paypal verification.

Nuggets of truth I learned:
1. Get yourself protected from phishing e-mails, spoof emails, unsafe sites, etc.
2. Verify your account e.g. credit card, EON card, bank account, etc in Paypal as soon as you can.
3. Do not delay action. The longer you prolong your problem with Paypal the harder it will be to get help and if you have a substantial money in your account you must act really fast or it might be possible that those funds will be frozen for years or just disappear.
4. Do not let big amounts stay in your Paypal account. Withdraw them as soon as you can. One comment suggests withdraw your money once it reaches 100 dollars. For me, you have to decide what amount you can be comfortable to lose just in case you become a victim of those horrific Paypal problems.

So far, I have encountered issues such as transferring funds to their Xoom and EON cards as well. I think it's worth exploring what these avenues are and how they are connected to Paypal. So till then, see you in my next blog.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Paypal Problems in the Philippines 6

As promised, my friend and I tried to find out how to solve this limited account access issue problem with Paypal while one is here in the Philippines. The first site that we stumbled upon is TechAtHand.net managed by Dexter Panganiban (http://techathand.net/notification-of-limited-account-access-from-paypal/).

Just like him, he received notification from Paypal that his account was limited. Although what my friend was doing compared to what he was doing prior to the notification were very different. According to his site, he was transferring funds from his Paypal to his Xoom account while my friend was adding a new credit card in his Paypal account. However, just like him, my friend and Dexter were told that our accounts maybe accessed by a third party and that due to security reasons thus it was limited at the moment until further verifications can be made.

We scrolled down to look at the comments and other issues popped out:
Davis asked: What if "the address and the name on it is different to the one which is registered on paypal i have still sent it but will it work or not. please help me solve this problem"

Hence, my friend and I thought that it is really inevitable not to send documents bearing your name and address to Paypal and if indeed we will send we better make sure that the name and address registered in Paypal must bear EXACTLY the same details as the document we were sending.

Unfortunately, TechAthand.Net was not able to give a definite answer to this question. This prompted us to investigate more on the matter and hopefully cover it on another segment of this blog.

The site gave us other things to consider as well. I will briefly summarize them below:
1. Use of an EON card - while researching about home loans (another topic I want to explore in the near future) I accidentally stumbled upon Unionbank's EON's cyber account. Details about this card will be covered in another segment since the site specifically is linked to Paypal payments.
2. Another comment informed us that if you don't solve the issue right away your funds can be stuck with Paypal for years as the case of Ronson whose money was held (233.77 US$) since 2004 and he left his comment November 30, 2009. That's freaking five years and maybe 200 dollars may not be a reason for you to go bankrupt but it still is your money!

Lastly, the worst case scenario I read from the comments is the one from King whose account was closed. According to his comment
"For the safety and security of the PayPal network, we often review accounts for potential risks. After reviewing your account, we have
decided to close it because of security issues.

We are making every effort to minimize any disruption to your business.

If your PayPal account balance is zero, and you have no unresolved buyer complaints or chargebacks, your account will remain limited."

If you go to one of my favorite sites, PinoyMoneytalk.com, you will find several articles to read as well about Paypal's limited access issue. I will try to summarize them in another segment of this blog.

Now finally, after reading these blogs we wondered how can we avoid these problems with Paypal? While going deep into the issue we encountered more related problems. We also found a glimmer of hope and lastly we noted that there is really a lot of things to learn about Paypal and how should Filipinos manage their money using these electronic currency transaction.

Paypal Problem in the Philippines 5

The only question my friend asks about this Paypal limited access issue is that is this really necessary when the same procedure was done for his other card and there was no issue with that before?

Did he do something wrong?

Did he trigger an event to cause this kind of alert?

If yes, what is it?

Would Paypal release an official statement or guideline on telling its patrons what sort of actions will result to a limited access account and what can they do about it? What's the best possible way to avoid it? What's the worst case scenario if you can't fix it? I guess another reason why this can be frustrating is that there's really no live person you can talk to give you assurance that "hey, your Paypal account is not really hacked or that your money can still be returned". One has to correspond to an electronically-generated something that will give you a very general response.

The information available currently is not sufficient also to help a disgruntled customer. If you search for "Paypal limited account access", the first site you will encounter as of this date (July 19, 2010) is "AboutPaypal.org" and a letter from a person named "Joesphine" with an introduction of "Hi There Fellow Paypal Bitten Friends". My friend and I said that just from that statement we know that this will not be a pretty story or that we won't find that much answer as well. At the right side bar of the posts, similar stories about Paypal can be found with a very explicit title of "Paypal Horror Stories". That makes it a double whammy for us. Example of sub-stories under the title mentioned are "Beware of Paypal, Paypal steals money, Paypal Account Hijacked, Virus Alert". All my friend and I can say is "Oh no..."

Luckily, the second post after googling the issue offered a solution. It is entitled "PayPal Limited Account Access Solution" from Hongkiat.com. This site enumerates the following:
a. What’s PayPal Limited Access Account
b. Solving Limited Access Account
c. Information Insufficiency

The exact link where you can get information is http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/paypal-limited-account-access-solution/.

After reading this article, my friend says he felt hopeful. It seems there is still light at the end of this very dark tunnel. However, there are some information being asked to solve this issue that is quite sensitive. So my friend wanted to know if anybody has done what the people from Hongkiat.com suggested and how did it turn out from them.

The third site we found is from http://www.jayceooi.com. The site offered general information with a disclaimer from the author that said "Hopefully, this guide will help some of you. As I said, I did not face PayPal limited account access before. Not facing the actual problem will be hard for me to guide those are facing it now." We were thinking, hhmmmmm. Well, that's why the answer he provided was safe. However, there were comments below the article so we decided to read on.

One comment that we found interesting was written by Lelouch. It says "i read in lowyat forum that you can call paypal office in singapore.but why? what for? and how to submit those documents? can submit it through email (scan ver.) or you must send mail directly to them.and what if i fail to remove the limitation? what happen to my money? if my account is Premier account, is it vulnerable to limitation too? or the limitation is only applicable to Personal account?"

With a very brief answer after from Jayce, "Woo. You really got lot of questions. Sorry, I don’t know the answer for your questions."

Okay, well the honesty is appreciated. Anybody then? Any brave soul?

Nilai3 voiced our concern when she asked "mine affected also few months ago. Until now still not solve yet. I am scare when they ask for some evidence like IC or Driving license. Is it safe to scan over our important doc to them?". This time Jayce had a better answer when he said "@nilai3: I did scan and email over my credit card to my web hosting for verification. Just make sure that you cross 2 lines and stated that it is for PayPal use only." To which Nilai responded "Thanks for your help. I will apply a visa debit card and email to them. Still need to play safe"

Well the rest of the comments from the thread sounds really interesting. However, we thought of what Nilai3 said and we figured applying for a new visa debit card will be troublesome for my friend at the moment. My friend and I also cannot figure out also how is it safer since wouldn't he be using his personal information with that as well? And since according to my friend's Paypal account, he needs to verify his address, then how can a visa debit card help when no bank statements are provided with his address on it here in the Philippines. Well, that's the case of debit cards here in the Philippines as we are currently aware of.

Thus, we decided we to limit our search for people in the Philippines who have encountered a similar problem before. Watch out on what we found out on our next series of unfortunate events with Paypal in tomorrow's blog.

Paypal Problems in the Philippines 4

After complying for the additional information required by Paypal, my friend received another e-mail asking him to confirm is credit card. Automatically, my friend called his bank and asked for this verification code. The customer representative did not understand right away the instruction and gave me the merchant's name and code. It was explained patiently that the code being asked will bear Paypal's name and there will be a four-digit code attached to its name. Finally, the customer representative gave an answer that the transaction is still floating and that the code required will not be available within 24 hours when the transaction is verified.

My friend knows it is not the bank's fault since it is really the S.O.P. for transactions; however, he was expecting to get the merchandise from the merchant at the soonest possible time and this delay is really unnecessary. So who to blame or in this case is there really somebody to blame?

-- On Fri, 7/9/10, service@intl.paypal.com wrote:


From: service@intl.paypal.com
Subject: Confirm your debit or credit card
To: "xxx"
Date: Friday, 9 July, 2010, 10:24 AM

PayPal


Confirm your card

Dear xxx,

We noticed that you added your debit or credit card to your PayPal account on Jul 8, 2010. This is the first step of our verification process which let's us know that you're in control of your card. It also helps to prevent your details from accidentally falling into the wrong hands.

As part of the verification process, we made a small, refundable charge to your card to generate a 4-digit PayPal code (similar to a pin number) which you'll need to complete verification.
Sample card statement

How to confirm your card and complete verification:

1. Check the description field of your credit card statement or bank statement (for debit card) for your 4-digit code (pin number) and the word 'PayPal' or 'PP'. Some examples to help you recognise your code:
* For Visa/AMEX/JCB:
PP*1234 EXPUSE
* For MasterCard:
PP*4321PAYPAL -- *EXPUSE
2. Log in to your PayPal account again and go to your 'Overview' page
3. Click 'Confirm my debit or credit card'
4. Enter your 4-digit code (1234 or 4321) to complete verification.

Don't worry. The small amount we have charged you will be refunded to your PayPal account within 24 hours after you complete the process.

Click here for a more detailed step-by-step guide to verification.

When you're done, you'll have additional account benefits - no limits on the amount of money that you can send or withdraw using your PayPal account. However, if you're not verified, please note that you will have a limited amount that you can send or withdraw until you complete verification by confirming your credit card.

Thanks,
PayPal

Help Center | Security Center

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

To receive email notifications in plain text instead of HTML, update your preferences.

Copyright © 1999-2010 PayPal. All rights reserved.

Consumer advisory- PayPal Pte. Ltd., the holder of PayPal’s stored value
facility, does not require the approval of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Users are advised to read the terms and conditions carefully.

PayPal Email ID xxxx

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Paypal Problems in the Philippines 3

After receiving an alert for additional information, it was only natural that my friend checked out his account right away. After checking his account, he noticed that it wasn't just a case of "additional information required" on his profile but his actual account was frozen. The funny thing is, he can continually receive money but cannot withdraw. He cannot also send money if he wants to buy something using Paypal. My friend knows this will be a looming problem since he just sent money to a merchant. Still, my friend did what Paypal asked him to do: Updated his profile; Respond to the notificationa and confirmed his credit card.

The e-mail sent by Paypal to notify my friend that his account has a status of "Paypal limited account access" can be found below.

Dear xxx,

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the
PayPal system. During a recent screening, we noticed an issue regarding
your account.

We have reason to believe that your account was accessed by a third party.
We have limited access to sensitive PayPal account features in case your
account has been accessed by an unauthorized third party. We understand
that having limited access can be an inconvenience, but protecting your
account is our primary concern.

Case ID Number: xxx

For your protection, we have limited access to your account until
additional security measures can be completed. We apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause.

To review your account and some or all of the information that PayPal used
to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the
Resolution Center. If, after reviewing your account information, you seek
further clarification regarding your account access, please contact PayPal
by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us".

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand
that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your
account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,

PayPal Account Review Department


Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you
will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account
and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 1999-2010 PayPal. All rights reserved.

Consumer advisory- PayPal Pte. Ltd., the holder of PayPal's stored value
facility, does not require the approval of the Monetary Authority of
Singapore.
Users are advised to read the terms and conditions carefully.

PPID xxx

Paypal Problems in the Philippines 2

Let me continue with this soon to be dragging Paypal issue. Ten minutes after the receipt notification was received, my friend received another e-mail from Paypal. This time, he knows something is not right.

The e-mail goes like this:
--- On Fri, 7/9/10, service@intl.paypal.com wrote:
> From: service@intl.paypal.com
> Subject: Additional Information Required
> To: "xxx"
> Date: Friday, 9 July, 2010, 10:16 AM
> Hello xxx,
>
> We are contacting you because your PayPal account has
> potentially invalid or outdated information. Please log in
> to your account at https://www.paypal.com and update the
> information indicated below. After logging in, click on the
> Profile tab to update your account.
>
> PayPal periodically checks the validity of members' email
> addresses, phone numbers and mailing addresses to ensure
> security and prevent potential issues with inactive
> accounts.
>
> If PayPal does not have current or accurate information on
> file for your account, we may be unable to confirm your
> identity. This may make it difficult for you to recover a
> forgotten password or to receive money sent to you via money
> request or mailed checks.
>
> Please make the changes indicated above today, or simply
> choose to close this account and open a new one. You can
> even use the same email address to open a new account as
> long as that email address is valid.
>
> If you wish not to receive email reminders in the future,
> please edit your settings in the Email Preferences in your
> Profile.
>
> Thanks,
>
> PayPal
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> PROTECT YOUR PASSWORD
>
> NEVER give your password to anyone, including PayPal
> employees. Protect yourself against fraudulent websites by
> opening a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or
> Firefox) and typing in the PayPal URL every time you log in
> to your account.
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not
> monitored and you will not receive a response. For
> assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help
> link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Copyright © 1999-2010 PayPal. All rights reserved.
>
> Consumer advisory- PayPal Pte. Ltd., the holder of
> PayPal’s stored value
> facility, does not require the approval of the Monetary
> Authority of Singapore.
> Users are advised to read the terms and conditions
> carefully.
>
> PPID xxx

Paypal Problems in the Philippines

Let me tell you what happened to a friend of mine and his unique experience with Paypal. I call it unique because this is the first time I've heard of it. Since the story is pretty long. I will chronicle the events one-by-one.

Day 1: My friend used his credit card to buy something using Paypal. The amount in Philippine Peso is substantially significant to ignore it. Since this item he is buying gave him an option to course his payment through Paypal, he opted to use the system. He is not new to the Paypal system since he has used it for his E-bay account (that's another story). Anyway, he used a different credit card this time since his main credit card will not be able to reach the required credit to pay for this item. Just as usual, he received an e-mail notification that he has successfully purchased his item.

The Paypal receipt notification goes like this: (Please note details have been removed to protect the privacy of the buyer and seller:

--- On Fri, 7/9/10, service@intl.paypal.com wrote:

From: service@intl.paypal.com

Subject: Receipt for Your Payment to xxx

To: xxx

Date: Friday, 9 July, 2010, 10:05 AM

PayPal logo Jul 8, 2010 19:05:05 PDT

Transaction ID: xxx

Hello xxx,

You sent a payment of xxx PHP to xxx (xxx)

It may take a few moments for this transaction to appear in your account.

Merchant

xxx

xxx

Instructions to merchant

You haven't entered any instructions.

Shipping address - unconfirmed

xxx

Shipping details

The seller hasn’t provided any shipping details yet.

Description Unit price Qty Amount

xxx

Subtotal xxx PHP

Total xxx PHP

Payment xxx PHP

Charge will appear on your credit card statement as "PAYPAL *xxx"

Payment sent to xxx

Issues with this transaction?

You have 45 days from the date of the transaction to open a dispute in the Resolution Center.

Questions? Go to the Help Center at: www.paypal.com/ph/help.

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click Help in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

To receive email notifications in plain text instead of HTML, log in to your PayPal account, go to your Profile, and click Notifications.

Copyright © 1999-2010 PayPal. All rights reserved.

Consumer advisory- PayPal Pte. Ltd., the holder of PayPal’s stored value

facility, does not require the approval of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Users are advised to read the terms and conditions carefully.

PayPal Email ID xxx


Matron of Honor for Anne and Nash Adam's wedding


First time to be a matron of honor in Anne and Nash Adam's wedding at Ibarra's Garden last May 27, 2010.