FWIW, I've had my PayPal account since 2002 and used it on and off throughout the entire 14 years - for eBay purchases, purchases from other websites when I was too lazy to get up and get my CC, Ebates payments and the like. I have not been using Target or eBay to churn for Disney or anything else, but have bought various GCs when they were on sale many times with no issues.
About 4 months ago we started a house remodel and I was planning to pre-order 2 Galaxy S7 Edge phones from BB. So after learning about eBay Bucks from all of you wonderful people, I started stocking up on BB GCs through PPDG to use for appliances and the phones. I had purchased $2400.00 - using CC and cash only! - over that 4 month period with minimal verification issues when I tried to buy another $600.00 during a promo a few weeks ago. After going through the same verification run-around that many have posted about - 4 text verifications, a couple of phone verifications, changing my password 4 times, and saying that yes, I was trying to make a purchase from the such-and-such area - I received an email from PP asking for a copy of my driver's license. Then I got an email saying my account was limited and asking me to login and answer some questions so they could remove the limitations. Total waste of time - I sent bank and credit card statements showing the accounts were in my name, told what my recent transactions had been (and they were NOT all GCs), and some other random questions. Almost immediately, I received another email saying that my account was being closed - actually, the exact same email that
@lorijohnhill received.
For those that this has happened to, if you have cash in the account you may be able to get it back without waiting 180 days. I had transferred $50.00 cash into my PP account just before they closed it. I responded to PP's email asking for an explanation and asking that my personal information (SSN, account numbers, etc.) be removed from my account that was supposedly closed (I don't understand how they call it a "closed" account when you can still log in to it and it is holding your money and your PII hostage?
). I also demanded that they return MY money that was sitting in the account as I had no intentions of letting them sit on it for 180 days and would go through other channels if necessary to make them return it. They sent a generic email back with their standard FAQs on "limited" accounts and said that if this did not answer my questions to reply to the email. I replied that it did not answer any of my questions. About 20 minutes later I had two emails: the first one had the subject line "We've reversed a credit from your PayPal account," which showed where the money in my account had been sent back to my bank account, and the subject line of the second was "Check Your PayPal Message Center." This is the message once I logged into PayPal:
Thank you for contacting PayPal Customer Support.
$50.00 has been transferred to the bank that the funds were initially added from.
Your PayPal account cannot be closed at this time. This is a necessary step to help prevent fraud. Your personally identifiable information will not be used by us nor shared with third parties, except to assist law enforcement as required by law. As an additional safety precaution, these financial accounts cannot be used on any future PayPal account.
Don't forget, we're always around if you need us. Just click "Help" in the top right corner of any PayPal page to visit our improved Help Center.
Add your mobile number to your PayPal account so we can reach you right away if we ever need to verify account activity with you. Simply log in to your PayPal account, click "Profile" near the top of the page and then click "Update" beside "Phone."
You can also make and receive payments with your mobile phone when you add it to your PayPal account. After you confirm your number and create a PIN, you'll be able to get money, send money, check your balance, or manage your account from your phone using simple text messages.
Sincerely,
Laura
PayPal Customer Solutions
PayPal
Also worth noting, I have successfully used DH's account - from the same computer and IP address - to make several eBay purchases since my ban, both GCs (physical Sears cards when they were on sale during a promo and I still need a new dishwasher!) and random merchandise, with no problems. I actually have another PP account in my name (had to open when Swagbucks was refusing to believe my original PP account was verified and would not let me redeem for PP cash until I created a new account) and so far that hasn't been affected. I don't think PP is using IP addresses to close additional account. You'll notice that in their response above they specifically state the financial accounts on my closed account cannot be used an any future PP accounts, which I am - perhaps stupidly - taking to mean that I can still use my other account since it has different financial accounts linked to it. I haven't used it to purchase anything since this all happened, but will try after I cash out my eBay Bucks next month (just to be safe!). I'm also curious if anyone who has been banned is able to create a new PP account using a different bank or CC account.
I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else, but my advice to everyone is to stay far away from PPDG! Also, I've never used eBay GCs so I don't understand if partially used cards are linked to your PP account or you eBay account. But if you have had your account closed and have any eBay GCs attached to it, I would suggest you contact PP and/or eBay with a strongly worded email asking for a refund or for them to issue a new GC with the total balance of any GCs that are locked to your account. I would think one party or the other would have a legal obligation to make those funds available, even if you had to gift the GC to someone else to use. Good luck all!
