Hey all,

On the 13th of June 2009 PayPal suspended my account as they stated my website located http://hidemyass.com was a breach of their service.

Our site HideMyAss.com offers free web privacy solutions to online users. We use Paypal as the main form of payment for our premium proxy list service located http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy-list/ On this section of our site you can view a database of IP and port addresses which enable you to secure your internet connection and enable you to change IP address -- what is illegal about this? The payment page is located here: http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy-list/premium

I strongly suggest they reevaluate this decision as my site is 100% legal and I feel there is some incompetence with some of their staff due to the actual name of my website; I feel this is why they suspended me -- if the site was called PrivacySolutions.com then I doubt there would be any problem.

Please see our competitors which use PayPal fine:

http://www.freeproxylists.com (paypal payment here http://www.freeproxylists.com)

https://www.xroxy.com/payment.html (proxy lists payment paypal)
http://www.proxylistservice.com (payment here http://www.proxylistservice.com/SellProxyList.html )
http://www.eliteproxyswitcher.com/subs.php (paypal accepted)
http://www.totalnetprivacy.com (payment here http://www.totalnetprivacy.com/membership.aspx )
http://proxify.co.uk/subscribe.shtml (See the form list on the right with the list of payment types)
http://proxy.org (payment here http://proxy.org/upgrade.pl?ty=Top_Ten is where they use Paypal)
http://www.zerolike.com/ (payment here http://www.zerolike.com/cgiproxy2/process.php?plan=1 )
https://www.cgiwebproxy.com (payment here https://www.cgiwebproxy.com )
http://www.superproxy.co.uk/ (payment by paypal same page)
http://pps.nntime.com/index.html (payment here scroll down for paypal http://pps.nntime.com/signup/signup_step_2.php)
https://www.secure-tunnel.com/signup/signup_2_payment.cfm?package=ultimate&term=1&usenet=done&CFID=730798&CFTOKEN=54195856
http://www.proxeasy.com/ (payment here https://members.proxeasy.com/membership.aspx )
http://www.findproxy.org (payment paypal http://www.findproxy.org/advertise.php )
http://www.webproxylists.net/advertise.php (advertise on proxy website with paypal)
https://aniscartujo.com/ssltunnel/ (payment on same page)
http://paidproxy.com/ (payment here http://proxybonanza.com/signup/form?selected=lite&set=shared )

And many more. I feal their decision to lock my account with a lot of money in it, for no apparent reason apart from a robot response is very harsh indeed. I own other websites and businesses and these are being affected.

Please could you try to assist me and share your own personal opinions:

1) Do you think my website IS a breach against PayPal's AUP?

2) What can I do to resolve the issue? I have contacted them but all I receive is robotic responses .

Thanks in advance people

Thanks for your reply. Yes it is hard to remain calm, especially when a situation like this occurs; frozen account = no payments accepted = loss of clients and disruption of billing. A big problem resides in the fact I run a few other websites which use the same account. I will try to be sincere as possible but I'm in a bit of a maze; in order to resolve the frozen account I have to say "I agree that my site is in violation" but I do not think it is, but I don't want to come across as arrogant. You mention contact my account rep, but I was unaware I had one -- any idea where I can get this information?

With regards to a name change that is not possible. We've been running for 4-5 years and the name is what "makes the site".

It might not be an actual account rep but if you sign into your account, click on Help, then contact, contact by phone, you'll get a temporary web pin that you'll enter when you call the phone number shown there along with it.  Then when the person gets on the phone with you they'll have your account pulled up in front of them already.

Believe me, I know it's hard to stay calm, but I guarantee you things will get resolved much quicker if you do than they will if you don't.

Received a reply:

[quote]Dear XXX,

Thank you for contacting PayPal. I appreciate the opportunity to assist you
today.

I apologise for the delay that you have experienced in hearing back from
PayPal Customer Support. This delay is the result of a high volume of
incoming email inquiries lately. We are working as quickly as we can to
address all of your concerns in a timely manner and to get our email
volumes under control. Thank you for your understanding.

Mr. XXX, I understand that you are enquiring why your account was in
violation of our Acceptable Use Policy. You are also concerned about your
competitors who are selling the same items.

I have reviewed your account and I can see that your account was limited
fro your website sells items that encourage, promote, facilitate or
instruct others to engage in illegal activity.

In addition, please note that we are also investigating your competitors
and if we proved that they are selling the same their account will be
limited as well.

Also, please note that due to security purposes we were unable to open your
website.[/quote]

Hi privax,

Unfortunately, we can't do anything from this site. This is a developer's forum geared to adding PayPal to a website.

Because of privacy and security reasons we do have access to accounts. You will need to call in to customer service and ask to speak with a resolution services agent who will be able to assist you with  your account.

If you had an account manager, you would been contacted long before this. To have an account manager you have to have a certain amount of income revenue.

So call in and ask to speak with a resolution services agent.

Frank I.
PayPal Certified Developer
PayPal Merchant Technical Services Analyst
http://www.paypaldeveloper.com
PayPal, an eBay Company

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.