PayPal is illegally running credit report checks. Our client signed up for a merchant account and agreed to a credit check. However, our client is a customer of LifeLock. LifeLock requires anyone requesting your credit report to have verbal telephone communication with the telephone numbers listed on the credit report. This makes sure other people do not gain access to things such as a PayPal account and apply for things.
PayPal attempted to contact our client and was unable to reach him (he saw it on his caller ID), then ran the credit check anyhow. PayPal then decided our client did not meet their credit criteria and denied him the merchant account. After denying him the merchant account, PayPal demanded more information about our client, stating potential fraud since they saw the fraud alert on the credit report.
Of course they saw the fraud alert. It tells them that our client cares about his credit and/or was a victim of identity theft. It tells them not to run a credit check without first having verbal confirmation with our client via the telephone numbers listed on his credit report. PayPal never did talk with our client to access his credit report. They accessed it in violation of all three of the major credit bureaus. Illegally.
What this means to you is, if a thief gets hold of your personal information, opens up a PayPal account, and has your Social Security number, PayPal will allow that person to open up credit and merchant accounts as long as your credit is good. They will also ignore any fraud alerts or locks on your credit reports. They do not care about privacy or the law.
They told our client he requested the service, so he agreed to the credit check. This is true, but PayPal never sees any of its clients face to face. How did they know it was actually my client applying for the account? They did not, and that is why my client has LifeLock, to prevent things like this from happening.
BEWARE: PayPal does not honor LifeLock or other identity protection programs. Your personal information is at risk with PayPal.
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