I run an online business and have been using PayPal for years and years. One day this month I logged into PayPal and, much to my surprise, my account was limited. I noticed I had a negative balance (I guess it was a chargeback). As it was not a large amount of money, I paid it to get my account out of the negative and have my account restored.
Days went by and nothing. I called PayPal, and the man said the account was limited because someone in Brazil had tried to open an account with my bank info, and not because it was negative. I thought, wow, identity theft, and they caught it. He said he needed to investigate further and asked me to give him a couple more days.
A couple more days later, still nothing. In the meantime I had contacted my bank, and they made notes and also wanted me to try to get as much info on the attempt from PayPal. So I called PayPal again and spoke with a woman, and she said my account had been limited permanently because of "suspicious activity." I told her I was aware of the attempted theft and asked her if I needed to open another account, as the first was compromised. She said no, I would not be able to use PayPal ever again.
I asked her why I would be banned because someone attempted identity theft from Brazil, and she told me that no one would have been able to make such an attempt unless I gave them the info. So I said I needed whatever info they had about this for my bank, and she told me absolutely not, that they do not release information on their investigations into suspicious activity. I told her I wanted to close the account completely and remove my banking information, and again I was told no. So now I am in the process of changing all my banking information, because if this company cannot help with what I have asked, then I do not want my banking info held by them to do what they want with it.
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