Paypal asking me to be dodgy

[Feckingpaypal]

I’ve had to open a paypal account to pay for a service as the business has changed ownership and card payment is currently being changed over. Paypal are saying they can’t verify my account unless I get the date of birth of a specific employee. Can anybody tell me if this is normal?

An employee of whom?

Sorry, an employee of the business that I’m having a service from.

What bearing does someone else's date of birth have on verifying your identity?

Eh? No not normal and makes no sense.

That'd only make sense if you were setting up the account as an employee of the company.

Have you asked the business about this?

I’ve emailed the business but not had a reply. I’ll try and ring them later. I did email paypal about it and they’re still saying they need this info. I thought it would be against data protection for an outsider to ask a business for an employees date of birth? It’s the actual site I have to message from as I checked that to make sure my mail hadn’t been intercepted. I just wanted to check that I wasn’t being dim thinking this is abnormal. I’ve read both emails about 10 times trying to find out if they’re having a joke at my expense.

That’s not right at all, you shouldn’t be providing anyone’s date of birth to anyone else.

This is odd.

It’s like my credit card company saying I can’t pay my hairdresser unlesvi know how DOB.

That's not normal. I think you should assume this is some kind of scam and leave it at that. Email the company explaining the situationfrom a different email address if you can and manually type in address ( do not hit reply)

Could you tell the company to invoice you, and you’ll pay once their card payment is sorted.

I think it's some sort of scam too. I get a fair few through 'paypal'.

I agree this sounds like a scam.

Google PayPal, go to their website and contact them through that. If you are replying to an email you have received it's almost certainly a scam. Hover over the email address and see what actual address comes up (i.e. it may look like [email protected], but when you hover over it, it will be [email protected], or something. If they don't correspond it is definitely a scam.

I have a PayPal and use it a lot, for loads of different companies. Why on earth would they need the DOB of ONE employee from ONE company. What information have you already given them...?

I only pay by paypal as son't have a credit card, I have never been asked anything like that! It definitely sounds like a scam.

You do not need a PayPal account to pay an invoice via PayPal. The company sounds dodgy.

please correct me if I'm wrong but I think you may have misunderstood what info you are meant to give. From what I gather from reading your OP you don't currently have a paypal account and need to set one up so you can pay for goods from a company with it.
To set up the paypal you need to create an account in your name, with your email, and date of birth.
From what I gather (though I may be wrong) you have misunderstood and are trying to set it up in the name of someone in the company.

PayPal verified my account by depositing like $.17 into my checking account and then asking me to verify what the amount was. I've paid all kinds of things via PayPal, and all I've ever needed was the email address of the person I was paying.

Are you trying to take the exact same PayPal amount of the other company and switch it to YOUR details? For example, if the PayPal account is Teapots Inc, but goes to John Smith's email address, are you trying to change it to your email address so all the invoices from Teapots Inc goes to you? If so, then yes, you will need a lot of approvals from John Smith to switch it.

It is like switching the sky account from one house to another when you move- you need to verify that you have the right to change it, you can't just call up and change it.

It is so someone can't take your account.

Paypal are saying they can’t verify my account unless I get the date of birth of a specific employee.

This makes zero sense. As far as I remember, the process is:-

1. Set up an account
2. Verify
3. Make payments to whomever.

Why would Paypal need to know or care who you are going to make payments to in step 3, in order to complete step 2. For all they know you might want to set up an account now and only use it for the first time in five years time, to buy from someone you don't yet know.

As others have said, I think you've done something very wrong in the way you've tried to set up your account, they think you are the business you want to pay. The business you happen to want to pay should have bugger all to do with you setting up a verified account.

Sorry I’ve been at work. Thank you for all of your replies. This is the actual letter - if I can get it to post.

This is very strange. Did you send money to this individual as a personal payment and PayPal are questioning whether you know them personally?

This is almost certainly a scam. A big giveaway is the typos in the email.

That makes no sense and there are errors in the e mail message. I think it is a scam.

What typos in the email?