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?

Thank you for the f and f info. It sounds like they are doing this to save money then. If it’s not meant for business use that possibly explains paypal thinking I could get the date of birth if they thought it was somebody I knew rather than an employee.

Is the Paypal account you have paid a personal account in the name of the employees whose date if birth you have been asked for? If so, then they are trying to verify that the person you are paying is actually someone you know personally and that this is genuinely a personal transaction (which it's not). The business need to sort themselves out and set up a proper Paypal account.

It’s because you’re using F&F. Paypal have flagged up that it looks like a business transaction. They’re asking for the DOB as a way of proving you’re sending the money to someone you know well, not a business.

F&F payments are not protected in the same way as normal transactions. A business should not be asking you to send money this way.

You need to cancel the transaction and avoid the business you are dealing with.

What are the typos??

Unnecessary capitalisation of 'Compliance' near the start.

Rogue comma after 'then' halfway down.

Odd wording such as 'terminate our account relationship' (just a few examples from memory as I can't look at the screenshot and post at the same time)

Overall, it just doesn't read 'right'. If this is genuinely from PayPal they should be ashamed. If it's from a scammer, they should pat themselves on the backs for it being a lot less badly written than most scam emails.

I run a service-based online business and clients pay me via my PayPal BUSINESS account. Why has this company not got one?

Ive compared your email with a genuine one I've had from paypal today and I agree with the comments above, mine comes a .co.uk email address and starts Hello First Name Second Name, the instructions on how to find help in your account are in a slightly different format so I'd say it's a fake email.

Why would they ask about an employee at a business account holders dob to prove whether you were making a friends and families payment? Does a business have to provide those details to set up an account? That's a bit odd, what do they do if that employee leaves the business?

The business themselves said I would be able to pay via paypal friends and family(?) so that is why I filled the box in to get a paypal account.

No. Never ever do this. The business can send you an invoice and then you can pay it using paypal without having to open a paypal account. You can also send a payment for goods or services WITH a paypal account that is not a f&f payment without needing this birthdate info.

Paypal have quite rightly stopped you making this payment to a business using friends and family. A friends and family payment offers no protection to you, the payer. You are not paying friends and family, you are paying a business. The business is being dishonest - it does not have to pay paypal fees to receive a f&f payment, but it does to receive any other (normal business) payment. Paypal can see that this is a business, and are asking you for info (birthday) that you would know if it was in fact a friend or family member.

Sorry if I've missed it, but what type of business is it you're paying? The whole new management / can't take card payments / pay via f&f sounds somewhat questionable

I’ve been in contact with the business (that I haven’t stated what it is, it’s a tiny business that has been around 15+ years and they rely on repeat business. It’s possible they do get a lot of friends in. I’ve never heard anything bad about them.) and they’ve said they are going to sort out paypal on their end as it’s saying on their system that my payment is pending. When this is hopefully sorted I shall be closing the paypal account. If this has got them into trouble with paypal for not using a business account then that is on them. I’m just relieved it wasn’t a scam.

I’ve never used paypal before so I didn’t know there were different accounts.

The real issue is that you are not protecting yourself if you pay by f&f. There is no comeback whatsoever if the business goes bust, or even if a person in the company is behaving dishonestly and has set up a bogus account.

So they havnt locked your account at all. Your PayPal account is set up and working just fine. The issue is purely with that one payment and they've put a temporary hold on it while they check it's not a dodgy payment.

Friends and family payments are free. Business payments will incur a fee to the business. They are trying to avoid that fee, which is not allowed. That's the only problem. It also means you have no protection. If you pay via friends and family, you cannot ask PayPal to get your money back if the business fails to delivery it's product/service, so you just shouldn't do it that way.

There is no need to delete your PayPal account. Your account is fine, open and working. Keep it for other things in the future like this.

Wow. What an overreaction to close your account when PayPal were trying to PROTECT you!

Like Iaim said - business is obviously trying to avoid paying fees, naughty. Paypal has cottoned on. Maybe the business is legitimate (apart from trying to dodge paying the appropriate fees!!) but you won't be covered further down the line.

I don’t think it’s an overreaction to close the account. I would rather pay by credit card without having to worry whether a business is pulling a fast one or not in the future. It’s just not for me. I’ll not be commenting anymore but thanks once again for the helpful comments.