PayPal Freezes Wikileaks Account
January 24th, 2010Via: Wikileaks:
Paypal has as of 23rd of January 2010 frozen WikiLeaks assets. This is the second time that this happens. The last time we struggled for more than half a year to resolve this issue. By working with the respected and recognized German foundation Wau Holland Stiftung we tried to avoid this from happening again — apparently without avail.
We are working on resolving this issue as fast as possible. Please use our bank accounts for direct transfer in the meantime, or contact wl-donations@sunshinepress.org for any further questions.
WikiLeaks is not the only non-profit organization with this problem. This is a regular occurrence, that from our perspective should not be tolerated by the global community using this payment system.
Paypal’s ability to arbitrarily deprive funds from any party, with very little practical recourse, creeps me out. you trust them until, well, they decide to screw you. sound familiar?
If you’ve ever dealt with any payment/credit card processing companies as a business owner you will eventually realize that their fundamental mentality is that You Work For Them. Despite the surface appearance of you paying them to perform a service, they know that they’re the master in the arrangement. For one thing, you pretty much HAVE to use them, because the consumer expects you to accept credit cards (& is oblivious to the increased prices you have to charge them to do so). Also, the simple fact is these finance companies, for all practical purposes, own your money — so that, like in Wikileaks case, they are free to decide how much, if any, to give you, how much in fees to take back, or even to reverse money back out of your bank account for whatever whim they may have (and regardless of whether you have money in your bank account to cover it).
Here’s on thing everyone should be educated on: selecting “Debit” instead of “Credit” means not only that you’re not incurring a debt on the transaction, but also that the merchant will only be assessed a minimal fee — usually about 25 cents, regardless of the transaction amount — and not the usury rate of about 3%. This is why so many stores ask you which you want, and why many stores will now default to Debit unless you specifically state otherwise. Of course, that’ll change if the number of Debit transaction increase, but for now it’s a great way to opt-out of supporting the “system”, especially when making large-dollar purchases.
On a side note, I had just sent a Paypal payment to Wikileaks about 2 weeks ago…
There are a handful of Cryptogon readers who refuse to use credit card payment systems. My income increased when I made a good old PO Box available for people to use.
Also, I don’t trust PayPal at all. I never hold a balance in there. I move out any funds immediately.