Canadian Government wants PayPal to Confirm all Canadian members IDs?

[denial*is*not*a*river*in*egypt]

After I successfully processed a PayPal payment on November 1st,  PayPal informed me that to satisfy the requirements of the Canadian Government it needed to confirm the identity of each of its Canadian members.   This was done by simply answering a few questions confirming information that was already online.

 c

I passed the first question without a problem.  I must have made a typo on the second set because I FAILED.  I can't remember the exact questions, but they were pretty basic things like date of birth, address, etc.   That's why I said I must have made a typo.  But I have no idea even of where I made the mistake because PayPal didn't give me another chance to answer.  It just told me I failed and because of that failure, my account was frozen and I'll have to jump through hoops to get them to release it.   I already sent them copies of my 2 most recent bank statement - showing PayPal payments that they could even look up.  I also sent a copy of my hydro bill for further confirmation of my address.

Now they want a copy of my driver's license and  "an attestation by a guarantor."  Excuse me?   After more than 2,000 transactions over the last 10 years without a single problem - they want an "attestation by a guarantor?"   Oh I mis-wrote - there were two payments denied at the beginning of this week, regular pre-authorized payments totaling less than $40.   Thank you so much, PayPal.

Has anybody else had to fill in this identity thing with PayPal since November 1st?   Has anybody else had problems with it?   I came here expecting to see lots of complaints and there's not even one other.  Now I'm REALLY nervous!  lol  

[kalvin@ebay.com]

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@denial*is*not*a*river*in*egypt wrote:

After I successfully processed a PayPal payment on November 1st,  PayPal informed me that to satisfy the requirements of the Canadian Government it needed to confirm the identity of each of its Canadian members.   This was done by simply answering a few questions confirming information that was already online.

 c

I passed the first question without a problem.  I must have made a typo on the second set because I FAILED.  I can't remember the exact questions, but they were pretty basic things like date of birth, address, etc.   That's why I said I must have made a typo.  But I have no idea even of where I made the mistake because PayPal didn't give me another chance to answer.  It just told me I failed and because of that failure, my account was frozen and I'll have to jump through hoops to get them to release it.   I already sent them copies of my 2 most recent bank statement - showing PayPal payments that they could even look up.  I also sent a copy of my hydro bill for further confirmation of my address.

Now they want a copy of my driver's license and  "an attestation by a guarantor."  Excuse me?   After more than 2,000 transactions over the last 10 years without a single problem - they want an "attestation by a guarantor?"   Oh I mis-wrote - there were two payments denied at the beginning of this week, regular pre-authorized payments totaling less than $40.   Thank you so much, PayPal.

Has anybody else had to fill in this identity thing with PayPal since November 1st?   Has anybody else had problems with it?   I came here expecting to see lots of complaints and there's not even one other.  Now I'm REALLY nervous!  lol  

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Hi denial*is*not*a*river*in*egypt,

I'm not sure this is a legitimate request from them - please send it to spoof@paypal.com or call PayPal Customer Support.

Thanks,

[reallynicestamps]

Are you selling products from countries embargoed by the US Department of Homeland Security?

Iran /Persia, Cuba, North Korea, Sudan (even under British rule in the 19th century), Iraq, Syria, perhaps others.

Some stamp dealers have run into problems with Paypal (but not eBay) when trying to process payments that mention these countries on the invoices.

Paypal has its own Resolution Center.

[rose-dee]

Wow, this does not sound like something that Paypal would do -- I would most definitely report it to Paypal yourself, as Kalvin suggested.  And sorry to say, but never, ever send anyone but your own bank copies of your bank statements.  That in itself may cause further problems, and to be honest, I would talk to my bank manager about how to protect my personal bank account at this point.  Just saying...

[Anonymous]

I was unable to purchase a shipping label via PayPal Shipping and had to call PayPal Shipping only to find out that the street address is "funny" (it is said by PayPal as it didn't match this buyer's credit card informaiton!), so I was unable to purchase the shipping label.

I have to "retype" everything and move the street address around to make it work and it went through!  I asked PayPal why it was set up as a prefilled and they said it is Canada Post that automatically rejected it.  I am not sure how it worked but it did happened.

[crittermanna]

I received a similar e-mail about 6 months ago, was suspicious so I called Pay Pal and they said it was a fraud.

Crittermanna

[milehi]

do not reply to anything that says pay_service@india.com, they will send fake pay pal email requestion information like that.  It really sounds like someone got all you info my friend. 

[karianne.treasure*box]

I am in that at the moment today

[faae2002]

I'm having the same problem too, after 7 years of uninterrupted service. This is an insult to our patronage and our very intelligence. I've been trying to pay for 3 items for the last 5 days, and so far no luck!

I'm not against the Government trying to verify the identities (even though My Paypal account is Verified, my Bank account is Confirmed, my Credit Cards are confirmed), but to block the service entirely on the first notice and on top of that in the first day???

This is outrageous!!!

[karianne.treasure*box]

Well it is not ok yet but my account is not block I can do the same as usual with it but there is still that yellow mark in my account overview that say about the Canadian law bla bla bla ,I have been calling Paypal alomost everyday since monday night the 24rd and sent infos by fax waiting to see what is going to happen it should be ok because they have all that they were asking me so we'll see

Francine

[femmefan1946]

Did you forward the original email to Paypal at

spoof@paypal.com?

I had a fake email today and that email resolved it in about 20 minutes.

[karianne.treasure*box]

I called Paypal many times about that,and they respond to my questions this morning I received and email from them mentionninng that I was identified and the yellow thing that was in my account overview is gone and I do not have a limit no longer,seem to be true that the canadian gouverment wanted those infos.

[ypug]

I am in the same boat.. however, I never got an email requesting ID confirmation.. I've been using PP for close to a decade, then, BAM.. out of nowhere, my transaction (buying a used musical instrument from the US - I'm in Quebec) gets cancelled pending ID confirmation. So I follow the link to the page that requests me to confirm my name, address, date of birth, occupation and so forth.. all fields are mandatory, except for one: SOCIAL INSURANCE NUMBER (clearly marked as optional).. and I fill out all mandatory fields and get a FAIL - NOT INDICATING WHICH INFO IS WRONG OR MISSING.. I call PayPal and they request, as mentioned above, A WRITTEN LETTER BY A GUARANTOR or, get this… MY SOCIAL INSURANCE NUMBER.. last time I checked, the Canadian government strongly discourages anyone to divulge their SIN to anyone other than a government body or institution… There weren't even able to tell my why the procedure fails when I enter all mandatory fields.. they kept saying that they're doing system maintenance and to call back.. I tried calling 3-4 times within a week and the "system is under maintenance".. I even emailed them a photocopy of my driver's licence at their request but the status of my account did not change..

If anyone can shed some light on this… would be great!!

Tks

[ypdc_dennis]

When I get an organization asking for my SIN when they are not on the list of those who can legally ask for it,  I supply either 000000000 or 999999999 to keep their computer happy.

[femmefan1946]

Better yet, report the email to

SPOOF @PAYPAL.COM

 and then ignore it.

[Anonymous]

Before giving any info like that I check the internet address.  If it shows https it means its a secure site...not always but most likely not a scam. 

[femmefan1946]

According to your feedback, you've had fewer than 200 transactions this year and the vast majority are under $10.

Revenue Canada is not going to bother with such a small fish.

Rather than phoning Paypal which obviously does not work, send the emails to SPOOF@PAYPAY.COM

you should have a response in less than 12 hours, probably less than one hour.

[livrespascher]

We are now early 2016 and this is now happening to me too.

You say that you have called PayPal?

I have tried several numbers listed on Google, to no avail.

Perhaps there is a specific Canadian number to call?

Would you be willing to tell us(me) what that number is?

I am becoming exceedingly annoyed with waiting for them to remove the "limits".

Cheers!

[pierrelebel]

"We are now early 2016 and this is now happening to me too."

This is a very old thread.  What exactly is "happening to you now"?

Experienced users can help you on this thread if you understand the real question.

[pjcdn2005]

I'm not sure either what you are referring to. As Pierre said, you can try asking your question here or sign into your paypal account and click on help at the bottom of the page and then click on call us. It will give you the phone number and a pass code there.