The Mugen Fighters Guild - Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

Sean Altly

Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#1 February 07, 2014, 08:55:25 pm

Get off my lawn - and on to the dance floor

So I got up today and checked my email and saw that I had received this message from Paypal:

Quote

Dear Sean Johnston,

After a recent review of your account activity, it has been determined that
you are in violation of PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy regarding your sales
/ offers on http://mugenguild.com.

The PayPal User Agreement states that PayPal, at its sole discretion,
reserves the right to limit an account for any violation of the User
Agreement, including the Acceptable Use Policy.

Under the Acceptable Use Policy, you must obtain pre-approval to accept
payments for file sharing, BitTorrent or usenet websites as well as for
newsgroups or similar services.

The complete Acceptable Use Policy can be found at the following URL:
https://cms.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/AcceptableUse_full&locale.x=en_GB

To learn more about the Acceptable Use Policy, please refer to our Help
Centre page here:
https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/helpweb?cmd=_help

This is not intended to be an all-inclusive review or list of your
website/s and auction/s. Furthermore, the violations of the Policy
described above are not intended to be an all-inclusive list. It is the
responsibility of the user to ensure that all transactions comply with the
Acceptable Use Policy.

For more information about the status of your account and for instructions
on how to restore full use of your account, please log in to your PayPal
account and select the "Resolution Centre" link. On the next page select
the "Resolve" button/s located under the Action column, in the Steps to
Provide More Information section and follow the applicable instructions.

We encourage you to login and return your account to good standing as soon
as possible.
Failure to respond by the following date will result in the further
escalation of this issue: February 12, 2014

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter. Please understand that this
is a security measure meant to help protect you and your account. We
apologise for any inconvenience. If you have any questions, please contact
the PayPal Brand Risk Management Department at euaup@paypal.co.uk.

Sincerely,
Ran
PayPal, Brand Risk Management
--------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 1999-2014 PayPal. All rights reserved.
PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A.
Société en Commandite par Actions
Registered Office: 22-24 Boulevard Royal, 5ème étage, L-2449 Luxembourg
RCS Luxembourg B 118 349

Responses to this email address are not monitored. Please send any
additional questions that you may have to euaup@paypal.co.uk.

When I logged into Paypal, I got a series of screens saying I would have to provide them with further documentation, and I needed to check my e-mail to see exactly what was required of me, but the e-mail I posted above is the only one I got.

Thoughts? Opinions? What do you think they mean when they say "further escalation of this issue?" Do they think I'm charging for copyrighted file sharing? I'm not sure what to do about all this.

Son, the last thing you'll realize you need is what you've already got.

Iced

Re: Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#2 February 07, 2014, 09:00:22 pm

does this look like the face of mercy?

Probably someone who feuded with you before and was jealous of you tried to report you to paypal for selilng art services.

Contact them and provide them with info that you are just offering art comissions. If needed, tell them to contact the site admin that will verify that.

New to mugen? Try out the starter pack, tools and a selection of characters from all around Mugen

Bastard Walt

Re: Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#3 February 07, 2014, 09:11:35 pm

ALE ALEJANDRO

Quote

2.relate to transactions involving (c) items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity, (d) stolen goods including digital and virtual goods

Maybe someone reported your stuff for using some other company's IP, like characters. Or plagiarism, like, you use original copyrighted materials like sprites from FGs as a base for the characters you make.

They would probably have never figured it out unless somebody reported it. Otherwise how would DeviantArt comissioned artist make their money?

"We live in a world of perpetual outrage"

Iced

Re: Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#4 February 07, 2014, 09:15:01 pm

does this look like the face of mercy?

You can get paid for fanart, thats not an issue.

Whoever reported this, most likely.. I think it was sky79 that made a thread accusing sean of robbing mugen users ? I remember that existing, whoever made that thread probably reported him out of jealousy.

Whoever reported him is an asshat that has no idea how art communities work.
At any rate , if he doesnt get his account unfrozen, he will have to make a new one. I figure from the description on the letter they sent him that they have no idea what he is doing and he was just reported for selling illegal stuff at mugenguild. After a short explanation

"Im an artist and I am comissioned for work at that site and a lot of others. "

There is no way paypal is letting it remain frozen.

New to mugen? Try out the starter pack, tools and a selection of characters from all around Mugen

Bad News GBK

Re: Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#5 February 07, 2014, 10:09:09 pm

2015 - OCR.com and GA-HQ.com

Iced said, February 07, 2014, 09:00:22 pm

Probably someone who feuded with you before and was jealous of you tried to report you to paypal for selilng art services.

Contact them and provide them with info that you are just offering art comissions. If needed, tell them to contact the site admin that will verify that.

I got the same crap when i got over 1500 bucks together years ago through donations for something torrent related.

Could explain it to them that those were donations for a legal website ;-)

With the mugen related stuff it might be more difficult to explain, especially since it is basically working without paying any taxes, or?

Game Art HQ, Community & Blog about game related art (drawn, cosplay art, 3d, sprites, sculptures and more)

Bastard Mami

Re: Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#6 February 07, 2014, 10:39:06 pm

paypal is not the irs, it's the responsability of the local govt. to account for taxes so to speak.

sean: just do what Iced said.

Just No Point

Re: Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#7 February 08, 2014, 01:03:25 am

Should we email that email they listed? Kind of like happens with the KickStarter debacles?

K.O.D

Re: Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#8 February 08, 2014, 08:12:43 am

what a shame

paypal are scumbags so there's a possibility they've done this themselves without anyone reporting you

Sean Altly

Re: Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#9 February 08, 2014, 09:05:46 am

Get off my lawn - and on to the dance floor

Hmmm, I don't remember Sky79 making a thread, we did get into a bit of an argument a long while back on another site that caused me to make that thread about the ethics of commissions.

I'd like to just think what KoopaKoot said is the case, I don't really want to point fingers. I just thought I'd bring it up here to see what you guys think. I'm going to try to get them on the phone tomorrow. Luckily I didn't have any money in there at the time.

Son, the last thing you'll realize you need is what you've already got.

-Red-

Re: Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#10 February 08, 2014, 01:26:06 pm

Complicated.cns
No, I've never played a Zelda game before, shut up

That's not k00p, that's KOD, the drag queen cosplayer

I really doubt this was done by paypal themselves. How do they even know where you were taking donations and commissions from to begin with? I'm sorry for namedropping but as much as I believe in change sky79 is quite the kind of guy who would report you over this kind of stuff. His behavior is pretty similar to how he was a year ago or two when he was far more aggressive so I wouldn't rule him out of the suspect list.

pls

Sean Altly

Re: Paypal has restricted my account because of what I do here

#11 February 08, 2014, 07:30:08 pm

Get off my lawn - and on to the dance floor

Whoops, damn people and their wacky display name habits.

I really hope he wouldn't be so petty. Like Iced said, if someone did report it then they have no idea how art communities work.

Son, the last thing you'll realize you need is what you've already got.