

Paypal Freezes Wikileaks's Accounts (Scroll down to donate) - oomkiller
http://www.wikileaks.org/#scrolldown

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petewarden
I posted the original "Wikileaks needs engineers"[1] story to HN, and emailed
them to offer help. I never heard back, and from the thread other people had
the same experience.

I still support their mission, but they seem pretty disorganized, an
impression this story reinforces.

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1023663>

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pmichaud
I did the same, and got the same [non]response.

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ComputerGuru
PayPal really needs to establish some sort of transparent, _independent_ ,
review board for these things.

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blasdel
That would make them more bank-like, with more regulatory oversight. They
don't want that, and really neither do you. The Paypal chimera doesn't need
any more DNA, it's bad enough as it is.

The US should force its banks to implement better EFT with consumer-initiated
direct-deposit and direct-debit, marginalizing the whole Credit Card / PayPal
ecosystem.

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anApple
They are regulated by the CSSF.

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ryanwaggoner
On a related note, why does it cost $600k / year to run this service?

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gcheong
"If staff are paid."

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rdtsc
I wonder how they would protect against "rogue" staff. I imagine many
governments and international corporations would love to get their "people" on
the staff. They would quietly ignore stories and report the whistle blowers.

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ig1
Staff don't know who the sources are, submitted documents are reviewed by
multiple people.

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blasdel
Duh? This happens every single goddamn time anyone takes a bunch of donations
via intermediaries like Paypal and Google Checkout, especially
internationally, and extra-especially when you don't use their special no-
markup program for registered nonprofits.

It looks exactly like you've cashing out stolen consumer accounts. They have
every incentive to freeze the account indefinitely, and they never let anyone
get away with it for more than a couple thousand dollars.

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ZachPruckowski
So what, we're just supposed to accept that if we use Paypal or Google
Checkout we can't have sales, promotions, or donation drives? That we must
sell a consistent number of units per day?

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blasdel
Any business relationship can be voided with a proportional amount of effort
as it took to enter it.

If you don't want to be cut off so easily, you'll need to use a payment medium
that's more difficult to acquire access to and involves fewer middlemen. There
are only a handful of levels:

    
    
      eCash Account (PayPal, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments)
      Payment Gateway + Merchant Account (Authorize.net + Bank)
      Be a big fish that can negotiate + interface directly with Visa, etc.
      Be Visa / Mastercard (since their IPOs), PayPal, AmEx, etc.
      Be a bank

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paulshort
Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like, but one of the most efficient ways
to "behead the beast" (so to speak) when an organization is doing uncool
things, is to cut off their ability to make money.

Wikileaks is set up to expose stuff that makes other organizations
uncomfortable. Make Wikileaks disappear and those organizations feel
comfortable again.

It's not hard to file a bunch of complaints with PayPal and have someone's
account suspended.

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kimberly01
That's why there are websites like <http://www.screw-paypal.com>

They have been exposing PayPal for the theieves that they really are for over
two years now. I say SCREW PAYPAL. Regulate them as the bank that they really
are and be done with them. More oversight!

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Frazzydee
With all the stories out there about similar fiascos, why wouldn't they
withdraw funds on a daily basis?

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terrellm
This actually isn't that hard to do if they just request it.

I use Paypal for selling my software product and had my account manager setup
"auto sweep" where the funds are automatically withdrawn each night.

