Access Denied /cgi-bin/webscr

[Oyster3000]

Suddenly last week three of my clients' websites now get an error when submitting a transaction to Paypal.

Access Denied.
You don't have permission to access "/cgi-bin/webscr" on this server.

These sites (on different servers) have been working without issues for over one year and in one case over 5 years. The error message gives no clue as to what Paypal doesn't like. What suddenly could have changed to cause this? Is there something in the data being sent that I should look for?

[DOAP]

Same with our clients. The error is random, as some attempts to get to the PayPal login succeed.

Access Denied.

You don't have permission to access "/cgi-bin/webscr" on this server.

Reference #430d9798-c68a-4a42-8a6f-7c405e82b42e

Timestamp: 1603319536

What I know is that the issue many claim is the use of 'html characters' is not our case. I've gotten to the captcha screen with product info sent to paypal including the '@ # & and -' characters. I've also sent nothing but a first name and been blocked.

A technical support ticket we opened with error codeID, etc. was closed citing that they did not have access to the PayPal account, and that we should file a ticket with customer support.

This client upgraded to the business PayPal account, and that didn't resolve it. The suggestion that using a VPN isn't an option as this is a shopping cart payment button, not a PayPal login attempt by an account holder.

It looks to me like a block on the Account or too frequent orders triggering the IP address to be blocked.

Any further ideas?

[Oyster3000]

I gave up and changed the forms plugin. Old was cforms2 and new one is Contact Form 7 with a Contact Form 7 Paypal & Stripe plugin. I had to redesign all the forms but it works. My clients couldn't wait longer with no way to send them money.

[fredjoe1]

We have the same problem.  System has worked fine for over 10 years, now it doesn't.  We've been getting by using a bunch of retries, but that has stopped working.  I have changed the ip address of our server, and that didn't resolve it, even temporarily.  Not getting any help from paypal support.  Has anyone found a solution?  It does still work intermittently, but not enough to carry on with business.