Payment on hold for "government regulations"

robotbacon
Contributor
Contributor

In all of my years with PayPal, I've never seen this message on a payment :

"We've temporarily put this payment on hold while we verify that it complies with regulatory requirements. We'll contact you about this within 24-72 hours. To learn more, see PayPal goods or services regulations." (The link is dead in both this message and the email.)
A different message was in the payment email:

"To comply with government regulations, PayPal is required to review certain transactions. This payment is currently being reviewed and we will complete this process within 72 hours. This review only involves this transaction and does not affect the use of your PayPal account for other transactions."

The payment is for $10 worth of common action figures; I don't have any disputes with anyone and I file my taxes. Buyer is one state away from me, and we're bot verified. I've been on PayPal for many years and even have a PP debit card. Has anyone else ever seen this message? Is it about ME, or is it about the person who paid me? Very confused right now.

If anyone else has faced this, can you tell me what it's all about?

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77 REPLIES 77

rbertjr
Member
Member

This just occurred with me today. Of course they send me the e-mail notification at 5:38 pm in which its past the customer service hours and I will not be able to discuss with them until Monday.  I ordered Meyer and Persian Lime trees today. Based on these posts, it seems the "Persian" is why they held the payment.  Based on this forum, I will refrain from using PayPal for any items that have any possible "Middle East" names. I have a feeling that PayPal will decline my purchase and I will have to re-order with my credit card.

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HRWince
Member
Member
I currently have a transaction that’s pending d/t review related to “government regulations “. I ordered a cycling jersey, socks and a neck buff. After reading through responses here, I’m pretty sure that the review is occurring because the neck buff is called “QOM”, which, in cycling, stands for Queen of the Mountain. I had no idea that Qom is also a city in Iran, but assume this is why a review was triggered. The entire review is so stupid- the order clearly shows that the merchandise is all related to cycling. The vendor is in New York.
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Hankie1234
Contributor
Contributor

I have now experienced this for a 2nd time. I buy baseball cards online and pay with Paypal. In the description I list the names of he players depicted on the cards I buy. Paypal held my first payment and asked me to provide dates and places of birth for "Jorge Lopez " (pitcher with Brewers and Royals), "Jhoan Urena" (3B for Mets) and "Erik Gonzalez" (shortstop Indians). These were players whose cards I bought. Absolutely ridiculous! Looks like they are cracking down on people with a Latino sounding last name now? 

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Damian46
Member
Member

I received a refund for a guitar effects pedal that broke in shipping and now have the following message on my account:

 

Due to Australian regulatory requirements, you will not be able to use or withdraw balance, send or receive money or add funds to your account until you verify your identity. Please action now to resolve. Click here.”

 

I click and there’s nothing to confirm and it claims all is fine, then I go back to summary and the message is still there.

Im simply wanting to get my refund back into my bank.

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Karlis_B
Contributor
Contributor

Happened to me as well. I was ordering some scale model cars, essentially collector's toys. Probably the word "Vanquish" from "Aston Martin Vanquish" triggered the review. I was able to send other payment to the very same seller without problems. So it does look that the words in the notes or invoice are most likely the trigger.

 

As a software developer I must say, this is very very poor and unprofessional programming, because the margin for error and false detection is enormous while the real bad guys will most certainly simply not use any suspicious words when transferring funds.

 

Now I have to wait for 3 days and since PayPal is saying they are understaffed these days, they will most likely not be able to process my review in time and I will have to start all over again. Highly inconvenient and frustrating.

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Karlis_B
Contributor
Contributor

Miraculously the payment did go through some 20h later as promised within those 72 hours.

 

Still, I believe, PayPal should handle this better. It is ridiculous that people cannot buy toys, coins, books and whatever just because the item title or payment notes contain some random "suspicious" words.

 

The good news is - if computers with all their "artificial intelligence" and modern computing capacity still cannot differentiate national threat from a guy buying some stamps online then we are saved. Well, at least robots will not take over the world anytime soon, just make our living more annoying.

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kranbollin
Member
Member

Transfer was for mid three-figures, stated to pay for a sari. Recipient lives with me.  I think foreign-soundings words may be a trigger, or, I'm on a watch list. Never using these clowns again, there are better ways now.

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Elisa70
Member
Member
I sent my son emergency gas money. I didn’t have a message on it. I sent the money via “friends and family”. I’ve been a verified user with a PP debit card for 15 years and never had this issue until I got a Venmo card. My housekeeper only accepts cash or Venmo and I never have cash on me. I got the Venmo card about 3 months ago and that’s when this started. Another thing is I sent the money by e-check so there were no fees. When I send him money via PayPal using my debit or credit card I have yet to receive this message. I wonder if it could be either of these things. Scammers have likely cost PayPal a lot of money due to refunds. They’ve now had the money on hold for 5 days and said they are holding it until Friday. That would be a total of 7 business days.
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