I receive Paypal sales as a bandcamp artist under multiple project names. I was born and raised in the US and have a US Paypal account and bank accounts. In the past year, I've noticed that all of my album sales that are under my own name, which has "Abdul" in the name, automatically trigger a temporary payment hold, whereas none of my other projects' album sales that go by various other names undergo this review process, but complete immediately when received by Paypal. I tested this theory last week by changing my bandcamp artist name from including "Abdul" to not including "Abdul", only using the second half of my last name. I sent a test payment, and the payment completed immediately, from my own Paypal account. A minute later I changed my bandcamp artist name back to including "Abdul" and sent another test payment, using the same paypal account. Sure enough, I received the same payment pending message again, that it was under review due to government regulations. My record label who uses Paypal for their bigcartel and bandcamp sites have experienced the same scenario, only in regards to my solo album sales with "Abdul" in the name. My record label changed my artist name to not include "Abdul" and all Paypal transactions have been completing immediately since that change. The only conclusion I can make of this is is that Paypal is discriminating against all transactions involving products with certain Middle Eastern or Muslim sounding names. It's obvious that the pending status of payments has nothing to do with my Paypal or bandcamp accounts, but with the product name itself. My test payments prove this, and I have these payment receipts and what each is paying for, clearly documented in my emails. I contacted Paypal compliance, and I've gotten a few version of the same vague response, so it's obvious they are keeping these so-called government regulations under wraps: "Thank you for contacting PayPal. In order to provide a secure online payment method, PayPal uses a complex screening process for payments. Occasionally, transactions are blocked or reviewed because they may present some heightened risk. We apologize for any inconvenience in relationship to this process. Thank you for choosing PayPal. Sincerely, Ben PayPal Compliance Department" Complex screening process? More like simplistic and racist screening process: simple word search on "Abdul" triggers a payment hold, and simply removing the word allows it to go through FOR THE VERY SAME PRODUCT. And...since when are ambient music downloads considered a heightened risk? I've reported this to the ACLU and hope other people who have had the same experience Paypal will follow suit so Paypal can be held accountable for these discriminatory tactics.
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