Hi, I am hoping someone can provide a better explanation for why the following is happening. I was attempting to purchase a gift on Etsy (a custom made stuffed animal toy) from a seller based in St. Petersburg, Russia. I have a business PayPal account based in the United States, however, I primarily use it for personal purchases as the business aspect is very small. When I tried to make payment to the seller I received the following message: "Sorry, we can't complete your purchase at this time. To comply with government regulations, this transaction has been declined." I called PayPal customer service and the representative I spoke with didn't seem to know why this was occurring, but seemed to guess that it had to do with the current tensions between the U.S. and Russia. I believe I have purchased books from Russia in the past with PayPal without any problems and the seller I am communicating with says most of her buyers are based in the U.S. She has never had an issue with U.S. buyers using PayPal to purchase items from her, including a recent sale in June 2018. Does anyone know why this is occurring? Is it maybe because I am using a business account (though I use this account to make personal purchases all the time)? Or is this a new restriction PayPal has put in place against Russia? That seems a bit extreme and unlikely to me.
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