Is opening a Paypal account with a fake name illegal ?

It is not illegal. I have been doing this for years and have multiple business eBay and PayPal accounts that make a good profit.

You can register a Do Business As name so you can use whatever name you want.
You can use Virtual Credit Card
You can also use your bank account to verify as PayPal can never find out the account holders name (You can also use your official registered Do Business As name to register a bank account which is totally legal)

I have never had any of my accounts limited because I always spread my sales with the other accounts.

 

Is opening a PayPal account with a fake name illegal ?
Well, of course as I know so illegal. Fakes are illegal and illegal is crime. It can consider you commit crime for doing that. And besides why use fakes? Are you hiding your identity from somebody else somewhere? Something wrong? And why? What's the purpose of everything? In that case, I can't tell but considering you cannot get your funds not unless you also have fake accounts on bank cards (debit or credit), also having US IP even not living there? That's illegal too. How you manage that? Those are all illegal. It's your business anyway read the TOS they cannot predict if your doing illegal and we cannot stop you if you will but once you get caught then that's the time they know your doing illegal and you must know the consequences, Good Luck to you.

 

I use my Hawaiian Name which is not my legal name for my IM business.

However, when I make my purchases on Paypal, I use my companies (I have 3 Limited Liability Companies with different company names) to pay for my IM services through Paypal. Nothing illegal about that.

Paypal verified our company accounts before we could use our account. Not using my AKA (also known as) name on the bank account or registration on Paypal.

If you have a credit card with your so called "fake name" I find that incredible. How did you do that? Curious.

Leilani

 

Umm.... Opening any fake account is illegal. But if u want to open a fake account in PayPal then you can open:-
Yes, but don't keep much money.
and dont link your bank account.

 

Illegal is deabtable over the definition of legal, but it certainly violates the user agreement.

 

what do you have to lose by sing your real name? I believe you will lose nothing. Just use your real name to be on the safer side. I believe that only criminals will want to hide their Identity.

 

You can open the account with fake name but then you will have to provide all the documents by doing photoshoped. Also if you have fake paypal account and your real name paypal account and you try to login to both with same ip they will freeze your account.

Your other option is you can withdraw money from your fake account and never use it again .

And yes Its ' ILLEGAL ' to open the account with fake name because then you will have to provide all the fake documents (which don't exist)

 

Since you wanted to know about the legality, definitely the answer is NO. Fake is already falsification, therefore it's illegal. But if you wanted to know if you can register to paypal using a fake name, then the answer is YES.

 

Take the above answers with a pinch of salt. The problem with 'armchair lawyers' is that they assume that laws applying to different things can be conveniently mixed and matched. The majority of answers above that I have read have no legal authority to back them up and are nothing more than 'gut feelings'. The most sensible answers above make the point that PayPal is a commercial organization and that you must refer to their terms of service to establish whether using a false name breaches the same. If so then you have committed a contractual wrong. This is different to what you are referring to when you ask if it is 'illegal'. Use of your PayPal account for criminal activities could trigger criminal legislation (e.g. fraud), but of course this is a different question entirely.

 

The only reason this could be illegal in the US is because of the Patriot Act, which specifies that the "bank" must verify your identity when opening an account.

 

Is there a European policy/law which is more or less the same as US Patriot Act, mate?

 

I'm curious to know why anyone would wish to use a fake name on PayPal or any payment gateway/processor. Since verification of your bank account would be required to get your PP account running, that information, too, would need to be legitimate and tie in with the details you provide on your PayPal Account.

Banks in most countries are now bound by legislation (including UK) to verify the bank account holder's legal identity before they provide banking services. This involves providing recent utility bills (to verify one's address), legal docs like driver's licence and also passport.

Receiving money under false pretences is fraud however you may wish to cut it. Fraud is a criminal offence. As for PP's TOS, getting your account frozen or closed altogether is not clever since many customers (including yours truly) prefer to use PayPal to make online payments. So you would be leaving a lot of money on the table if you weren't able to offer PayPal as an alternative payment option.

If your intention is to deceive, then you really don't need to post here to get advice. Just go ahead and use whatever fake info you like. All you'll do is risk your reputation, money and ultimately, your freedom, to say nothing of the poor customers who put their trust in you and lose out.

 

Depending on your actions you could be guilty of fraud.

 

I cannot begin to understand why someone would want to open a PayPal account using a fake name. To me, that doesn’t smell too good. I cannot say if it’s illegal with regards to the law, but I know for sure it is unethical and immoral and against the terms and conditions of all payment processors, banks and every financial institution existing in today’s world.

PayPal clearly states in its user agreement, which every would-be member is supposed to agree to before signing up, “In order to open and maintain an Account, you must provide us with correct and updated Information” and this means information about the applicant’s self.

Violating this agreement is grounds for being banned and having one’s account seized and even brought before the courts.

 

Sorry to bump an old thread, but this is so, so wrong.
UK PayPal= you can add any bank account, including mismatch names. Paypal account can be in a completely different name to the name on the bank account, and not only can PayPal not see this, but the banks don't care (with 1 or 2 high street bank exceptions). I'm sorry, but this is not opinion, but fact- and the reason why some people have a fistful of stealth Paypal accounts.

 

It's illegal. As you can't get a prepaid Payoneer MasterCard with a fake name, similarly you can't open a Paypal account with a fake name.

 

It's not illegal (if one believes it is, cite the relevant law), but it is a violation of Paypal's TOS. Unless the declared pseudonym name and documents submitted to an account is sworn to under penalty of perjury, it is hearsay only and not criminally fraudulent. Paypal is not actually a bank (which usually does sworn statements), so although they are required to seek to verify identities, criminal prosecution of contractual violations are not applicable or enforceable (instead, Paypal just limits or closes accounts where it deems it appropriate).

Indeed, identification is only one valid means of authenticating accounts, as passwords, security questions and other matching data can be employed to verify users. In IM, many online marketers utilize extra Paypal accounts created with pseudonym (or 'fake') profiles in order to protect their business position, or ability to access/offer that payment method, in light of the often fickle or unexplainable account limitations of Paypal, even on accounts with real data. Pseudonyms are frequently used in commerce or government for a variety of legitimate uses (privacy, risk management, liability limitation, etc). So those who claim they can't imagine why they would be used are actually simply displaying their lack of knowledge of the full range of business practice.

 

Opening a Paypal account under a Fake Name will not get you in trouble as long as you are not planning to move any kind of money through it.Maybe you could just use it to pay for small expenses using your virtual card or to withdraw tiny amount of money from PTCs such as Clixsense. I doubt Paypal team will take any time to screen accounts moving microamounts under $10. But if you ever make trasactions into the hundreds or thousands and they freeze your account and ask for IDs,you will LOSE everything

 

Haha I've just read all this. Why are people still posting in 2017... It was a simple question 5 years ago lmao

 

Ahaha yes too illegal