This is a sad story i just read, i wonder what do you think about it. I'm the creator of turn.js (www.turnjs.com), a javascript library for books and magazines. I released a commercial version in July 2012 and six month later I made $200K. I don’t know how, but I made it. PayPal has closed my account because I don’t have a social security number. It seems like I don’t qualify for one because I’m just “an international student†from Venezuela. I have been working really hard to release a product for publishers that converts PDFs to HTML5 for books and magazine with the brand-new turn.js 5th release. I don’t know what to do or where to go. I don't have more money. Original Content http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5191142 Code (markup):
Having $200k in a paypal account is sheer madness, you might as well leave it in a bag on your doorstep with a notice saying "Free money here"
Yes i know, but he didn't steal, scam, cheat to get the money. Paypal should find a way to give him what he worked hard to get.
It's not about that... He opened a US PayPal account, so PayPal has to report earnings to the US government. PayPal doesn't want to keep the money, they just want him to put his social security number in so they can report earnings properly. He opened a US PayPal account without being a US citizen... That is no one's fault but his own. He should have opened a Venezualian PayPal account since that's where he is a citizen from.
So i guess if he put his social security number his paypal account will be unblocked. That's seem fair.
Right, the only PayPal accounts that would require one are US PayPal accounts. If he doesn't have a social security number, it means he opened a US PayPal account without being a US citizen... Which is his own fault.
I hope the person gets their $200k release but he should have opened a Paypal account in his country and request to withdraw his funds to his local bank account. Stories like this is why I prefer having a merchant bank account verses letting funds sit in Paypal's bank account.
Maybe Paypal doesn't allowed a withdraw for his country, and he didn't expect to get that amount of money
Bet he was scared of opening a PayPal account in Venezuela thinking that if someone will see him earning 200k in US dollars they will steal it from him. He went for the safe option, US account ...and failed Still sad story, hope he will come op with some other site, software that will help him get another 200k.
Paypal does allow to send, receive and withdraw funds in Venezuela. Maybe he didn't have proper documentation (i.e. birth certificate) in Venezuela; since you wrote he's an "international student from Venezuela". We don't know how Venezuela's government issues legal documents to their citizens but there must be something they can do to get this student's funds release by Paypal unless Venezuela is not his native country. We don't know the whole story or why Paypal won't release the funds since Paypal offers payment processing services in Venezuela. You can verify it for yourself here.
I believe the rules should be flexible, if he proved that he is the owner of Paypal account then why not changing the address to his Venezuela and let him withdraw his money? I had similar issue before, i was in Dubai and i had UAE payapal account, then my company moved me to other branch to other country, paypal didn't allow me to change my country and it locked my UAE account till i provide i'm in UAE, luckily i didn't have much balance. I had to made a new account. I contacted Paypal so many times and provide ton of IDs, they had only one answer your account can not be changed to another country you have to create a new one.
It more has to do with the financial laws of the country the PayPal account was set up in. If you open a US PayPal account, you are expected to be a US citizen and as such, pay taxes on the income you receive. Same with a normal bank account... You can't open a bank account, put millions of dollars in it and then just be like, "Oh never mind, I was never doing business in that country... just change it over." It's the government that won't allow it, not PayPal.