John's Story:

Hi,

I wonder if you can provide any assistance?

Last October Paypal froze my account saying I'd turned over £4500 and to comply with EU money laundering regs I needed to give them my credit card number.

Naturally I was suspicious and refused. I eventually telephoned them and discovered that what they actually wanted was proof of address. So 'Kevin' added the need to fax over various statements. utility bill etc to them. However the credit card demand was not removed.

Eventually I wrote to their head office in Ireland and have just received a reply to the effect that 'well you agreed to our T&C's so tough'.

The stupid thing is that Paypal claim the step is to stop money laundering. However I have opened a new Paypal account perfectly easily which rather drives a coach and horses through that argument. So they are effectively holding £700 of my money hostage.

Is the next step the Banking Ombudsman or the FOS? They suggest the latter but I'd rather hear it from you!

Look forward to hearing from you,

John Simpson

..NoPaypal says: Hi John, paypals left hand never seems to know what it's right hand is doing! Contact yanna@dsl.pipex.com who will be happy to help with this...